Inciting incident: definition, examples, varieties and the best way to begin a narrative correctly

How do you start a story? You may have heard that you have to start a story with a bang, that you have to start with a deep conflict. Or maybe you've heard literary agents say on the opening pages that they'd like to be excited about a story.

But what does that actually mean? How do you start a story well? The answer is the stimulating incident, one of the six structural elements of an effective story.

In this article, you will learn about the definition of stimulating incident, see how that plot point actually works in stories you know and love, the different types of stimulating incident, and start writing your own stories with it.

Note: This article is an excerpt from my new book The Write Structure, which explores the hidden structures behind bestselling and award-winning stories. If you want to learn more about how to write a great story, you can purchase the book for a limited time price. For the writing structure, click here ($ 2.99).

Definition of the initiating incident

The stimulating incident is an event in a story that disrupts the status quo and begins the movement of the story either positively or negatively, culminating in climax and dissolution.

As Robert McKee says: "The irritating incident radically upsets the balance of power in your protagonist's life."

Other story structure frameworks call this stimulating incident different names, including:

The Call to Adventure – Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey
The Catalyst – Dan Snyder's Save the Cat
The catch – Dan Wells seven point story structure
The problem – Donald Miller A million miles in a thousand years
The exciting force (my favorite) – Gustav Freytag The technique of drama
Stimulate event
Inciting moment

The only term I don't find helpful is the hook, as it combines the initiating incident, which has a structural place in any story, with the hook that catches the reader's attention on the first few pages of a story.

A good story may not have a catch and still work as a story, but without a stimulating incident a story doesn't move, and without movement it ceases to be a story and becomes a series of events.

An event must meet 5 criteria to be an exciting incident

Incitement to incidents has five criteria:

Early. The stimulating incident of a story occurs at the beginning of the story, sometimes in the first scene, almost always in the first three to four scenes.
Interruption. Incident incitement is an interruption in the main character's normal life.
Outside the control of the protagonist. Incitement is not caused by the character and is not the result of the character's desires.
Life changing. The event must have an above-average commitment and the potential to change the protagonist's life.
Urgent. Inciting incidents requires an urgent response.

We'll talk more about what the incitement incident is and what isn't when we're creative and scriptwriting. But let's first look at how incitement fits into the dramatic structure.

Where the triggering incident fits into a dramatic structure

Before delving into the stimulating incident and giving examples of how it appears in stories, let us consider the six elements of dramatic structure that can be found in any effective story. They are:

Exposure
Inciting incident
Increasing measures / progressive complications
Dilemma (crisis)
Climax
resolution

In most cases, the story begins with the portrayal, but the stimulating incident is the second element and the moment when the plot begins.

Note: You may expect falling actions on this list. That is why we do not include falling measures in our dramatic structural framework.

How long does the triggering incident last?

The triggering incident is technically just a moment or a single event, and that moment is almost always put into a single scene.

While set up may require multiple scenes, those previous scenes are usually part of the exhibit.

The triggering incident is more than a wish or a need

Some plot structure gurus say that the character's desire or need is enough for a stimulating incident to occur.

Dan Harmon, the screenwriter and creator of the show community, developed a framework called Story Circle Theory. There are many things to like about this structure that on the surface seem perfect for episodic stories like television sitcoms and also film series.

This is how Dan Harmon describes the basic structure of the Story Circle:

Draw a circle and divide it in half vertically.
Divide the circle horizontally again.
Starting from the 12 o'clock position and clockwise, number the 4 points where the lines cross the circle: 1, 3, 5 and 7.
Number the quarter sections yourself 2, 4, 6 and 8.
Here we go down and dirty:
A character is in a comfort zone.
But they want something.
You are entering an unfamiliar situation
Adapt to
Get what they wanted
Pay a heavy price for
Then go back to your familiar situation.
To have changed.

Did you discover the stimulating incident there?

"But they want something."

Here is Donald Miller's definition of history in a million miles in a thousand years:

"A character who wants something and is ready to go through conflict to get it."

Yes, desire is important in every story. It's just not the maddening incident.

According to an article in Wired, Dan Harmon apparently came up with the idea for this structure after watching and re-watching the movie Die Hard, among other things.

But is this how Die Hard works? John McLane just wanted something? And did he understand?

No, the story doesn't start because of John's wishes. It starts because of an interruption. Alan Rickman and his German friends come in with guns and take everyone hostage. John may have wanted to live and save his wife, but that will come later.

The triggering incident in Die Hard is an early, urgent interruption that is beyond the control of the character.

Sometimes your desires can get very urgent, even interrupt you, but you are still in control of whether or not to take action.

