May 27, 2025 • 25 mins
Your inciting incident sets the stage for everything that follows. Here's what to revise so it can carry the story.
A great inciting incident does a lot of heavy lifting.
→ It hooks your readers, pulling them into the story.
→ And it sets up everything to come, laying the foundation for a brilliant climax your readers will love.
The beginning matters. Which means there’s a lot of pressure to get it right.
But what does right actually mean? How do you start a story well?
That’s what I’m tackling in this episode. I’m going beyond the definition of the inciting incident to share what I as an editor am looking for when I edit inciting incidents.
In other words, if you’ve written an inciting incident and aren’t sure how to tell if it works, this episode is your guide to edit it.
You’ll hear:
- How I define the inciting incident
- Where in the story the inciting incident appears (and how to tell if it’s too early or too late)
- The 7 qualities I’m watching for when I edit an inciting incident
- The 4 common inciting incident traps I see writers fall into (including one that’s really hard to spot, and yet it can tank the whole story)
- And more
Plus, I’ve gathered it all into a one-page cheat sheet you can reference every time you edit an inciting incident. Print it out and keep it in your writing space for easy access.
If you’ve ever found the advice to “make sure your story has an inciting incident” unsatisfactory, this episode is for you.
Don’t just make sure your story has an inciting incident. Use this episode to revise it until it’s good. Great. Unputdownable, even.
Links mentioned in the episode:
- Get the Inciting Incident Revision Cheat Sheet: alicesudlow.com/85
- Work with me: alicesudlow.com/contact
- Ep. 27: Value Shifts: How to Craft Compelling Change in Every Story
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
A great beginning.
(00:01):
Hooks your readers and pullsthem into the story, and it sets
up everything to come laying thefoundation for a brilliant,
surprising, yet inevitableclimax that your readers will
love.
The beginning matters, and youknow it.
I'm sure you've studied allkinds of advice telling you to
kick off your story with a greatinciting incident.
(00:21):
There's a lot of pressure to getit right.
But knowing the beginningmatters and knowing how to get
it right are two vastlydifferent things, which means
that beginnings are really,really difficult.
So how do you start a story?
all the advice to start with aninciting incident doesn't help
if you don't know what makesinciting incidents truly work.
(00:44):
So in this episode, that's whatwe're tackling.
I'm going beyond the definitionof the inciting incident to
share what I as an editor amlooking for when I edit inciting
incidents.
In other words, if you'vewritten inciting incidents and
aren't sure how to tell if itworks, this episode is your
guide to edit it.
(01:52):
Welcome to your next draft.
when I was first introduced tostory structure, it blew my
mind.
I ate it up.
It transformed the way that Ithink about stories.
It gave me tools I couldactually use to edit them and
craft meaningful, usefulfeedback.
I quickly discovered that storystructure alone came with
(02:13):
limitations.
I now knew, for instance, thatstories needed inciting
incidents, so I could come to amanuscript and ask, does it have
an inciting incident?
No.
Add one, yes.
Great.
Which sure is half the battle,but what comes next?
How could I evaluate thatinciting incident?
(02:34):
What made it work?
What adjustments could make itstronger?
What hidden weaknesses couldmake it fail or cause subtle
cascading problems later in thestory?
That's the art of editing.
not just knowing what needs tobe on the page, but what to do
with it once it's there.
And that's what I'm sharing withyou here, what to do with your
(02:58):
inciting incidents.
The inciting incident is thefirst part of my favorite story
structure, the six elements ofstory.
And because the six elements arefractal, your story will have
many inciting incidents.
One, to kick off the story as awhole, one at the start of every
act and one at the start ofevery scene.
So when you know what to lookfor and how to edit inciting
(03:20):
incidents.
You are going to get a ton ofuse outta that skill.
With that in mind, I've puttogether a free cheat sheet to
go with this episode.
It covers all the qualities,questions, and common traps that
I'll share about the incitingincident.
You can print it out and keep itat hand, easy to reference as
you edit.
grab that cheat sheet by goingto alice slo.com/ 83 Enter your
(03:42):
email in the form there, andI'll send it right to you.
And now without further ado,let's dive in.
This episode is meaty.
So here's our map.
I'm going to share the way Idefine the inciting incident,
where in the story the incitingincident appears.
What I'm watching for as aneditor when I evaluate an
(04:03):
inciting incident and the commontraps that I see writers fall
into when they're writing theirinciting incidents.
Let's start with the definition.
Here's how I define the incitingincident.
Something disrupts thecharacter's normal and kicks off
the action of the story.
What does that mean?
(04:23):
Well, at the beginning of thestory, before anything has
happened, the world is normal.
Your character is going abouttheir life, doing the typical
things they typically do.
Everything is functioning as itnormally goes until the inciting
incident.
The inciting incident is adisruption.
It's something that happens toyour character, something
(04:45):
external, something they weren'texpecting that interrupts the
flow of their ordinary life.
Now things aren't normalanymore, something's changed,
and whether they like it or not,your protagonist is going to
have to respond.
Where in the story is theinciting incident?
The inciting incident rarelyhappens on page one of a novel
(05:08):
because in order to recognizesomething as a disruption, first
we need to understand whatnormal is.
