Inciting Incidents | Writing Tips

[@ShaelinWrites]

Friends! It might help to mostly ignore/take with a grain of salt everything I said about percentages in which the inciting incident should be placed. That was me ball parking, but it varies SO much even just based on your word count. 8% through in a 50 000 book is very different than through a 150 000 book, so just generally keep it fairly early as makes sense for your book and you should be okay! But don't worry too much about the numbers I gave, those were estimates and it really varies a lot.

[@tatltails3923]

...you know what? I've been nervous for a long time that I have a weak inciting incident, until I realized (largely through this video) that I'm structurally writing a romance. There is little to no romance in my novel's plot! It's all about platonic friendships and overcoming self-doubt and self-hatred through the power of human interconnectivity. But the inciting incident is my two main characters meeting for the first time, very early on in the book. The story is about the ways their slowly-growing friendship improve each other as people and how having trust in each other gives them the power to overcome their individual issues and problems. It's all platonic!! But it's a platonic romance!!! Thank you for helping me figure that out!

[@markwalker5243]

I would like to read that book!

[@fireinateacup89]

Me too! ​@@markwalker5243

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

Came at the best time. Literally working on my inciting incident rn.

[@lolasart3408]

Good luck! Hope it turns out good!

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

@@lolasart3408 thanks! It actually went surprisingly well and it's pretty raw emotion so I was honestly just surprised by my own writing tbh. Like, wait did I write this??? I didn't even know I could. But it went really really well. Now only if there was a way I would start putting details in scenes, I'd be on my way to a full draft!

[@lolasart3408]

@@James.Stark.Ben.Edition Awesome! I'm still trying to adapt my original plot to write able one. (Sorry for bad english, it's not my first language)

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

@@lolasart3408 eh, it's fine. English isn't my first language either haha. And good luck to you too!

[@lolasart3408]

@@James.Stark.Ben.Edition thanks!

[@helena9116]

Absolutely fantastic video: I just wanted to add that although the inciting incident should give the character an internal goal, they don‘t need to happen at the same time. The goal can be lead up to by a phase called „the debate“. For example: In Toy Story, the inciting incident is the arrival of Buzz. This changes Woody‘s status quo but he dismisses this at first. Only when he is thrown into the toys‘ box and forgotten by Andy, does his goal materialize: he needs to win back the spot as Andy‘s favorite toy. Similarly, in the Hunger Games, the inciting incident is Katniss volunteering as tribute. This changes her status quo and she accepts her death. But later on, in the train, she changes her mind: she has to fight to win.

[@coffee8404]

This is really informative and interesting

[@ShaelinWrites]

Glad it helped!

[@milesisediting]

I am just about to write my inciting incident. What kind of sorcery is this?

[@ShaelinWrites]

i am psychic

[@Thetopnoobpro]

My inciting incident happens before the story starts but I think it fits perfectly for the story because you learn like almost immediately what happened and you don't need to know a lot about the main character to know that getting amnesia is a big life-altering event. Thank you for this video it helped a lot ;)

[@bookishdaydreams4993]

Watching this video made me realize what the first scene of my novel should be! Thank you

[@anthonywheeler2082]

This was great. I've been thinking about inciting incidents a lot lately. I wasn't completely sure what they were. Turns out I've been writing inciting incidents without realizing it haha.

[@cwfcwfcwf]

You're always so knowledgeable. :)

[@a_good_rat]

I love your channel so much, these aren't new topics to me but you always present them in interesting ways that make me think about writing with a slightly different perspective. Whenever I'm stuck on a project I watch your videos and it honestly really helps me clear my head and get new ideas ♡ Thanks for your hard work!

[@TheMatheushorta]

Stealing content from more qualified people and filtering it thru your own lens is the best way to get it done. Right on! Great vid

[@authorerynblaire-craftingc9379]

That's a great way of thinking of it! Without the inciting incident, the entire story wouldn't happen. I just pegged that to my bulletin board.

