Free How to Write a Brilliant Novel: The Easy Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Story (Go! Write Something Brilliant) by Susan May Warren Page A

have an impact on the reader? How understandable will your Inciting Incident be without background?
    I recently saw the intriguing movie , Jumper . Because of the bizarre phenomenon that happens to the main character (his ability to jump through space), the viewer is given background to the story before he actually jumps, so we understand exactly what his skill is. Also, sympathy for the character is built before the actual Inciting Incident occurs so we understand why, when he jumps, he behaves so badly. These two elements—backstory and sympathy—are essential to our understanding of the hero.
    Even longer is the wait for the Inciting Incident in Jodie Foster’s vigilante movie, The Brave One . We need to care about her and her fiancé before the Inciting Incident has its intended impact, and result (to cause a normal person to become a vigilante).
    However, the Inciting Incident in Fools Gold takes place immediately: the main character’s boat sinks while he’s searching for treasure. We don’t have to know his character to feel sympathy for a guy whose boat sinks.
    How believable and universal your Inciting Incident is determines how much character sympathy you need to build before it impacts your reader.
    Action – Generally, the higher the action, the closer it should be to the beginning of the book. If you have high action, but it takes a while for the story to build to it, then you are wasting precious pages. In my book In Sheep’s Clothing , the actual Inciting Incident didn’t start until chapter two! Yes, I know! So I solved that by clipping out that scene and putting it into the prologue, and then starting the story twenty-four hours earlier in chapter one.
    Then, when I got to chapter two and that scene, I told it from a different point of view, thus making it just as interesting. If, however, you have a slower, less active Inciting Incident, you may have to build in the impact (by focusing on characterization) of the Inciting Incident in order for it have resonance.
    Need – All stories are, to some extent, about a character’s emotional journey. The character starts out with a need. What can you build into that Inciting Incident that reveals that need? For example, in my Inciting Incident for Taming Rafe , I develop his need to impress his family, and thus, the reason why he rides the bull even when he feels something is wrong. In Get Cozy, Josey (my third first-person funny book about Russian missionary Josey and her adventures), Josey’s need is for a house
    with a backyard for her children. To meet her need, she agrees to go camping with her husband so he’ll move back to America. Discovering your hero’s need will help you determine what kind of Inciting Incident to put into the story.
    Genre – Certain genres demand different Inciting Incidents. First, keep in mind that every hero’s journey starts in Life/Normal World. It starts with a glimpse of what his normal life is like, what his normal activities are, what his normal motivations and goals are. However, where you work that normalcy in differs by genre. For example, fantasy requires just a bit more setting (or storyworld, which we’ll get to soon, I promise!) set up, a little more normal life for a character. A suspense, however, often starts with some high-action example of what is at stake, and then flows into normal. A romance might start at a point where the heroine meets the hero, and then spiral back to her normal day, or might even have a mix of normalcy inside the Inciting Incident, so that we don’t even realize that it’s the blip (or bloke) that will change her world. Look at other books in your chosen genre—where does the Inciting Incident occur? Page one? Three? Five? Ten? This is a good guide to how you might structure your book.
    Every Inciting Incident will be specific to your book and your character, but determining how and when to put it in the book takes careful consideration of your BANG.
    Time to brainstorm