But it always happens fairlyearly on within the first few
chapters of a novel or withinthe first few paragraphs or
pages of a scene.
If you've made it more than 20%into a story without an inciting
incident, it's probablyhappening too late.
(05:30):
now what am I watching for as aneditor?
There are seven qualities thatI'm looking for in an effective
inciting incident.
Let's go through them one by onefirst.
The inciting incident ispositive or negative, never
neutral.
The inciting incident is alwaysa disruption, but disruptions
(05:51):
aren't always bad.
So many negative things can kickoff A story.
A hiker finding a dead body inthe woods.
A mom whose daughter getshospitalized in a car accident,
a worker getting fired from thesoul sucking job that paid their
bills.
But inciting incidents can bepositive too.
A man crosses paths in a trainstation with a woman he lost
(06:12):
contact with years ago.
A kid gets into an elite school,perhaps even a magical school.
A woman gets a promotion.
In the seven husbands of EvelynHugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed,
Monique, a journalist in theearly stages of her career, is
offered the chance to interviewfamous actress Evelyn Hugo, and
write an exclusive feature.
(06:33):
It's a windfall of aninvitation, a career defining
opportunity, and while it's anintimidating challenge and she
has to work up the nerve toaccept it, it's definitely a
positive inciting incident.
So when I'm looking for astories inciting incidents, I
keep in mind that it might benegative or positive.
The only thing it can't be isneutral.
(06:56):
Second, the inciting incidentcomes from outside the
character.
Protagonists do notspontaneously decide to create a
disruption in their lives.
Stories are about change andhumans resist change.
We don't go looking fordisruption.
Disruption happens to us whetherwe want it to or not, and then
(07:18):
we're forced to respond.
This is true, whether thedisruption is positive or
negative, whether it's a tragedyor a dream come true, whether
it's finding a dead body in thewoods or finding an invitation
to an elite opportunity, andyes, you might argue that the
kid who got into the eliteschool applied for it, or the
woman who got the promotionworked her butt off to get it.
(07:39):
But even in those cases, theoutcomes still came from outside
the character.
They could influence it, butthey couldn't guarantee it.
They didn't control it.
The opportunity itself came fromoutside of them.
When I'm examining an incitingincident, I'm checking to see
did this happen to theprotagonist or from them?
(08:01):
If the disruption came frominside the character, if they
just spontaneously changed theirmind or took a set in action,
then I know I've got a place totroubleshoot.
Third.
The inciting incident disruptsthe character's normal.
Just as the inciting incidentisn't neutral, it's also not
(08:23):
normal.
It's something beyond theday-to-day, something that
sticks out.
And once the protagonistexperiences it, they can't
unexperience it.
The world won't go back to whatit was before the inciting
incident happened.
The protagonist can't return tostatus quo.
the key here is for the readerto recognize the resonant impact
(08:46):
of the inciting incident.
We need to know what the worldlooked like before it happened.
We need to see status quo toexperience it, to soak it in.
After all, your protagonist hasbeen soaking in status quo their
entire life.
We need to get a taste of ittoo.
Because once we know what normallooks like, we'll appreciate the
(09:08):
true magnitude of the incitingincidents disruption.
So when I'm evaluating aninciting incident, I'm looking
for two things.
What is the status quo?
What does life look like forthis character before everything
changes, and what is thedisruption?
How does the inciting incidentupend that world?
(09:31):
Fourth.
The inciting incident sparks thecharacter's goal.
The protagonist always emergesfrom the inciting incident with
a goal.
They just experienced adisruption that rocked their
normal life.
Things aren't the same as theywere before.
There's disorder, chaos, newnessin a space where there used to
(09:51):
be order familiarity, peace, andthat disruption catalyzes a
goal.
The protagonist wants something.
Now, they might not say out loudto the reader, I want this,
although sometimes they do dothat.
But if you walked up to theprotagonist right after the
inciting incident, you grabbedthem by the arm, pulled them
(10:13):
aside and asked, what do youwant?
They could tell you in aheartbeat there's something they
want now, something they'regoing after, something they're
going to chase for the rest ofthe scene or the act or the
novel.
So when I'm examining aninciting incident, I ask, what's
the character's goal?
What is the protagonist going topursue now as a direct result of
(10:37):
this disruption?
Fifth, the inciting incident isaligned with the genre of the
story.
The inciting incident of a storyis genre driven.
Or to put it another way, thegenre of a story defines what
type of event will happen in theinciting incident.
(10:57):
Stories are about change,remember, and genre tells us
what kind of change we'redealing with.
Every genre has genre specificstakes.
For example, in a love story,the stakes are love or hate in
an action story, the stakes arelife or death.
In a performance story, thestakes are success or failure.
In a crime story, the stakes arejustice or injustice.
(11:21):
So the inciting incidents needsto reflect those stakes.
It needs to introduce the valueshift that defines the genre.
If the story begins with someonediscovering a dead body, we're
not expecting a love story.
We're expecting a crime storybecause that inciting incident
signals a shift into the realmof justice and injustice.
(11:42):
The inciting incident tells uswhat kind of story we're in one
caveat here.