[@AlbaPoulzen]

I have mine in the prologue where her horse was spooked, made a crooked leap, and bolted. She landed on her butt, which affected the spin, and she got paralyzed from the hip and down. Her biggest dream was to become a show jumper in the Grand Prix at the Stockholm International Horse Show; now, she must adjust her whole life. Book title “The Para Show Jumper” We follow her bumpy road back in the saddle to reach her goal.

[@SaveMoreThanHoneyBees]

This video seems like an inciting incident, except that it's not an incident and it's more than just incentive

[@gamewriteeye769]

I have a plot line I'm working with where I can see it starting at three different plot points as a way to engage the story; the very beginning inciting incident, the later “Darkest Moment” side of things, forcing reflection and non-linear storytelling as it's emphasis, or skipping the two-part inciting incident to start the main story with the main character (there's two, though).

[@craighurley3405]

Well aimed at a specific topic on my "have to figure this out LIST". Thanks for your perspective. I've been reworking my first chapter and likely see that THIS is what's missing (my first draft had the inciting incident in chapter 2), as I fell victim to the description of the mundane syndrome.

[@amypeasewrites]

My inciting incident was what, you know, incited the book. Then months and months of figuring out the rest of it.

[@TravelingCitrianSnail]

I normally start with introducung the characters and / or setting the atmosphere, then move to open the actual plot with the inciting incidence.

[@michaellayne-vw4jp]

This was extremely helpful. Thank you

[@jacklawrence2212]

Fantastic video, very helpful and well explained.

[@victoriannecastle]

I read Story. I also recommend Plot and Structure by James Bell. Just a suggestion for future video since you did a motivation before. How to mix writing with social life, as in person to person relationship?

[@cheesecakelasagna]

this

[@nocturnus009]

I am in your debt [again] Shaelin. GRADITUDE & Thanks. On the structure within writing for the screen. I recommend everyone in the writing community looking to explore this look into checking their library, college & or University for Kanopy streaming service. I get 10 play credits per month & resolved to burn all of them this year. 2 good examples of inciting incident I have seen this year would be Son of a Gun (2014) the prison chess scene & in Mississippi Grind (2015) the opening drink order during the poker game. We can all benefit from looking at films for form & structure.

[@cheesecakelasagna]

Charles Smith Yes! Hell, even the movie Hereditary started its inciting incident head on the first scene.

[@ventricity]

In movies the inciting incident is not a point of no return, but the (sometimes forced)oppurtunity of a choice that if taken begins the story and propels the character into the next act. The point of no return is the end of the first act/start of the second when that choice is acted upon. it´s a subtle difference , because everything that comes before is about building an argument and desire to make a choice for what to do when the incident occurs. but the choice is not realized before the character actually acts by taking the pill/going through the portal etc to act 2. instantly making the choice would deplete tension, so it´s a really good opportunity to create a feeling of entering a new world/path

[@YTEdy]

Thanks for that. I'd not heard about the inciting incident before, though my book has one, very specific and quite early in the book, a kind of incident with two parts, the person he meets and the job that person offers them both become incidents. I'm not sure the story works, it might. It's got potential, and this is kind of neat to know that, I'm basically doing this with little to no training, but I'm getting some things right.

[@ericransley8622]

Thank you!! I'm writing the inciting incident in a story right now and prior to watching this video i didn't even know what that was... 🙄😅

[@aG-td2uu]

A great example of an inciting incident is with Jamie Lannister. It happens as a direct result of Jamie’s character and his captors hatred of the power that he wields. Even in chains Jamie has more power than them due to his skills and his name. To counter this his captor takes away everything Jamie thinks makes him who he is, his hand. His hand that he love his sister with, the hand that he wielded a sword with, and those were the only two things that brought him joy. By not allowing to go back to how he was before Jamie was forced to reflect on his life and decide whether or not to be a better person.

[@legome7450]

Just what I had to hear, thanks!

[@cheesecakelasagna]

The movie Hereditary jumpstarted its inciting incident head on the very first scene.

[@yeshv3104]

"head on".....I see what you did there! :D :P

[@ctrain8900]

Hail Shaelin!

