{"id":1909,"date":"2019-02-23T10:37:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T15:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2020-02-16T16:52:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T21:52:33","slug":"3-reasons-why-you-should-never-skip-the-inciting-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/3-reasons-why-you-should-never-skip-the-inciting-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons Why You Should Never Skip The Inciting Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[This blog was originally published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nightowlreviews.com\/v5\/Blog\/Articles\/3-Reasons-Why-You-Should-Never-Skip-The-Inciting-Incident-by-Shana-Figueroa\">Night Owl Reviews<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"791\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Tortured-writer-worried-about-fave-color-1024x791.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1896\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Tortured-writer-worried-about-fave-color-1024x791.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Tortured-writer-worried-about-fave-color-300x232.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Tortured-writer-worried-about-fave-color-768x593.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Tortured-writer-worried-about-fave-color.jpg 1028w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><figcaption>&#8220;Hmmm&#8230;I need to start my story off with a bang because I&#8217;m told your average reader is a narcoleptic millennial with ADD&#8230;I&#8217;m just gonna start it in the middle I guess&#8230;Dammit, why is writing so hard??&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe I\u2019ve been cursed by the book gods and need to\nsacrifice another virgin at the secret blood altar they keep in my local\nlibrary\u2019s basement (all the best libraries have one), but I\u2019ve had crap luck\nwith books lately. I\u2019ve DNF\u2019d the last four out of five books I\u2019ve read,\nprimarily for story mechanics issues. They\u2019ve either dragged or didn\u2019t\nestablish a solid foundation before jumping into the action, or just weren\u2019t\nvery compelling stories. I\u2019m a slow-as-shit reader, so slogging through a book\nI\u2019m not that into can take weeks to reach the payoff of a \u201cmeh\u201d experience. If\na book doesn\u2019t hook me within the first ~30%, I peace out and move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Now I\u2019ve noticed an unfortunate trend lately for books to skip the inciting incident of their stories. The inciting incident, you may recall from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nightowlreviews.com\/v5\/Blog\/Articles\/Baking-Literary-Bread-Part-1-by-Shana-Figueroa\">my previous article on the basic ingredients of every story<\/a>, is the event toward the beginning of the story that upends the status quo and forces the protagonist to act. If you\u2019re a writer and you\u2019re reading this article, you\u2019ve probably had it drilled into your head that readers are fickle creatures with undiagnosed ADD who will drop your book like a flaming turd and spill some virgin blood if they\u2019re not totally engrossed by the VERY FIRST SENTENCE. As a result, it may be tempting to skip over this event and go straight to the \u201cgood stuff,\u201d where the protagonist is reeling and everything is up in the air and exciting&#8230;or do one of those &#8220;You&#8217;re probably wondering how I got to this point&#8230;&#8221; tired gimmicks followed by a flashback, which&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"366\" class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/qmfpjpAT2fJRK\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/iron-man-eye-roll-disgust-qmfpjpAT2fJRK\">via GIPHY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t do it! Danger, Will Robinson, danger! Skipping the inciting incident will just make things worse, and here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>You\u2019ll fail to build the foundation of your story\u2014world, characters, and stakes.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Every single story since the beginning of\ntime starts with a series of four questions, in this order: <strong>\u201cWho are these people?\u201d \u201cWhere are these\npeople?\u201d \u201cWhy should I care about these people?\u201d \u201cWhat is happening to these\npeople?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The\ninciting incident happens between the third and fourth question.<\/strong> You have a\nbunch of (hopefully interesting) people hanging around, minding their own\nbusiness, and on the precipice of change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world is balanced but unstable, like\nthe intro to a great song\u2014\u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d for instance\u2014composed of notes of\nanticipation and melancholy, setting the stage and pulling us in so we\u2019re primed\nand desperate to know what\u2019ll happen next (<em>\u201cIs\nthis the real life? Is this just fantasy?\u201d\u2026). <\/em>The inciting incident is when\nthe beat drops (<em>\u201cMama, just killed a\nman\u201d\u2026)<\/em>. Imagine if the song started with <em>\u201cMama, just killed a man\u201d<\/em>\u2026 You: \u201cWhat? When? Why? I thought this\nwas about a fat bottom girl\u2026\u201d Your readers will spend a good portion of the\nfirst act too confused about what happened in the past to pay attention to\nwhat\u2019s happening in the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"921\" height=\"619\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Bohemian-Rhapsody.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1910\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Bohemian-Rhapsody.png 921w, http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Bohemian-Rhapsody-300x202.png 300w, http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Bohemian-Rhapsody-768x516.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><figcaption>&#8220;No, this is not the fat bottom girl song. Look at us &#8211; is this the pose someone strikes when they&#8217;re about to launch into a fun song about loving your body no matter what junk you&#8217;ve got in your trunk?&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>You\u2019ll need exposition dumps to explain\nwhat the hell is going on.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you think it\u2019s okay to skip to the good\nstuff because you can just go back and explain the backstory later, <strong>you are WRONG. So, so wrong.<\/strong> This isn\u2019t\nto say you need to explain EVERYTHING in the beginning via big exposition\ndumps, but you must do the minimum to answer the first three questions. If you\ndon\u2019t, then your attempt to skip to the good stuff will actually backfire, and\nyou\u2019ll end up constantly having to stop the action you took such pains to skip\nto in order to explain the who, what, where, and why we should care in awkward\ninfo dumps. This is where you\u2019ll lose your readers. Look no further than 2016\u2019s\n<em>Suicide Squad <\/em>movie for an example of\na botched beginning. That movie has many, MANY flaws, but one of the biggest\nwas its constant pausing of the plot to explain the circumstances and\ncharacters because it didn\u2019t bother doing it up front (at least not in the\ntheatrical cut). The result was that we were STILL getting this introductory\ninfo nearly halfway through the movie, which is ridiculously bad storytelling. Don\u2019t\ndo that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>You\u2019ll fail to make the reader care.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, all of this comes down to making the reader care about the story. If they don\u2019t care, they\u2019re not going to keep reading\u2026unless they\u2019re one of those completist types who must finish everything they start because their mom threatened to drown their goldfish if they didn\u2019t eat all their vegetables or whatever. I\u2019m not one of those people\u2014the completist or the mean mom\u2014but I know they exist, and I feel sad for them. Every second of your reader\u2019s life that ticks by is a second they\u2019ll never get back, so don\u2019t waste it \u201cskipping to the good stuff\u201d only to be forced to backtrack, delaying the answer to the critical \u201cWhy should I care?\u201d question. The Grim Reaper waits for no one, no matter how many virgins you sacrifice (I know this from experience). So make your reader care by the inciting incident, or your book will be the latest on their DNF pile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[This blog was originally published in Night Owl Reviews] Maybe I\u2019ve been cursed by the book gods and need to sacrifice another virgin at the secret blood altar they keep in my local library\u2019s basement (all the best libraries have one), but I\u2019ve had crap luck with books lately. I\u2019ve DNF\u2019d the last four out &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/3-reasons-why-you-should-never-skip-the-inciting-incident\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;3 Reasons Why You Should Never Skip The Inciting Incident&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[494,497],"tags":[430,427,429,386,428,431,433],"class_list":["post-1909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-plot","tag-bohemian-rhapsody","tag-dnf","tag-fat-bottom-girl","tag-inciting-incident","tag-queen","tag-readers-with-add","tag-three-foundational-questions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-uN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}