This principle applies at everylevel of story from the inciting
incident of the entire novel tothat of an act, to that of a
single scene.
But at the scene level, it getsa little more nuanced.
After all, if every scene beginswith a discovery of a dead body,
(12:03):
your readers are going to getboth confused and bored.
It just wouldn't make sense.
Luckily.
There are two things on yourside here.
First, values happen on aspectrum In a crime story, the
spectrum runs from perfectjustice to absolute tyranny.
Most scenes fall somewherebetween the extremes.
(12:23):
The inciting incident of a scenemight be the discovery of a
clue, which brings us closer tojustice, or it might be someone
throwing up an obstacle to theinvestigation, which takes us
closer to injustice.
And second, your novel probablyhas multiple genres, an external
genre, an internal genre, and asubplot, maybe even more than
one.
(12:44):
The inciting incident of a scenecould be linked to any of those
genres.
If all this sounds a littledense, I get it.
Genre is a big topic and a lotto take in.
If these terms are new to you, Irecommend checking out my
episode on value shifts.
That's episode 27 Value Shifts,how to Create Compelling Change
(13:04):
in Every Story, and that'slinked in the show notes as
well.
For now, the bottom line isthis.
When I'm examining an incitingincident, I'm checking to see
does this event align with thegenre of the story?
Does it establish the value atstake?
Sixth, the inciting incident isaligned with the turning point
(13:27):
and climax.
I like to think of the incitingincident, turning point and
climax as forming a neat littletriangle.
They're connected.
They match, they lock togetherin a tidy shape.
The inciting incidentestablishes the value at stake
and kicks off the goal for theprotagonist.
Then the story builds to theturning point where the
(13:49):
protagonist realizes they can'taccomplish that goal in the way
that they intended.
Because of that, they're facedwith a crisis, a do this or do
that binary choice about howthey're going to tackle this
problem and what kind of personthey're going to be.
As they do, they act on thatchoice in the climax, which pays
(14:09):
off the value shift and genreexpectations that were set in
the inciting incidents.
I'll admit that's like sevenpoints, which is a lot for a
triangle.
The point though is that theinciting incident does not exist
in isolation.
It's structurally andemotionally connected to all the
other major moments in thestory.
(14:30):
The inciting discovery of thedead body will build to the
climactic exposure of thecriminal.
The inciting levers meet willlead to the climactic proof of
love.
The promise made at the incitingincident must be fulfilled by
the climax.
They're speaking to each otheracross the entire story.
So when I'm examining theinciting incidents, I'm checking
(14:52):
to see is this aligned with therest of the story?
Does it connect to all theelements of story and the
fundamentals of the genre, theturning point, crisis, climax
resolution, the goal, and thevalue at stake?
And finally, seventh, theinciting incident reinforces the
(15:13):
beginning value.
Stories are about change.
It's my constant refrain.
If you've listened to more thanone episode of this podcast,
you've heard me say this before,probably a dozen times.
Stories are about change.
Things start one way and theyend another way, and that change
(15:33):
is the value shift.
There's a beginning value and anending value, and the story of
how we got from one to theother.
The inciting incident is yourchance to establish the
beginning value to plant a flagin the ground that says, here's
where we're starting.
(15:54):
At the beginning of Pride andPrejudice, Elizabeth Bennett is
single and in a precariousfinancial situation.
Then she meets wealthy, Mr.
Darcy, he insults her andsuddenly she's single in a
precarious financial situationand on mutually bad terms, with
one of the most eligiblebachelors in the area, we're
making the starting valuesreally clear.
(16:16):
Her singleness, her financialneed, and her dislike of the
eligible men around.
Now an important note on scope.
I want to be clear here.
When I say beginning value, I'mreferring to the beginning value
of the section of story you'remeasuring.
In that example of Elizabeth inPride and Prejudice, I'm
referring to the novel as awhole.
(16:38):
At the end of the story, she'sgoing to be engaged, wealthy,
and in love with Mr.
Darcy.
When we zoom into the act or thescene, we'll find a smaller arc
with its own beginning andending values.
Take for instance, the scene inwhich Elizabeth and Darcy meet.
the inciting incident of thatscene is the arrival of the
Maritan Ball, where the Bennettgirls will finally have the
(17:00):
chance to meet the eligible Mr.
Bingley and the fren he'sbrought to town.
The beginning values here areoptimism that they might find
appealing suitors and admirationbecause the girls are admired as
beauties in the community.
That shifts when Darcy insults.
Elizabeth hopes are dashed andadmiration turns to revulsion,
(17:22):
and so the scene has its own arcof change with its own value
shift, and the inciting incidentestablishes the beginning value.
No matter the level of story I'mfocusing on, when I examine an
inciting incident, I'm asking,does this inciting incident
reinforce the beginning value?
Does it show us exactly wherethe story starts so we can feel
(17:46):
the change by the time we reachthe end?
So there you have it.
The seven qualities I'm lookingfor in a great inciting
incident.
Here they are again, theinciting incident.
Is positive or negative?
Never neutral.
It comes from outside thecharacter.
(18:06):
It disrupts the character'snormal.
It sparks the character's goal.
It's aligned with the genre ofthe story.