[@sh4rkb4it79]

Star Wars: A new hope did too if I remember correctly (it’s been awhile since I watched it)

[@tidyheidi9143]

Good video, although I’m wondering if what I’m trying to do might be an exception or whether it needs to be completely redone-I’m going for a sort of Dark-Tower-like intro where it starts with the main character alone in the middle of their journey. You mentioned not having an inciting incident during a flashback but I’m not sure there’s a better way to do it in my case. The story starts with the main character’s recurring nightmare, which is a traumatic childhood memory. She was a monk, and when she was 7 her temple was attacked and almost everyone she knew and loved was killed. But in the present day, shes 20. I know this is the inciting incident because none of the events of the story would have happened if not for what happened during her childhood. But I don’t want to really cover the events between that past memory and the present because they aren’t particularly interesting compared to what’s happening now. So the story starts with her as a child in the monastery, the attack occurs, and she wakes up crying in the middle of the wilderness where we find out how much time has passed between these two events and where she’s going now. It feels relatively well-written at the moment, but I’m worried that it’s inherently bad just because the inciting incident is a memory or a flashback.

[@nayarhhhh]

thank you!! your videos are so helpful 😭💞

[@rodschmidt8952]

As I listen, I think about inciting incidents from Star Wars (Luke sees the message from the princess), Wizard of Oz (Mrs. Gulch threatens to take Toto), A Christmas Carol (Scrooge sees Marley's face in the door knocker and then is visited by Marley's ghost), Peter and Wendy (Wendy sees a footprint on the third floor together with some unknown-species leaves in the wrong season; of course it's Peter's footprint and the leaves are from Never-Neverland). K. M. Weiland has a Story Structure Database with many more examples

[@tommyjones4316]

To me, the 3 act structure is simple. You have the set up, which is the beginning, everything thing that happens in the beginning is the set up for the plot to go in motion. Then you have the plot where the antagonist tries to stop it. Then, 3rd act, did the antagonist win or lose?

[@ohohothisrocks]

my concern is that the inciting event takes place in chapter 5. And the start of chapter 5 (which is act 2) is estimated to be around 50-60 pages (it's a first draft, I can cut it down significantly). It's a specific scenario that the reader absolutely needs some context which I think I have accomplished according to what she has said. But I don't know it's if it's too slow for the inciting event

[@indigo-dorcaslarsen5821]

Are you sure, that the event you are calling the inciting incident isn’t really the point of no return? Sometimes they can be the same, but is there a posibility that something actually happens earlier setting the story in motion? Think about it this way: if you actually don’t have an inciting incident until chapter 5, that means you have 4 chapters SOLELY describing your main character’s current life.

[@missHilda45]

Hi Shaelin I am a new subscriber, your videos are very helpful and thanks! Would it be possible to upload something on how to build a villain or the villain as character / villain hero "relationship" etc. in a novel? I am not sure if you know about this specifically tho...but it would be amazing:)

[@thatoneweirdgirlvlogchanne3647]

I love your Canadian accent, lol.

[@silverwolfdraws9845]

I'm currently plotting a novel (I'm planning on making it 50 000+ words) and my inciting incident is in the first two pages, is that okay?

[@alienswillcomeAWC]

Shaelin said in the video that more “general” inciting incidents can happen very early on (take the cockroach example she mentioned), whereas inciting incidents where you need some context on the protagonist so that you can understand how the inciting incident changes his life, need to happen later. So it depends on how specific your inciting incident is.

[@silverwolfdraws9845]

@@alienswillcomeAWC oh! Thanks!

[@SleepParty30]

My inciting incident happens at the end of the first chapter.

[@amiliar2656]

You and lilsimsie (another youtuber) remind me so much of each other. Like, whenever you stop talking seriously and make a joke or something it's like WOW lilsimsie whooo

[@abbiepancakeeater52]

Omg this was so funny to stumble into. Hello fellow writer and Sims player.

