This Changes Everything
Years ago, when I first began studying plot structures, I came across the Freytag Plot Pyramid, a triangular structure that contained five elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Suddenly aware of this structure, I began to notice it in various books and films I enjoyed. I even noticed its usage in many of the comedies I watched. The first time I saw the movie Friday, I marveled at how seamlessly I was able to learn the backgrounds of the characters, as well as their motivations, within the first few minutes of the film, each of the elements of Freytag’s Plot Pyramid falling neatly into place. I would later come to understand that these elements are often expected by the audience, so when they are absent, a viewer or reader might say they didn’t really enjoy a story or film due to a particular part of the plot that failed to measure up to their expectations, or maybe there was something about the ending that they felt just did not work.
When I began to employ this new-found (to me) plot structure in my own writing, I quickly confronted a question: How does a writer help the reader to navigate from the exposition to the rising action? At best, that’s a bit of a leap to go from setting up a story to cranking up the conflict. I would later understand that this missing component of the plot pyramid was something commonly referred to as an inciting incident. In short, the inciting incident is the event that triggers the shift from the exposition to the rising action. If the exposition shows us a normal day in the life of the character, then the inciting incident serves as that catalyst for when that normal day shifts into a world full of conflict or a series of obstacles the protagonist must now confront. While some people consider the inciting incident to be a part of the exposition, others view it as a missing ingredient from the plot diagram. Either way, few, if any, writers would disagree that it is a necessary component to writing a good story.
After writing 30 books, many of them in which I had to strongly consider this particular point, I have come to understand that there are five key things that have guided me and that I feel other writers should consider when it comes to using the concept of the inciting incident in their own works.
1. Don’t rush to it.
As writers, we often have a strong idea of what we want to happen in a story. We also understand that our readers might not be particularly patient when it comes to getting to the good parts of the book. As a result, we use techniques like in medias res or the use of carefully crafted, engaging first sentences that push the plot farther along. All of these things are wonderful techniques; however, the plots, especially for longer works, tend to eventually come back around to the idea of setting up the core conflict of the story at some point, thereby requiring some kind of inciting incident. Knowing that you have that element to look forward to when you begin writing, you might feel tempted to zoom past the other exposition in the story to get to that moment. I whole-heartedly understand where that notion originates, but the exposition allows us to understand and appreciate the characters enough to care about what they are going through. As a result, you can pace yourself as you work to get to that point of the story. We don’t want to unnecessarily drag our feet, but we definitely don’t want to run toward the inciting incident so quickly that we can’t appreciate how we arrived there.
“My wife is fond of telling me that it’s important to know your why when it comes to doing things. Understanding the purpose and the function of an inciting incident is essentially having a complete grasp of your character’s why.” —Ran Walker
Writer’s Digest
2. Don’t rush past it.
Just as you had to patiently navigate yourself toward the inciting incident, you will also want to avoid running past it. The inciting incident is a pivotal part in the story. The weight you are about to place on the shoulders of your protagonist should be understood and appreciated by the reader. Full empathy for the character comes when the reader is acutely aware of the stakes involved in your story, from where the stakes arose, and what choices the character will have to face to move forward. In the aforementioned movie, Friday, the inciting incident occurs when the protagonist is offhandedly dragged by his best friend into efforts to pay an ice cream truck-owning weed dealer back a certain sum of money. Prior to the dealer’s arrival, our protagonist, Craig, was having a regular day (or as regular a day as he could have, given that he’d been fired on his day off). The notion that Craig has been dragged into the hijinks of his best friend, Smokey, immediately kicks off the struggles that will propel his character through the rest of the movie. Still, in that moment of discovering the obstacles that lay ahead, the character is given a moment to allow this alteration to his daily plans to sink in. One might also view this breathing space as the opportunity for the character to completely digest his situation and get a glimpse at the obstacles that lie ahead. We as viewers or readers get to share this moment, and that shared recognition of the inciting incident is what allows us to root for the character even more enthusiastically going forward.