It's aligned with the turningpoint and the climax, and it
reinforces the beginning value.
And remember, if you want to seeall these qualities written down
and easy to reference as youedit, grab the free inciting
(18:27):
incident cheat sheet.
Go to alice slo.com/ 85, enteryour email there, and they'll
send it straight to you.
Now I've encountered a lot ofinciting incidents in a lot of
manuscripts, and while I'malways watching for all seven
traits that I described, thereare a few common traps that I
often see.
(18:48):
They're subtle, lurkingunderneath inciting incidents
that look like they should work.
If you've created an incitingincident that you love, but your
story still isn't working, checkfor these traps.
I've got four traps for you,Here's the first one.
We don't know enough aboutstatus quo normal to understand
(19:08):
how the inciting incidentdisrupts it.
That probably means that theinciting incident occurs on page
one of the book, Or in the firstfew words of the scene, right at
the very, very beginning beforewe're oriented to the story that
leaves readers asking whatchanged And bereft of any more
(19:28):
context, we'll assume thatwhatever we saw in the inciting
incident is the status quorather than a disruption,
interrupting it and kicking ourcharacter into action.
Here's the second trap.
The inciting incident comes frominside the protagonist.
This means it's something theprotagonist decides, something
(19:50):
the protagonist does.
It feels spontaneous, like asudden burst of inspiration to
do something big.
And since the inciting incidentis by definition a disruption,
and humans avoid change, thisdoesn't make sense to us.
Why would the protagonist chooseto throw a wrench into their own
life?
(20:11):
It leaves us asking why.
Now, this question always makesme think of one of my favorite
musicals, Natasha Pierre, andthe Great Comet of 1812.
This show is based on a tinyslice of war and peace by
Tolstoy, and at the very start,Pierre sings this, it's dawned
on me suddenly, and for noobvious reason that I can't go
(20:34):
on living as I am.
That stanza makes me laugh everysingle time because what I hear
is Tolstoy didn't write aninciting incident for Pierre,
but this story is happeninganyway.
Why is now the day that Pierredecided he can't go on living as
he is?
Nobody has a clue, which Isuppose means that Tolstoy got
(20:56):
away with it, but I don'trecommend it for you.
Give your protagonist adisruption that throws their
life out of order.
Don't expect them to throw itout of order spontaneously on
their own.
Here's the third trap.
The inciting incident doesn'tkick off a goal.
This is like the opposite of theprevious trap.
(21:17):
If the previous trap was yourprotagonist taking action and
pursuing a goal without a causeto incite them, this trap is
that your protagonist does havea cause to incite them, and yet
it doesn't push them intomotion.
They experience the incitingincident, but it doesn't spark a
goal for them to pursue.
Which leaves us asking why doesthis matter If the disruption to
(21:41):
your protagonist's life leavesthem unchanged and unscathed, if
it doesn't cause them to pursuea goal, why do we care?
If it doesn't matter to them?
Why should it matter to us?
And finally, the fourth trap isthat the inciting incident isn't
aligned with the genre, theturning point in climax or the
(22:03):
value shift.
This trap is tricky because it'sreally hard to see this at the
start of a story.
You might have to write your wayto the end in order to spot it.
If you pull out the incitingincident and look at it on
isolation, it might seem rocksolid nailing every single
quality that I've described inthis episode.
(22:24):
But put it in the context of alarger story where the genre.
Turning points in climax andvalue shift don't all match and
it all falls apart.
The story will feel like aconfusing jumble of competing
ideas.
Watch for the followingsymptoms.
You'll get the gut feeling ormaybe early feedback that the
(22:44):
story as a whole doesn't holdtogether.
And the inciting incidents inclimax both seem awesome in
theory, but in practice they'refalling flat.
The climax especially should bea gut punch, but it's more of a
gentle tap.
These are all signals that theinciting incident, genre,
turning point, climax, and valueshift are not neatly aligned,
(23:09):
and that means it's time to zoomout to do some bigger picture
structural work and figure outwhat the story is really about.
So there you have it.
The four most common traps I seehere they are again.
One, we don't know enough aboutstatus quo normal to understand
how the inciting incidentdisrupts it, and that makes us
(23:31):
asked what changed?
Two.
The inciting incident comes frominside the protagonist, and that
makes us ask why now?
Three.
The inciting incident doesn'tkick off a goal, and that makes
us ask why does this matter?
And four.
(23:52):
The inciting incident isn'taligned with the genre turning
point in climax or value shift,and you can tell because the
story doesn't hold together andthe climax is falling flat.
This episode is meaty, so I'llwrap it up here, but it's meaty
because it matters.
Great stories are built on rocksolid story structure, and the
(24:14):
inciting incident sets upeverything that's to come.
Keep in mind that these are allediting tools.
I do not recommend dragging yourbrain through all these layers
of analysis.
When you're first imagining yourstory or writing the first
draft.
Let your creative mind run wild.
Then come back when you have adraft and put it through its
paces of analysis.
(24:36):
And if even that thought soundsoverwhelming or makes your brain
scream just a little.
Don't worry.
That's why I'm here.
I spend my days analyzing storylike this, so you can stay in
your creative story flow.