[@amiliar2656]

@@abbiepancakeeater52 hii! omg

[@rumouredsimmer]

Sul sul

[@ferraghamo]

woke up to watch this and now i wanna write

[@giannisxyloforos4172]

Please make a video explaining character change

[@kinga9148]

Thanks!! This was really informative ♥

[@susanbuckminster282]

Thank you!

[@joannaholden943]

REALLY helpful! Thanks for sharing

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

I honestly try to keep it early but my inciting incident in my current WIP happens really late, about 25K words into the book. There's 7 main characters so there was a lot to establish before the entire world changed for them. What do you think? Too late? There is still a bunch of interesting things happening so its not like boring stuff but I still feel like it should come slightly before.

[@kaceynm]

I think that if you have multiple main characters who all have the same inciting incident, then it makes sense that yours would be later.

[@carolinelabbott2451]

Sounds okey to me. If where your inciting incident is placed makes sense in your WIP, then that is where it goes. Plus edits will trim a lot of words, so it does not sound like a problem to me. The best answer you will get will be from your beta readers, if they feel it works, then it works.

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

Thanks, guys! They all basically have the same inciting incident because of something that happens to one character who then drags everyone else in with him. So, yeah, it took some time to get the events set up. And it needs to be pretty tightly wound to, since it's a whodunit murder mystery. So I'm just worried the inciting incident might be a little too late. While I'm not sure editing would help trim the word count, to be honest. My scenes are pretty barebones already. I'm skimpy with descriptions for draft 1 so it's only going to be even later. But thanks for the help! I appreciate it! I'm going to go work on my wip now haha. Thanks.

[@ShaelinWrites]

It's pretty late, but there are things you could do to combat this! Make sure everything that comes before is really interesting, and that there is already a feeling of change in the characters lives. Give the characters existing goals to work towards so your story has direction, and conflict so there's purpose and tension. This way even if your inciting incident is very late, it will still feel like there is a story and a purpose for the reader to keep reading.

[@James.Stark.Ben.Edition]

@@ShaelinWrites thanks! My characters all have a beginning goal to work towards before the actual incident happens so I'm 80% sure it's pretty interesting. Everyone who's read it so far has been pretty positive so that's good, I think. There's a ton of conflict and two fight scenes between two of the main characters in chapter 1 and 2 so that is kinda the main thing everyone focuses on until the inciting incident happens. Hopefully it's enough to keep everyone's attention. Thanks for the advice!!

[@domily1264]

Ok, so I know no one is probably going to see this as this is quite an old video but I need some advice from anyone. In a book the enticing incident is supposed to be said outright on the page, it can't be in the past but can there be an exception? Basically, in the story that I am planning, the incident is that the protagonist, a small girl, is taken from her home, had her whole memory wiped and she's now in a school. The book starts with the moment she first opens her eyes after her whole past has been erased from her mind. I feel that because she doesn't even know what her normal life was, there doesn't really need to be an incident on page. What do you guys think?

[@syrup8041]

I know I'm one year too late with this but here's my personal advice in case you or someone on this world ever needs it: First of all, great story idea! That will make for a killer first page. But still, you need an inciting incident even to that genius idea. Now think about what the story is about. The MC's memories are gone. Great, what then? Maybe that first twist in the story is that the MC can suddenly remember something vital. Or someone claims they know her while others are warning her about that stranger. It could be anything! As long as it starts this adventure, this STORY that you're writing about. I don't know the plot you already had in mind, so I wouldn't know what fits your taste. My point is: there is something that should happen (an inciting incident) which triggers a figurative snowball to start rolling down a mountain. And that snowball will become thicker the more it rolls and sweeps snow off the mountain as it passes-THAT is your plot developing layers. But without something triggering that ball, there is no story. So you see, ou've got a good premise, that's for sure. What now though? A girl lost her memory, sure. But ask yourself what is going to happen to your MC AFTER that. Her memory being gone isn't where her life ends (since clearly that's what forms this character in the past before the story ever begins). In fact, I see the memory loss as a goal. The MC will want to do something about it after she wakes up. Now something in her new adventure (not knowing her life) is going to trigger her to do that, to start acting. Your inciting incident may be a smaller thing than you would think, I'd say. A talk between her and another character maybe. Or simply the MC looking out into the world and setting up her mind to find out about something that she saw, or that little hazy thing that she CAN remember. That would be an inciting incident (at least in my opinion). Hope this helped anyone on earth!

