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Let’s see, over the past hour I’ve loaded the dishwasher, checked my email, fed the dog, checked my email, browned hamburger, checked my email, made rice, searched for chocolate (none!), again checked email…. But see, I’m working. Really. What I’m doing is searching for my hero’s inciting incident. I know what has to happen later on in the scene, what I hope to accomplish, but I need something powerful, something to really pinpoint how he’s feeling at this very moment, to give the reader a glimpse into his story world, and offer enough of a motivation to under gird his next step. What I need is…a BANG! How do you determine how and when to start your story world? Do you start it on a calm day, set the scene, […]

I love the magic of a good inciting incident. That moment when everything goes haywire – or at least hints at going haywire – in our hero’s journey. Sometimes it’s an earthquake of epic proportions, other times, it’s just a 2.5 on the Richter scale, but regardless of the strength of the event the balance of the II delivery demands an exquisite balance of delicacy and resonance. What do I mean? Delicacy in the incitation incident doesn’t mean a light touch…it means treading lightly through backstory, digging up only that which is most pertinent. It’s so easy for an author to want to load in all the significant life events of the hero that have led up to this moment. Why, when he sees the red car parked in front […]

Yesterday Suz talked about those moments or incidents in our lives that provoke us to change. They can be small or large events, but something in them jump starts our hearts to do something different. Susie wrote: Inciting Incidents don’t have to derail us. And whatever path we then take, we can know, despite our feelings, God is always with us, and will greet us when we get to our destination. Today, let’s talk about the inciting incidents of our stories. First, what is the inciting incident? One thing I’ve learned from studying the writing craft is the language used to describe story telling doesn’t always compute with our various brains. The inciting incident is the event, moment of truth, issue, problem, quandary, whatever, that sends your hero (or heroine) […]