If you'd like to work with meand get my feedback on your
inciting incident and the restof your story, head to my
website and tell me about yourstory.
(24:56):
Go to alice sudler.com/contactand fill out the form there and
I'll be in touch.
And don't forget.
You can grab a free incitingincident cheat sheet to print
out and reference.
Anytime you're editing.
Go to alice sulo.com/eight fiveand enter your email address in
the form on that page, and I'llsend it right to you.
(25:18):
And that's it for incitingincidents.
This episode is kicking off mygoal, which is to do a whole
series like this for everyelement of story.
So keep an eye out on the feedfor the next installment.
Progressive complications comingsoon.
In the meantime, I hope thatthis gives you some actionable
strategies to shape yourinciting incidents into
Unputdownable story beginnings.
(25:40):
Happy editing.
A great beginning.
(00:01):
Hooks your readers and pullsthem into the story, and it sets
up everything to come laying thefoundation for a brilliant,
surprising, yet inevitableclimax that your readers will
love.
The beginning matters, and youknow it.
I'm sure you've studied allkinds of advice telling you to
kick off your story with a greatinciting incident.
(00:21):
There's a lot of pressure to getit right.
But knowing the beginningmatters and knowing how to get
it right are two vastlydifferent things, which means
that beginnings are really,really difficult.
So how do you start a story?
all the advice to start with aninciting incident doesn't help
if you don't know what makesinciting incidents truly work.
(00:44):
So in this episode, that's whatwe're tackling.
I'm going beyond the definitionof the inciting incident to
share what I as an editor amlooking for when I edit inciting
incidents.
In other words, if you'vewritten inciting incidents and
aren't sure how to tell if itworks, this episode is your
guide to edit it.
(01:52):
Welcome to your next draft.
when I was first introduced tostory structure, it blew my
mind.
I ate it up.
It transformed the way that Ithink about stories.
It gave me tools I couldactually use to edit them and
craft meaningful, usefulfeedback.
I quickly discovered that storystructure alone came with
(02:13):
limitations.
I now knew, for instance, thatstories needed inciting
incidents, so I could come to amanuscript and ask, does it have
an inciting incident?
No.
Add one, yes.
Great.
Which sure is half the battle,but what comes next?
How could I evaluate thatinciting incident?
(02:34):
What made it work?
What adjustments could make itstronger?
What hidden weaknesses couldmake it fail or cause subtle
cascading problems later in thestory?
That's the art of editing.
not just knowing what needs tobe on the page, but what to do
with it once it's there.
And that's what I'm sharing withyou here, what to do with your
(02:58):
inciting incidents.
The inciting incident is thefirst part of my favorite story
structure, the six elements ofstory.
And because the six elements arefractal, your story will have
many inciting incidents.
One, to kick off the story as awhole, one at the start of every
act and one at the start ofevery scene.
So when you know what to lookfor and how to edit inciting
(03:20):
incidents.
You are going to get a ton ofuse outta that skill.
With that in mind, I've puttogether a free cheat sheet to
go with this episode.
It covers all the qualities,questions, and common traps that
I'll share about the incitingincident.
You can print it out and keep itat hand, easy to reference as
you edit.
grab that cheat sheet by goingto alice slo.com/ 83 Enter your
(03:42):
email in the form there, andI'll send it right to you.
And now without further ado,let's dive in.
This episode is meaty.
So here's our map.
I'm going to share the way Idefine the inciting incident,
where in the story the incitingincident appears.
What I'm watching for as aneditor when I evaluate an
(04:03):
inciting incident and the commontraps that I see writers fall
into when they're writing theirinciting incidents.
Let's start with the definition.
Here's how I define the incitingincident.
Something disrupts thecharacter's normal and kicks off
the action of the story.
What does that mean?
(04:23):
Well, at the beginning of thestory, before anything has
happened, the world is normal.
Your character is going abouttheir life, doing the typical
things they typically do.
Everything is functioning as itnormally goes until the inciting
incident.
The inciting incident is adisruption.
It's something that happens toyour character, something
(04:45):
external, something they weren'texpecting that interrupts the
flow of their ordinary life.
Now things aren't normalanymore, something's changed,
and whether they like it or not,your protagonist is going to
have to respond.
Where in the story is theinciting incident?
The inciting incident rarelyhappens on page one of a novel
(05:08):
because in order to recognizesomething as a disruption, first
we need to understand whatnormal is.
But it always happens fairlyearly on within the first few
chapters of a novel or withinthe first few paragraphs or
pages of a scene.
If you've made it more than 20%into a story without an inciting
incident, it's probablyhappening too late.
(05:30):
now what am I watching for as aneditor?
There are seven qualities thatI'm looking for in an effective
inciting incident.
Let's go through them one by onefirst.
The inciting incident ispositive or negative, never
neutral.
The inciting incident is alwaysa disruption, but disruptions
(05:51):
aren't always bad.
So many negative things can kickoff A story.
A hiker finding a dead body inthe woods.
A mom whose daughter getshospitalized in a car accident,
a worker getting fired from thesoul sucking job that paid their
bills.
But inciting incidents can bepositive too.
A man crosses paths in a trainstation with a woman he lost
(06:12):
contact with years ago.