[@PeppermintCereal]

Talk of inciting incidents reminded me of how Paul Jennings will often mix up his inciting incidents. In Without A Shirt it happens before the beginning and Weasel has to deal with saying "without a shirt" every time he finishes a sentence. In Little Squirt (going off Round the Twist because I don't remember how the book ended at all) Bronson decides to join a "competition" with the teens and ends up last. This is not the incident. The incident is Mr Gribble dumping rocks into the creek to build a dam. Meanwhile Bronson is downstream and kinda throwing rocks into the water. There's a water spirit. She sees the rocks getting dumped and doesn't see Gribble, but instead gets confused when she sees Bronson and blames him. She harasses him for half the episode until he and his older siblings can convince her that it's Gribble's fault and to convince him to clear out his rocks. In the end, the water spirit helps Bronson win that competition

[@melodid5023]

Great video as usual shaelin.. but my question here is not if I have to have an inciding incident... my question is if I can have two? XD like.. not "if" I can have two - because I already have done it - but am I the only one and is it to weird?

[@InfidelProductionz]

I got to simplify my inciting incident, and place it earlier in my novel

[@tayo_95]

I would generally put the Inciting Incident somewhere around 12.5% and put the 1st Turning Point (when the Protagonist chooses to enter the Story World/Adventure) at around 25%. I don't know why Snyder places the "Catalyst" at 25% because that's too late even in the structure of a film.

[@bibleqawithwilmer5707]

What do you mean by, and how do you define “voice”?

[@pauline_f328]

I like calling ti the catalyst because it's just shorter to write lmao

[@t.k.mcneil1186]

Literary fiction doesn’t always need an inciting incident either. It is more about the experience which how writers like Bret Easton Ellis got away with it for so long. Plot-driven “genre” stories do absolutely need an inciting incident though.

[@chalkish4855]

What is the 'beat' you were talking about?

[@Ignasimp]

Can a story have more than one insiting incident? For example, one inciting incident creats change in all the plota in the story, but an otger one only affects one of them. So that specific plot has two inciting incidents, the general, and the particular.

[@Ignasimp]

Ok, I just finished the video and you just answered that question XD

[@kfnd4761]

Can you do a video on writing romantic tension/ couples that dont seem "forced?" Or if there already is one can you point me in that direction?

[@ShaelinWrites]

I don't have one yet, but I'll add it to my list!

[@Eduarodi]

So, would it be a bad idea to start a novel with your protagonist reacting to the inciting incident and to reveal it only in the second chapter through dialogue? I thought it might stir my readers' curiosity to wonder why my protagonist was reacting in that particular way.

[@ScullyPop]

I write thrillers that pose serious questions. I can write script as well--three screenplays under my belt. I will say I love the KZbin platform. I feel like I struck a vein of gold with my content. Scully

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

My Main Character is the one who usually disruptive and make them leave their normal lives to follow him in the adventure,now I don't know where is the inciting incident in my story :\

[@sgtkeyes01]

I put the inciting incident, where the main character finds an alien and it enters his body, about 5 chapters in. Is that bad? I thought about setting up the characters and the places before the event and now I'm questioning myself haha

[@sasmitdatta7139]

Before my inciting incident, an investigation takes place for mysterious murders where a dangerous gas is injected five times in their neck region which causes “melting” of organs .

[@remyatempest6700]

My inciting incident starts at 14,000 words 12% of my 118,000 word novel. However that inciting incident is actually my sub plot incident, written as the main incident, the actual inciting incident happens at 25% point of my novel. It happens at the end of my 1st act. Is this okay?

