How to Make the Inciting Incident Happen in Chapter One

[@siriuslyunsirius]

This!! I’m struggling so much with rewriting my Prologue in a way that includes the inciting incident and introduces the internal conflict at the same time. Cant wait to watch this!

[@HollyDunnDesign]

So interesting! My inciting incident was the first scene I wrote and originally envisioned it as being the first chapter. However, I’ve since gone back and added more setup for the character before the inciting incident. It helps to establish the stakes and the character’s wants and needs are.

[@fräuleinniemand1871]

My book directly Starts with the inciting incident. Its a (post)WW1 Story about a German soilder with ptsd. So the Story Starts with him Waking up through the silence that's caused because the weapons gone silent. Then the Story Starts, he goes to a foreign city, his ptsd evolves, He meets a Woman and has to face His ptsd-problems that keep him from living a normal life as He wishes

[@jamescarvey2133]

The novel I writing is called The Cave of No Return. I'm presently at chapter 12 and revving up for the final lap. Each time I watch one of your videos I either congratulate myself or go back to the grind and make changes. Listening to your videos is important to me and helped me towards becoming a reflective practitioner much like you are...Deduction Humm! You are my heroes . Thanks, for making my writer's journey creative and ( At times) profound🙏

[@kaylakanvas]

I love how much attention you both give to your sister. I am going to NEED a sister written book about sisters tbh 😂 I would have that on preorder 🤣😍

[@TooLegit2Quit84]

Yes! Downton Abbey's opening scene was amazing! So was the entire show. And the movies. I ❤ Downton so much...

[@nicholas2827]

Writing a historical fiction, put the incident in the first 5 pgs. I went to a homeschool convention a few years back. The writer said to do this so far I think it’s good results test readers.

[@JoyanneBarber]

I'm so happy you mentioned Downton Abbey! That series is one of my favorites and hearing it talked about makes me so happy. Also, amazing video. I've been in a pretty big writing slump and this podcast really helped me think about my first chapter! Thanks so much, I enjoy your guys work and writing a lot. Your videos encourage and teach me so much as a teen writer.

[@TooLegit2Quit84]

This episode will be helpful. I keep feeling like I'm rushing things. Maybe I'm not!

[@emilyrln]

Omg y'all just made me realize that if I remove a character from the incurring incident, it'll ratchet the tension up way higher and force my MC to rely only on herself… 🤯

[@patrickmcdonald8513]

This one is another 1 worth a re-listen

[@slo911video]

Great advice, as always. This video was the information I needed to overcome the writing obstacle I’ve been struggling with. Thanks!!

[@PromisingPod]

Kate is wearing a hat and outfit similar to her circle channel logo. Yeah, that's good that you mention how curiosity can be used. People want to know what will happen about something, like what real estate they'll get, like you said. People want you to suggest something and then have that be resolved, even if it's something that's not that big of a deal, like what type of coffee they got or what color their Sherlock Holmes hat is.

[@ouryarnwhirled]

Thank you! This is so helpful. Now I know where to start my book.

[@wiggleworm5423]

yess my request!

[@chalonhutson]

Looking forward to this podcast!

[@erinhastings6679]

This is good advice. And I will use your advice in my future WIPS. ❤️❤️✍️📕

[@thefatbat5556]

I enjoyed the first chapter of The Blood Race, also I'm fond of Vikas Adam as a reader, so bonus. I would've scolded the girl in the back seat as soon as she touched the window switch, that causes drag, it's no wonder the car started slowing down. I haven't gotten to The Other World yet, but 100 Days of Sunlight really found a special place in my life, I didn't see that one coming.

[@matthewokorie5064]

Great. As if I knew this before now. I am currently rewriting the first chapter of my first novel. All you have said here has already been factored in except that her fears was not demonstrated in the opening chapter. I shall bring that to bear. In the opening chapter the main character is a hospital bed. She's an African-American lady recovering from the wounds of her kidney donation surprisingly to her greatest hater in life - a white supremacists member of her adopted Jewish American family. She had had to choose between saving this racist by donating her kidney or leaving him to die by going for the African wide protest in Africa which she engineered herself. She gets a call from two leaders of a group she founded to liberate Africa from neo-colonialism and bad governance. Over a thousand members had been killed in the non-violent protest backed by governments from different African nations. She and her group members all-over the world were declared terrorists by African Union and their accounts frozen. Her only black skinned brother in the adopted family also was killed in the protest. She rises to overcome the campaign of African leaders against her group and unites Africa to flush bad governance all at the risk of her life and disobedience to her adopted mother's advice to quit the struggle as her only child.