A kid gets into an elite school,perhaps even a magical school.
A woman gets a promotion.
In the seven husbands of EvelynHugo by Taylor Jenkins Reed,
Monique, a journalist in theearly stages of her career, is
offered the chance to interviewfamous actress Evelyn Hugo, and
write an exclusive feature.
(06:33):
It's a windfall of aninvitation, a career defining
opportunity, and while it's anintimidating challenge and she
has to work up the nerve toaccept it, it's definitely a
positive inciting incident.
So when I'm looking for astories inciting incidents, I
keep in mind that it might benegative or positive.
The only thing it can't be isneutral.
(06:56):
Second, the inciting incidentcomes from outside the
character.
Protagonists do notspontaneously decide to create a
disruption in their lives.
Stories are about change andhumans resist change.
We don't go looking fordisruption.
Disruption happens to us whetherwe want it to or not, and then
(07:18):
we're forced to respond.
This is true, whether thedisruption is positive or
negative, whether it's a tragedyor a dream come true, whether
it's finding a dead body in thewoods or finding an invitation
to an elite opportunity, andyes, you might argue that the
kid who got into the eliteschool applied for it, or the
woman who got the promotionworked her butt off to get it.
(07:39):
But even in those cases, theoutcomes still came from outside
the character.
They could influence it, butthey couldn't guarantee it.
They didn't control it.
The opportunity itself came fromoutside of them.
When I'm examining an incitingincident, I'm checking to see
did this happen to theprotagonist or from them?
(08:01):
If the disruption came frominside the character, if they
just spontaneously changed theirmind or took a set in action,
then I know I've got a place totroubleshoot.
Third.
The inciting incident disruptsthe character's normal.
Just as the inciting incidentisn't neutral, it's also not
(08:23):
normal.
It's something beyond theday-to-day, something that
sticks out.
And once the protagonistexperiences it, they can't
unexperience it.
The world won't go back to whatit was before the inciting
incident happened.
The protagonist can't return tostatus quo.
the key here is for the readerto recognize the resonant impact
(08:46):
of the inciting incident.
We need to know what the worldlooked like before it happened.
We need to see status quo toexperience it, to soak it in.
After all, your protagonist hasbeen soaking in status quo their
entire life.
We need to get a taste of ittoo.
Because once we know what normallooks like, we'll appreciate the
(09:08):
true magnitude of the incitingincidents disruption.
So when I'm evaluating aninciting incident, I'm looking
for two things.
What is the status quo?
What does life look like forthis character before everything
changes, and what is thedisruption?
How does the inciting incidentupend that world?
(09:31):
Fourth.
The inciting incident sparks thecharacter's goal.
The protagonist always emergesfrom the inciting incident with
a goal.
They just experienced adisruption that rocked their
normal life.
Things aren't the same as theywere before.
There's disorder, chaos, newnessin a space where there used to
(09:51):
be order familiarity, peace, andthat disruption catalyzes a
goal.
The protagonist wants something.
Now, they might not say out loudto the reader, I want this,
although sometimes they do dothat.
But if you walked up to theprotagonist right after the
inciting incident, you grabbedthem by the arm, pulled them
(10:13):
aside and asked, what do youwant?
They could tell you in aheartbeat there's something they
want now, something they'regoing after, something they're
going to chase for the rest ofthe scene or the act or the
novel.
So when I'm examining aninciting incident, I ask, what's
the character's goal?
What is the protagonist going topursue now as a direct result of
(10:37):
this disruption?
Fifth, the inciting incident isaligned with the genre of the
story.
The inciting incident of a storyis genre driven.
Or to put it another way, thegenre of a story defines what
type of event will happen in theinciting incident.
(10:57):
Stories are about change,remember, and genre tells us
what kind of change we'redealing with.
Every genre has genre specificstakes.
For example, in a love story,the stakes are love or hate in
an action story, the stakes arelife or death.
In a performance story, thestakes are success or failure.
In a crime story, the stakes arejustice or injustice.
(11:21):
So the inciting incidents needsto reflect those stakes.
It needs to introduce the valueshift that defines the genre.
If the story begins with someonediscovering a dead body, we're
not expecting a love story.
We're expecting a crime storybecause that inciting incident
signals a shift into the realmof justice and injustice.
(11:42):
The inciting incident tells uswhat kind of story we're in one
caveat here.
This principle applies at everylevel of story from the inciting
incident of the entire novel tothat of an act, to that of a
single scene.
But at the scene level, it getsa little more nuanced.
After all, if every scene beginswith a discovery of a dead body,
(12:03):
your readers are going to getboth confused and bored.
It just wouldn't make sense.
Luckily.
There are two things on yourside here.
First, values happen on aspectrum In a crime story, the
spectrum runs from perfectjustice to absolute tyranny.
Most scenes fall somewherebetween the extremes.
(12:23):
The inciting incident of a scenemight be the discovery of a
clue, which brings us closer tojustice, or it might be someone
throwing up an obstacle to theinvestigation, which takes us
closer to injustice.
And second, your novel probablyhas multiple genres, an external
genre, an internal genre, and asubplot, maybe even more than
one.