3. Use your exposition wisely to set up your story for the inciting incident.
Just because we are aware of the need for the inciting incident doesn’t mean we shouldn’t spend the time carefully crafting how we arrive at this point. Carefully crafting your exposition is akin to not only driving there (which is essentially the focus of my first point), but also doing this in style. It goes without saying that pacing and style are not necessarily synonymous, but they do impact each other. How you layer in the exposition can affect the impact of the inciting incident when it does arise. One of my favorite short stories to teach my students, Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s “Baxter’s Procrustes,” is an excellent example of this. The story is about a group of literary aficionados calling themselves the Bodleian Club and a mishap that happens with one of its members. The story is narrated by one of its members, Jones, who gives a detailed background of the club and its value so that when we encounter the inciting incident, we can appreciate the magnitude of the dilemma that will follow. “Baxter’s Procrustes” might have one of the longest sections of exposition I have come across in a short story in quite some time, as it is meticulous about establishing the mood and tone of the story. In fact, a casual reader might not even recognize the exact moment in which the inciting incident occurs—or whom the protagonist really is, for that matter. The inciting incident is far more impactful, not just because of the pacing, but the manner in which the exposition was developed while reaching the inciting incident.
In my second novel, 30 Love, I used this technique to establish the events of the novel. The inciting incident of that book is when Dizzy asks Lailah, his best friend of 30 years, to marry him, based upon an off-handed agreement they’d made 10 years earlier. In building up to this turning point, I establish the nature of their friendship and how they have interacted with each other over the years through the telling of how they celebrate their joint birthdays (since they were born on the same day to parents who were best friends, as well). By using the exposition more efficiently, the inciting incident carries much more emotional resonance when it occurs, especially since Lailah’s response is not a foregone conclusion. Inciting incidents are more likely to hook the reader when readers are invested in the characters, so make the most of your exposition.
30 Love, by Ran Walker
45 Alternate Press, LLC
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4. Recognize what that moment means for your character.
Now that we have arrived at the inciting moment, how does this moment affect your character? This is not merely a question of what the character should do; it must also take into account how the character’s personality is equipped to deal with this turning point. Some characters will willingly accept the charge and move forward. Others might piddle around trying to make sense of how to proceed. Whatever reaction the character has to this inciting incident should be explored and understood, as it will usually factor into how the character elects to approach the obstacles of the rising action. It is always good to know what makes your character’s reaction unique in that moment, given what you have developed about them in the exposition of the story. For example, in Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” we meet a woman who has just learned her husband has passed away in a train wreck. Her grief quickly turns way to relief, as she has a chance to really consider what his death will mean to her regaining her freedom to be something other than his wife. Without giving away the story’s conclusion, it is worth pointing out that the protagonist’s reaction to this inciting incident is a big part of the story’s plot. As you write your inciting incident, it would be helpful to keep in mind how your character will respond to this.
5. Always understand what your inciting incident is, even if you choose not to show it in the actual story.
There are numerous stories, whether due to their length or the style of structure they employ, that simply do not illustrate the inciting incident directly to the reader. Instead, the inciting incident is implied and understood upon a closer reading of the text. A good example of this is Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” a classic tale in which a Confederate sympathizer is put to death. What he did, however, is never directly stated in the text, only implied, yet those very actions have created the situation in which he finds himself. Of course, this reading of the story only comes from considering the totality of the plot (including those things that occur “offstage”). For readers who seek an inciting incident within the text, they might turn to the snapping of the rope as this turning point, but using the definition I stated earlier, the point at which Peyton Farquhar’s life takes a turn away from the normal is when he decides to help the Confederate cause by taking the information shared to him by an undercover federal scout and do something bold and punishable by death if he’s caught (which, spoiler alert, he is). As I consider my own microfiction, I realize that having an understanding of where the inciting incident is will help me to write tighter stories. Many of my stories occur after the inciting incident would have, theoretically, occurred. This is by design, as much of microfiction is about implication. Still, in the absence of showing it, my stories are much stronger because I still recognize that it’s there, just like an implied “you” or implied “that.” Whether or not you choose to actually have the inciting incident as a part of your story in a direct way, you should still have an understanding of what caused the change in your text and set in motion the conflict that will anchor your story. This harkens back to the theory of the iceberg, where most of your story is underwater and never actually seen by the reader, yet it is incredibly important to the writer, especially in terms of how they choose to craft the portion of the story that is seen by the reader.
Final Thoughts
My wife is fond of telling me that it’s important to know your why when it comes to doing things. Understanding the purpose and the function of an inciting incident is essentially having a complete grasp of your character’s why. Why is this situation important to your character? Why does your character choose to react to this situation in this particular way? Why does the character feel compelled to follow this trail of conflicts in the quest for a resolution? There is a certain logic that arises when you are acting from an understanding of the why, and this understanding and appreciation of inciting incidents will help you to deliver the stories you long to tell in a way that has a greater chance of satisfying your readers that much more.
Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly used, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer’s arsenal. With the help of the book Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland, you will learn how to write an outline as you explore what type of outline is right for you, brainstorm plot ideas, and discover your characters.
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