 Drama: May 20, 2009 Issue [#3025] |
  Drama
This week: Edited by: Joy  
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It is impossible to discourage the real writers. They don't give a damn what you say; they're going to write.
Sinclair Lewis
If you start with a bang, you won't end with a whimper.
T. S. Eliot
I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.
Stephen King
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. In this issue, our subject is the inciting incident.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
The inciting incident in a story is the first and the most important event that starts the conflict. Day-to-day lives of characters are not necessarily exciting until the inciting event takes place. In literary fiction, this is the first event that throws the daily life of the main character out of whack. In the murder/mystery genre, it is the murder itself or the discovery of it. In the romance genre, it is when the lovers first meet.
Most stories start with the inciting incident to grab the reader’s attention immediately. In stories told in flashback, the inciting incident is inside the main conflict after the introductory section. Rebecca by Daphe du Maurier, told in flashback, starts with "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." Yet, the inciting incident happens when the main character meets Maxim de Winters and marries him in a matter of days.
The inciting incident is sometimes called the change because it signals a change for the main character, to turn his normal world upside down, to cause him trouble, or to offer him a challenge to overcome. On the average, this event has nothing to do with the will of the protagonist or his backstory. Also, a reader does not need an explanation for why things are happening during the inciting incident. If this event grabs the attention and is self-explanatory to a degree, the reader will follow along. The explanation, if any, will have to come later.
In a screenplay, according to the screen-writing teachers, the inciting incident results in plot point 1, which is the biggest thing in Act I, since the inciting event is the starter of the movie’s or the screenplay’s story arc. In the movie, North by Northwest, Cary Grant in the role of a gentle advertising executive waves to someone he thinks is his mother. At that same time, the bellboy calls the name of a fictitious spy, concocted by CIA. The rival band of spies think Gary Grant is the fictitious character, and the entire adventure takes off from this point. The inciting incident here is Cary Grant’s wave. Plot point one is the rival group’s reaction to it.
If you are writing a short story, you can open with the inciting event, with success. If you start the story after the inciting event, you’ll need to retrace your steps and explain everything sooner or later, even if you want to add an aura of mystery by delaying that explanation.
If you are writing a novel, you can take your time with the inciting incident. Still, you’ll need to put it close enough to the opening, preferably in chapter one.
Some possible inciting events can be:
• An arrival – a person, a baby, a package, a vehicle
• A different day- a wedding, a funeral, a storm
• Trouble
• Fight
• War scene
• The beginning of an action after the decision for that action for example, remodeling a house, first day in school, entering a hospital etc.
For your inciting event to provide enough hook:
1. Write your inciting event with enough action in it.
2. The action should relate strongly to the central conflict and should throw your protagonist’s life out of balance usually against his will or his liking, or with his consent but through unexpected circumstances.
3. Make the inciting event point toward the central problem by asking yourself the question, "How will the hero solve the main problem and how far is he willing to go?"
4. Even when you introduce the conflict through dialogue, insert the inciting event inside the dialogue.
5. Do not make the inciting event a reaction to something in the main character’s backstory, because this can dim the action; however, you may attempt it after you have gained considerable experience in creating fiction.
With a powerful inciting incident, your character will lead the plot directly into the conflict, and you’ll end up with a dynamic story.
Until next time…
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Enjoy!
Stories
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|  | The Birthing Place (E)
It isn't the journey but what we are docked to.
2nd Place: March's Short Shots Contest.
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A Contest
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying us with your feedback. Please, keep on telling us how we are doing and what else you would like to see in the newsletters.
Also, if you submit your dramatic items to this newsletter, we'll showcase them under Items Submitted as soon as possible. 
Now, let's take a look at a tip.
This Issue’s Tip:
 The backstory should be included only when the events in the story cannot be explained without it.
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francie
Thanks for the insight and the warnings of crossing the fiction to non-fiction line.
I appreciate the links provided and the links for younger members, how thoughtful.
A very funny and true story about my younger brother comes to mind as I read this. In college, he wrote a column for the university newspaper.
One week, he proposed the most absolutely impossible fabrication of a science theory. Students descended upon him in indignation, thinking my brother was serious.
Rather than come clean, he spent weeks arguing the plausibility of his outlandish claims with fellow classmates. I think that was the same year he solved the "summer project" that had been hanging around, unsolved, for seven years running.
Guess what? He's a published author, of no surprise to the family.
I read some of these stories and I like your selections. Sorry I babbled.
Glad you told your brother's story, Francie. It doesn't surprise me that he's a published author now, Most successful writers are at first thought as over-extenders of the truth or superfluous people.  They may well be, but it is only because they are not afraid of taking chances.
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Leger~ 
Hi Joy! Thanks for featuring my story this week, much appreciated. I liked the references in the newsletter too!
Thank you, too, Leger. I love your work, needless to say.
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