(12:44):
The inciting incident of a scenecould be linked to any of those
genres.
If all this sounds a littledense, I get it.
Genre is a big topic and a lotto take in.
If these terms are new to you, Irecommend checking out my
episode on value shifts.
That's episode 27 Value Shifts,how to Create Compelling Change
(13:04):
in Every Story, and that'slinked in the show notes as
well.
For now, the bottom line isthis.
When I'm examining an incitingincident, I'm checking to see
does this event align with thegenre of the story?
Does it establish the value atstake?
Sixth, the inciting incident isaligned with the turning point
(13:27):
and climax.
I like to think of the incitingincident, turning point and
climax as forming a neat littletriangle.
They're connected.
They match, they lock togetherin a tidy shape.
The inciting incidentestablishes the value at stake
and kicks off the goal for theprotagonist.
Then the story builds to theturning point where the
(13:49):
protagonist realizes they can'taccomplish that goal in the way
that they intended.
Because of that, they're facedwith a crisis, a do this or do
that binary choice about howthey're going to tackle this
problem and what kind of personthey're going to be.
As they do, they act on thatchoice in the climax, which pays
(14:09):
off the value shift and genreexpectations that were set in
the inciting incidents.
I'll admit that's like sevenpoints, which is a lot for a
triangle.
The point though is that theinciting incident does not exist
in isolation.
It's structurally andemotionally connected to all the
other major moments in thestory.
(14:30):
The inciting discovery of thedead body will build to the
climactic exposure of thecriminal.
The inciting levers meet willlead to the climactic proof of
love.
The promise made at the incitingincident must be fulfilled by
the climax.
They're speaking to each otheracross the entire story.
So when I'm examining theinciting incidents, I'm checking
(14:52):
to see is this aligned with therest of the story?
Does it connect to all theelements of story and the
fundamentals of the genre, theturning point, crisis, climax
resolution, the goal, and thevalue at stake?
And finally, seventh, theinciting incident reinforces the
(15:13):
beginning value.
Stories are about change.
It's my constant refrain.
If you've listened to more thanone episode of this podcast,
you've heard me say this before,probably a dozen times.
Stories are about change.
Things start one way and theyend another way, and that change
(15:33):
is the value shift.
There's a beginning value and anending value, and the story of
how we got from one to theother.
The inciting incident is yourchance to establish the
beginning value to plant a flagin the ground that says, here's
where we're starting.
(15:54):
At the beginning of Pride andPrejudice, Elizabeth Bennett is
single and in a precariousfinancial situation.
Then she meets wealthy, Mr.
Darcy, he insults her andsuddenly she's single in a
precarious financial situationand on mutually bad terms, with
one of the most eligiblebachelors in the area, we're
making the starting valuesreally clear.
(16:16):
Her singleness, her financialneed, and her dislike of the
eligible men around.
Now an important note on scope.
I want to be clear here.
When I say beginning value, I'mreferring to the beginning value
of the section of story you'remeasuring.
In that example of Elizabeth inPride and Prejudice, I'm
referring to the novel as awhole.
(16:38):
At the end of the story, she'sgoing to be engaged, wealthy,
and in love with Mr.
Darcy.
When we zoom into the act or thescene, we'll find a smaller arc
with its own beginning andending values.
Take for instance, the scene inwhich Elizabeth and Darcy meet.
the inciting incident of thatscene is the arrival of the
Maritan Ball, where the Bennettgirls will finally have the
(17:00):
chance to meet the eligible Mr.
Bingley and the fren he'sbrought to town.
The beginning values here areoptimism that they might find
appealing suitors and admirationbecause the girls are admired as
beauties in the community.
That shifts when Darcy insults.
Elizabeth hopes are dashed andadmiration turns to revulsion,
(17:22):
and so the scene has its own arcof change with its own value
shift, and the inciting incidentestablishes the beginning value.
No matter the level of story I'mfocusing on, when I examine an
inciting incident, I'm asking,does this inciting incident
reinforce the beginning value?
Does it show us exactly wherethe story starts so we can feel
(17:46):
the change by the time we reachthe end?
So there you have it.
The seven qualities I'm lookingfor in a great inciting
incident.
Here they are again, theinciting incident.
Is positive or negative?
Never neutral.
It comes from outside thecharacter.
(18:06):
It disrupts the character'snormal.
It sparks the character's goal.
It's aligned with the genre ofthe story.
It's aligned with the turningpoint and the climax, and it
reinforces the beginning value.
And remember, if you want to seeall these qualities written down
and easy to reference as youedit, grab the free inciting
(18:27):
incident cheat sheet.
Go to alice slo.com/ 85, enteryour email there, and they'll
send it straight to you.
Now I've encountered a lot ofinciting incidents in a lot of
manuscripts, and while I'malways watching for all seven
traits that I described, thereare a few common traps that I
often see.
(18:48):
They're subtle, lurkingunderneath inciting incidents
that look like they should work.
If you've created an incitingincident that you love, but your
story still isn't working, checkfor these traps.
I've got four traps for you,Here's the first one.
We don't know enough aboutstatus quo normal to understand
(19:08):
how the inciting incidentdisrupts it.