[@ShayanMallick29]

Mine is in chapter 4. The first 3 are kind of introductory and really brief, and j made sure to leave like cliffhangers and red herrings to keep readers grabbed all the way to the main event. Pretty proud of it actually!

[@girlypopgay]

I just realized I kind of have two inciting incidents. One in the first chapter, and then one in the fifth chapter that more or less kicks off the ‘journeying’ part of plot… In two of my books it’s like that…

[@shebreathesingold8043]

The first one is actually the key change event, and the one that relates to the plot is the inciting incident.

[@gordonbarnes7005]

I'm definitely going for an inciting incident that happens pretty soon. I have my inciting incident at the end of chapter 2, which is probably around the 5% mark in the story.

[@shebreathesingold8043]

Abbie, her accident/blindness is the "key change" event which happens at the start of the book. The actual inciting incident of your romance, as is the inciting incident of most romances where the MC/LI don't know each other, is when they meet. Just FYI because while you can have the inciting incident at the start, most people are describing "two inciting incidents" and that's a key change event and the inciting incident. Take the horror film sinister. The film starts with the family moving into the murder house. This appears like THE inciting incident, but that's just a meaningful key change event. The actual inciting incident doesn't happen until he finds the 8mm films and starts to dig into the murders.

[@l24ub]

Sorry this isn't relevant to the episode, but I really need to ask for some advice. I've been in the outlining phase for an "embarrassing" amount of time and feel like I'm getting nowhere. This is my first book and I know deep down I want it to be perfect and it's hindering my process. That being said, I feel like I don't know how to start writing. I can't seem to turn bullet points into sentences and paragraphs without feeling like I need to change the whole plot. It's gotten to the point where I don't even know the book anymore. Too many ideas? Too few? I'm so confused. Anyway, thank you for your time and also making great, inspirational content.

[@milayabrown2366]

I’m not a professional so take my words with a grain of salt😂but I was stuck in this too in wanting it to be perfect and what helped me was focusing more on my character profiles than anything else. Like they said in the video the plot and what’s necessary in it will write itself when you truly know your characters well. What they would personally do based on who they are and their conflicts in whatever situation they’re in drives the plot in a certain direction. So maybe taking a lot of time to really focus on developing your characters in depth and focusing less on the plot and more on the theme of your story and why you want to write it and what you want people to learn from it when they’re finished with it will help. For me I like to put a bit of my own conflict and my own life experiences in each character I write so they feel more familiar to me, and I’m sure you know Abbie has great character templates on her channel that really helped me. Anyways my main takeaway is find your theme and purpose for writing this story and focus on your characters more and in my case you’ll feel more passionate and confident to start writing things from your characters POV, I hope this helped in any way I was kind of just yapping lol

[@l24ub]

@@milayabrown2366 yeah that's what I've thinking. I wrote a little today using their POV font hack so that was cool

[@michemman]

@l24ub I hear you loud and clear. I see you. I hear your struggle. Writing about your story, isn't the same as writing it. So you can simply change 'the what happens, what it is about,' into dialogue, and changing it into 1st person. See Rachel Stephen's video on KZbin about brainstorming vs brain-dumping. She speaks about 'magic questions'. Asking precise questions when you are not yet ready to write, gave me months of figuring out the story, and process time for ideas. The questions can be blank, or you can give multiple answers. Your novel...is a puzzle, so start with the edges, the scenes you see and hear. Write them badly. Leave square brackets for [unknown?] puzzle pieces to go later. Practice writing about your childhood, to hear your voice. Turn any work into a pdf and have it read aloud to you in this voice. Make changes. After a while, you naturally get better. So sit in the chair, and produce crap so that you have 'editor you' to fix it a bit, at a later time. I edit as I go. You can speak your novel directly using Dragon dictate, in your studio or in a park, with a microphone, and it will type it into automatically into your word processor without you lifting a finger. I am loving the program Bibisco for writing my scenes, after many years and many programs... these are my recommendations. I love "Save the Cat Writes a novel!" as a road map for your book, a guide for all genres, so buy it, read it and apply it! I use coloured index cards on corkboards to layout my novel, and even after 7 years on this first novel, it is still fun...and I use them to figure out what goes where... You've got this! In kindred spirit, Eliza Most Beautiful Day is Today! 11th of September 2024; 10:48pm Sydney Australia

