So how do you go about creating an Inciting Event that will fuel your plot and drive your characters forward? Let’s start by answering four important questions.
What Is an Inciting Event?
The Inciting Event is the first major turning point in your story, halfway through the First Act. It is the “Call to Adventure,” in which your protagonist has his first brush with the main conflict—and either refuses to take part (either momentarily in a short experience of doubt, or adamantly all the way to the First Plot Point, when he will no longer have a choice) or has the choice taken away from him via someone else’s refusal.
Either way, his encounter with the Inciting Event will set him on a path toward his irrevocable involvement with the main conflict at the First Plot Point at the end of the First Act.
What Isn’t an Inciting Event?
Your story will almost certainly include several important moments in your story before you get to the Inciting Event.
For example, in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator
The Inciting Event in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is the quiet scene, halfway through the First Act, in which Aurelius invites Maximus to rule Rome. (Richard Harris and Russell Crowe in Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, produced by DreamWorks.)
>>Click to read the full Story Structure Database analysis of Gladiator.
The Inciting Event is not your opening scene. The opening scene is your Hook, which draws readers into the story and sets up the first domino that will lead to the Inciting Event, halfway through the First Act.
Where Should the Inciting Event Occur?
The Inciting Event should take place halfway through the First Act, around the 12% mark. Setting it at this point in the story allows you to appropriately pace the introduction of your characters, their personal problems, and their Normal World, so readers will sympathize with the characters and understand the stakes when the Inciting Event turns the story irrevocably into the straightaway of the main conflict.
For example, the Inciting Event in Gladiator takes place after Maximus’s Normal World has been established via the opening battle and his interactions with the emperor and other important characters.
The Inciting Event shouldn’t take place until you’ve had time to set up the story, including most of the important characters and settings. (Joaquin Phoenix, Richard Harris, and Russell Crowe in Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, produced by DreamWorks.)
What Constitutes a Powerful Inciting Event?
Inciting Events are as widely varied as their stories. A good Inciting Event might be any one of the following:
- A request for help from a friend, as in Ben-Hur.
Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur (1959), directed by William Wyler, produced by MGM.
- Discovering something shocking (such as a dead body), as in Arsenic and Old Lace.
Cary Grant in Arsenic & Old Lace (1944), directed by Frank Capra, produced by Warner Bros.
- Taking a new job, as in Gone Baby Gone.
Morgan Freeman, Casey Affleck, and Michelle Monaghan in Gone Baby Gone (2007), directed by Ben Affleck, produced by Miramax Films.
- Meeting someone new, as in Driving Miss Daisy.
Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), directed by Bruce Beresford, produced by Warner Bros.
What all these Inciting Events have in common is that:
1. The Inciting Event Includes Movement
The Inciting Event is, first and foremost, a turning point within the story. A turning point requires movement, both within the plot and, usually, within the scene itself. Characters are always either doing something or being asked to do something.
2. The Inciting Event Directly Influences the Story to Follow
Robbing a bank may change the character’s life, but it’s not an Inciting Event unless the story that follows couldn’t have happened without that particular robbery.
3. The Inciting Event Creates Conflict
Because change is difficult for and even resisted by most humans, it almost always creates an atmosphere of conflict. The more change an Inciting Event creates or threatens to create, the deeper the conflict and the more intriguing the story will be.
4. The Inciting Event Grabs Readers’ Attention
Your entire premise turns around the Inciting Event, so go for something special. This is one of your earliest opportunities to create something truly special within the world of your story. Don’t settle for the mundane.
5. The Inciting Event Builds Up to the First Plot Point
Even if the Inciting Event doesn’t yet completely change your protagonist’s Normal World, it hints at the changes to come. Even as the character resists or outright refuses the Inciting Event’s Call to Adventure, from that point on, the story will be steadily and irrevocably building up to the “doorway of no return” at the First Plot Point (which takes place at the end of the First Act, at approximately the 25% mark).
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The Inciting Event is a crucial part of your story’s early structure. Plan it carefully, set it up in the first eighth of your story, execute it with gusto, and then use it to build up to an unforgettable First Plot Point. Do all that, and you’ll have written the kind of beginning that irresistibly hooks readers!