Inciting incidents can be positive or negative, but they are always interruptions

Some story gurus call the stimulating incident "the problem". (Miller has since changed his definition of the initiating incident to "the problem," and moved away from a character's desire.)

Others call it something more positive, like "the call to adventure".

While these definitions are helpfully specific, they contradict one another. Because the truth is, it can be negative (a problem) in some stories and positive (an adventure) in others.

Often times they are both positive and negative!

Some stories have negative incentives, like Die Hard. For John McClane, the protagonist, it was hardly a positive thing.

Other stories have stimulating incidents that are mostly positive. Most love stories are about a "meet cute," a moment when the couple at the heart of the story meet for the first time and have an emotional connection – which sometimes looks like attraction and sometimes hate.

This is an example of a positive incentive, a happy break.

It is true that problems always result from the incident that triggered them, but they don't always look like a problem at first. In fact, they can sometimes look like the best thing that ever happened to a character.

Incident incitement is tied to the core value of your story

Different types of stories have different values at their core, and the value at the core of a story will change the stimulating incident.

That sounds more complicated than it is.

You may have heard that stories need conflict, but as we said elsewhere in The Write Practice, conflict stories don't just need to be argued or prosecuted. The kind of conflict stories that are really needed comes from values in conflict.

There are six core values that conflict in stories. Here they are assigned to the types of stories you might want to tell:

Action / adventure story: life versus death
Mystery / thriller / horror story: life against a fate worse than death
Love story: love versus hate
Performance / sport story: performance vs. failure
Coming of Age story: Maturity vs. Naiveté
Moral story: good versus evil

A love story with the core value scale love versus hate will have an exciting incident that looks very different from a fantasy adventure story with the core value life versus death.

These triggering incidents will still look different than a thriller with the core value of life versus a fate worse than death.

Take a second to practice identifying the triggering incident

Hopefully by this point in the post you feel better at understanding what the precipitating incident is and how you can apply it in your own story. It could also be the perfect time to take a short break from reading and practice finding the stimulating incident in a scene.

Let's check out the opening scene in Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon. If you haven't seen how to train a dragon before, this scene is the representation of the entire story (and an extraordinary one), but every scene (like every story) also needs the six elements of the plot.

Note that the inciting incident does not have to take long. It could only be a brief moment!

Either way, you should view this clip and make a note of what you think the inciting incident is. You can find the answer below in the post.

How to Train Your Dragon: Opening Scene

The 10 Ways to Incite Incidents with Examples

As writers have told millions of stories throughout history, these exciting incidents have grown to find similar structures and have even been given names based on how they work. Depending on the type of story you write, the nature of the triggering incident also changes.

Would you like to learn more about story types? Check out our guide and find the type of your story here.

Here are the ten types of incidents of incidents based on the six story values (we will also include examples of incidents of incitement for each type):

1.Call to Adventure / Death Plus MacGuffin (Action / Adventure Stories: Life Against Death)

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it," reads the self-destructive tape.

For adventure and action stories, the protagonists are invited to some kind of adventure or mission.

These invitations come from a variety of sources, such as:

A victim (in the case of Luke Skywalker's invitation to Princess Leia in Star Wars: A New Hope or Katniss & # 39; Need to Save Her Sister Prim in The Hunger Games)
A mentor (in the case of Frodo's invitation from Gandalf in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter's invitation from Hagrid to Hogwarts)
A villain (in the case of Mr. Incredible)

The person making the invitation matters less than the fact that an adventure or mission is about to begin.

A definitive version of this exciting incident is the "Death Plus MacGuffin" in which a supporting character dies and leaves a clue or piece of a MacGuffin – a kind of talisman object that the protagonist must look for throughout the rest of the story.

Examples of stories with the Call to Adventure incident are:

Crowdsourcing Paris by J.H. Bunting (that's me)
The soldier James Ryan
Lord of the Rings
Disney's Incredibles
Any Star Wars movie
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
And more!

2. Death of a Loved One / A Great Crime Against Me (Action / Adventure Stories: Life Against Death)

An alternative to the direct call to adventure is the “death of a loved one”, which spurs the protagonist to seek revenge or to find justice.

Stories that are primarily plans for revenge have a version of it. I call it "A Great Crime Against Me" in which a horrific act is committed against the protagonist that forces him or her to swear vengeance.

The stories with this exciting incident include:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Brave Heart
Batman begins
Kill bill

3. Show me the body (Mystery / Crime / Thriller / Horror Story: Life against a fate worse than death)

What's worse than death? To be brutally tortured before being cruelly murdered.

This is at the heart of most thrillers, mysteries, or horror stories.

And almost all of these stories, if well done, begin with the discovery of a corpse, the search to solve the murder or the hunt for / escape from the monster.