[@TimmyTwoSpoons]

Same here. This is my first time writing a book and I found myself in that same position. What worked best for me was getting a rough plot, a rough idea of my characters and the world building down and then I just started writing kind of seed of the pants. It allowed me to start the framework for my story. And it didn't put me into a corner, when my plot or characters didn't align, I was able to go back after my manuscript first draft and make any alterations and permanent changes to my characters setting and plot. If you haven't finished your first or second draft, I wouldn't worry about everything being perfect. Your final drafts allow you to go back and so in little details and nuances that you couldn't do before having a completed story structure.

[@denisiyaden1231]

Do you think starting with a flashback from future is a good idea? Like "i thought this was the day everything went downhill, but now I realise that it actually started a few months before...." And then the story starts from that "few months before"

[@alanagostinelli6849]

I can certainly see the advantages of having the inciting incident happening immediately. I'm not sure I accept that this is possible in every story. There are a lot of factors that work against this approach. My book is a second world fantasy, told in the first person from the POV of a young girl who does not know a great deal about how her world works. Without that knowledge, the impact of the inciting incident is not apparent. I would be very interested in a discussion of how to work such a situation to make such an opening practical.

[@charstudio09]

Do you know how to make my character likeable from the first chapter? Hes kind of a nerd outcast but gentle soul. At the beginning of the story before his arc he’s a bit a of a pushover and doesn’t stick up for himself when he’s bullied. How do I make him likeable despite his flaws? Thanks!

[@Darthaeris39]

Well what is likeable about him? You have to show your character's good qualities as well as his bad ones. Maybe your character is a social outcast and nerd, but if he had a gentle soul, maybe in the first chapter he helps someone who dropped their stuff, or you show him making dinner for his mom cuz he knows she's busy. The easiest way to make us like a character is to give them a trait we like. If he's helpful, or funny, or a good listener, or loyal, and you show it in chapter one, we will like him!

[@charstudio09]

@@Darthaeris39Those are such good ideas thank you so much!!!

[@LarryThePhotoGuy]

My MC is left as an infant with a family who know nothing about the mental abilities that he will develop. Even when these abilities begin to manifest they aren't recognized. These abilities affect his adopted siblings profoundly. But, by the time anyone begins to realize the problem, it is too late to fix it. Ultimately, this leads to the suicide of the youngest sibling and becomes the source of the MC's character flaw. The initial inciting incident is the failed attempt to fake the MC's death and raise him in secret. We only see the enemy's minions briefly in the prologue. With a (I hope) cool mental battle between enemy and the MC's father - and all including the MC is believed dead. My problem is that no one (including the MC) knows that anything untoward is happening until it it is too late. The development of his powers and their effect on his siblings lead to tragedy and unhappiness. Again, the problem is that these things basically sneak up on everybody. How do I portray this?

[@JusteenCurtis]

I for one am having the inciting incident happen as soon as possible, hopefully the scene I have planned for chapter one is actually an inciting incident. I want to have two inciting incidents for my story.

[@QueenSiv]

Just realized my story has two inciting incidents, one for the external conflict and one for the internal. Hhhmmmm

[@tinamcbride5423]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I did I just hear You Say "the story takes Care of the rest". 🤔 Pretty sure I remember an old video of yours where you made fun of that Statement after you read it 😂

[@justapseudonym7]

I'm struggling with creating a desire for my character before the inciting incident because it becomes all about revenge afterwards

[@elliegale1845]

Maybe it could be a desire related to the people who died got hurt ? Like a family, a shared business, a life goal like traveling or just having a peaceful life w loved ones Then revenge

[@JusteenCurtis]

Maybe it could be a desire to protect their loved ones and then when the inciting incident happens, when the character fails to protect, then it spirals into a desire for revenge

[@curtisjones6162]

I’m too lazy to write a slow boring story, and lack the talent to rely solely on the quality of my prose.