[@Ignasimp]

I'm not sure I understand. The set up and payoff of an inciting incident. Imagine there's the news of something happenning worldwide that causes a lot of change, but the specific alterations cause by the incident don't appear as much later. For example in A song of ice an fire it is clear that winter is coming and thing creates change, but the winter doesn't come until several books later. Does this have anuthing to do with what was being said in the video? Imagine an other example. We know a pandemic starts, and as we have already lived a pandemic we start preparing for it, so there are big changes. But the actual pandemic may not arrive until much later. Would that still count as an inciting incident?

[@ShaelinWrites]

I'd argue the inciting incident in ASOIAF isn't the fact that winter is coming, it's Ned Stark being appointed the hand of the king. That's what causes immediate action/change/repercussion, whereas winter is more in the background. Maybe by using that example, that helps? The examples you're using are like forecasts, but inciting incidents are events that start the story, not just large things looming in the background.

[@Ignasimp]

@@ShaelinWrites yes I also though about that. In fact I'd say there are different inciting incidents in each plots in the book. Daeneris' inciting incident would be a different one. Her being sold to Karl Drogo could be an inciting incident I suppose.

[@aokayt9517]

My inciting incident is... *sigh* in the past. I know, I know, I've screwed up.

[@BlockDriver]

Omg I wish I could remember the name of this book, but it was a YA dystopian/ urban fantasy that I read in high school. The MC was on a quest to bring down some gang boss, but it isn't until halfway through the book that we learn the reason: he kidnapped her brother and is rumored to still have him. The kidnapping of her brother, told in a flashback, was technically the insighting incident, the thing that set the MC out on her journey. So flashback insighting incidents can work depending on the book. Btw if I remember correctly he had brainwashed her brother but she saved him.

[@justluc8556]

I don’t know if this helps, but have you seen Shaelin’s video on flashbacks? Basically, if your inciting incident is in the past, or your climax is in the past (not in the fictive present), then you should reconsider what story you actually want to tell. If your character is in the hospital though, and thinking about the accident that happened a few days ago as the inciting incident, then I’d personally recommend restructuring that and moving the accident scene to the first scene and doing it all chronologically. But what do I know 😂

[@aokayt9517]

@@justluc8556 it is the first scene of my book, but it happens in the past. Most of the book after is in the present except for a couple of flashback scenes. I essentially figured out that I have two different story lines, but the one in the past isn't 1) long (it ends about the middle of the book) 2) overbearing 3) controlling the story.

[@xtonibx5770]

My character has PTSD but hasn't been showing symptoms until 6 years after the traumatic event so he refuses to accept that he's traumatized at all. I'm debating on whether I should make his first PTSD dream the inciting incident. This has been bothering me because not having a catalyst is really getting in the way of plotting 😭

[@coffee8404]

IM EARLY

[@kharagillock8467]

I think chapter 3 is a decent place for the inciting incident

[@uncleanunicorn4571]

starship captain gets assassinated on page one by a traitor.

[@mikeyork9886]

I just got save the cat! Don’t ruin it. Lol

[@memereview9803]

i must comment as it will be the 69th comment. great video :)

[@MarkWrightPsuedo]

Robert McKee's book is entitled, "Story, Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting." The unconscious desire must be in opposition to the conscious desire. Otherwise, why bother to have an unconscious desire in the first place? It's also an option depending on the complexity of the story. Not every main character is going to have an unconscious desire--James Bond is a good example. But I think you are missing a very important concept of the inciting incident. It establishes what is called the spine or throughline of the story itself. It sets up the dramatic question. Will Brody kill the shark? Will Luke become a Jedi? Will Jones find the Ark of the Covenant? The subplots will be related to the spine, everything is connected in some way to the throughline. Other than that omission, good job.

[@romestado]

Say "inciting incidents" again. XD

[@Dark_Mishra]

I definitely disagree with the 25% rule too. Within the first fifty to hundred pages seems fair because by then the book should be either be at least on the lead up or starting the inciting incident. If an author has a thousand page book, I don’t want the first 250 pages wasting time on all the mundane stuff. I think a novel can still work post-inciting incident, but shouldn’t rely fully on flashbacks because too much time jumping can get confusing too easily.