That probably means that theinciting incident occurs on page
one of the book, Or in the firstfew words of the scene, right at
the very, very beginning beforewe're oriented to the story that
leaves readers asking whatchanged And bereft of any more
(19:28):
context, we'll assume thatwhatever we saw in the inciting
incident is the status quorather than a disruption,
interrupting it and kicking ourcharacter into action.
Here's the second trap.
The inciting incident comes frominside the protagonist.
This means it's something theprotagonist decides, something
(19:50):
the protagonist does.
It feels spontaneous, like asudden burst of inspiration to
do something big.
And since the inciting incidentis by definition a disruption,
and humans avoid change, thisdoesn't make sense to us.
Why would the protagonist chooseto throw a wrench into their own
life?
(20:11):
It leaves us asking why.
Now, this question always makesme think of one of my favorite
musicals, Natasha Pierre, andthe Great Comet of 1812.
This show is based on a tinyslice of war and peace by
Tolstoy, and at the very start,Pierre sings this, it's dawned
on me suddenly, and for noobvious reason that I can't go
(20:34):
on living as I am.
That stanza makes me laugh everysingle time because what I hear
is Tolstoy didn't write aninciting incident for Pierre,
but this story is happeninganyway.
Why is now the day that Pierredecided he can't go on living as
he is?
Nobody has a clue, which Isuppose means that Tolstoy got
(20:56):
away with it, but I don'trecommend it for you.
Give your protagonist adisruption that throws their
life out of order.
Don't expect them to throw itout of order spontaneously on
their own.
Here's the third trap.
The inciting incident doesn'tkick off a goal.
This is like the opposite of theprevious trap.
(21:17):
If the previous trap was yourprotagonist taking action and
pursuing a goal without a causeto incite them, this trap is
that your protagonist does havea cause to incite them, and yet
it doesn't push them intomotion.
They experience the incitingincident, but it doesn't spark a
goal for them to pursue.
Which leaves us asking why doesthis matter If the disruption to
(21:41):
your protagonist's life leavesthem unchanged and unscathed, if
it doesn't cause them to pursuea goal, why do we care?
If it doesn't matter to them?
Why should it matter to us?
And finally, the fourth trap isthat the inciting incident isn't
aligned with the genre, theturning point in climax or the
(22:03):
value shift.
This trap is tricky because it'sreally hard to see this at the
start of a story.
You might have to write your wayto the end in order to spot it.
If you pull out the incitingincident and look at it on
isolation, it might seem rocksolid nailing every single
quality that I've described inthis episode.
(22:24):
But put it in the context of alarger story where the genre.
Turning points in climax andvalue shift don't all match and
it all falls apart.
The story will feel like aconfusing jumble of competing
ideas.
Watch for the followingsymptoms.
You'll get the gut feeling ormaybe early feedback that the
(22:44):
story as a whole doesn't holdtogether.
And the inciting incidents inclimax both seem awesome in
theory, but in practice they'refalling flat.
The climax especially should bea gut punch, but it's more of a
gentle tap.
These are all signals that theinciting incident, genre,
turning point, climax, and valueshift are not neatly aligned,
(23:09):
and that means it's time to zoomout to do some bigger picture
structural work and figure outwhat the story is really about.
So there you have it.
The four most common traps I seehere they are again.
One, we don't know enough aboutstatus quo normal to understand
how the inciting incidentdisrupts it, and that makes us
(23:31):
asked what changed?
Two.
The inciting incident comes frominside the protagonist, and that
makes us ask why now?
Three.
The inciting incident doesn'tkick off a goal, and that makes
us ask why does this matter?
And four.
(23:52):
The inciting incident isn'taligned with the genre turning
point in climax or value shift,and you can tell because the
story doesn't hold together andthe climax is falling flat.
This episode is meaty, so I'llwrap it up here, but it's meaty
because it matters.
Great stories are built on rocksolid story structure, and the
(24:14):
inciting incident sets upeverything that's to come.
Keep in mind that these are allediting tools.
I do not recommend dragging yourbrain through all these layers
of analysis.
When you're first imagining yourstory or writing the first
draft.
Let your creative mind run wild.
Then come back when you have adraft and put it through its
paces of analysis.
(24:36):
And if even that thought soundsoverwhelming or makes your brain
scream just a little.
Don't worry.
That's why I'm here.
I spend my days analyzing storylike this, so you can stay in
your creative story flow.
If you'd like to work with meand get my feedback on your
inciting incident and the restof your story, head to my
website and tell me about yourstory.
(24:56):
Go to alice sudler.com/contactand fill out the form there and
I'll be in touch.
And don't forget.
You can grab a free incitingincident cheat sheet to print
out and reference.
Anytime you're editing.
Go to alice sulo.com/eight fiveand enter your email address in
the form on that page, and I'llsend it right to you.
(25:18):
And that's it for incitingincidents.
This episode is kicking off mygoal, which is to do a whole
series like this for everyelement of story.
So keep an eye out on the feedfor the next installment.
Progressive complications comingsoon.
In the meantime, I hope thatthis gives you some actionable
strategies to shape yourinciting incidents into
Unputdownable story beginnings.
(25:40):
Happy editing.
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