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 of his mother’s house, he realizes that his father has returned from years on the run. Or, why when our hero wakes up after being beaten up and left in an alley, he knows he wasn’t just mugged. Yes, we as the reader need to know why it matters, but light touches are the key when inserting back story.

I’m going to give you an example in just a moment from one of my books, but let’s talk about resonance for a moment.

Resonance, of course, is meaning. We want to know how this event fits into the story question, as well as the past. We also want to understand what the next step is for the character. However, we need to keep it free from melodrama. The reader wants to see the event, yet, they don’t’ know the character well enough for heavy interpretation.

So, how do we balance Delicacy and Resonance in our I.I? Answer: By keeping the backstory from stalling the action — and keeping the action at the forefront.

Here’s a scene from my book Escape to Morning. It’s a romantic suspense, so I wanted to start it right in the action, but hopefully it gives you enough information to know that Will isn’t who he seems. We don’t need to know all of Will’s past – just that he’s trying to save his friend’s life, that he was momentarily thrown by news from his past, and perhaps also that there’s more at stake than just a reporter getting beat up in the woods.

****

Reporter Will Masterson didn’t have time to be right. Time to prove that the men who’d hijacked him and hauled him into the forest to express their displeasure at his recent op-ed piece weren’t actually disgruntled rednecks, but rather international terrorists. Because, the lie that had just saved Will Masterson’s hide, the lie perpetuated by the boys toting 0.22s and wearing work boots was the only thing standing between undercover Homeland Security agent Simon Rouss and his brutal murder.

Which would only be the first in a hundred, maybe thousand murders by the terrorist cell hiding in the northern Minnesota woods.

Please, God, be on my side today. Will raced down the two-lane rutted forest service road, cursing his stupidity, wincing at a few new souvenir bruises. Blood dribbled from his nose, into his mouth. He should have known his sympathetic commentaries in the Moose Bend Journal toward the recent immigrants flooding over the Canadian border would have drawn blood with the locals. Blood that would hopefully protect Simon as he embedded deeper in the terrorist cell in the hills.
If only Will hadn’t been ambushed by the double-edged sword sitting in his P.O. Box. A letter from Bonnie. He’d opened it, and the words knifed him through the chest.

Bonnie Strong and Paul Moore invite you to a celebration of life and love in our Lord Jesus Christ.
He should have dropped the invitation to his floorboard and crushed it under his foot. Instead, he’d let his grief, his failures rush over him, and blind him to the three hillbillies laying in wait like a nest of South Dakotan rattlers.

A year of undercover work, of slinking around this hick town in northern Minnesota, praying for a way to destroy the Hayat cell, and it all had to come to a head the same day his mistakes rose from the past to haunt him.

Sorry Lew.
Tell Bonnie and the girls I love them. Lew’s words, hovering in the back of Will’s mind could still turn his throat raw. And, if Simon bought it, Will would be sending yet another letter home to the wife and loved ones.

Soldiers like Lew and Simon, like himself, had no business getting married.

Will’s breath razored inside his lungs. A branch clipped him and ruts bit into his thin loafers as he ran, sweat lining his spine. Overhead, the sky mirrored his despair in the pallor of gray, the clouds heavy with tears. How long had he been unconscious after they’d thrown him off the four-wheeler?

Better question – how much did they guess about his alliance with Simon? Obviously, the good ol’ boys who snatched him as he’d sat in his truck, waiting for his contact and regretting his choices, knew Will’s habits. Simon’s habits. They’d found them, despite the fact that he and Simon had picked the backwoods gravel pit for its remoteness. But please, please, let them believe Will’s lies…which would mean maybe Simon’s cover hadn’t been blown.

Maybe there wouldn’t be another unnamed star embedded in the wall of honor at Langley.

******

Hopefully you see the story world, along with the emotion of panic, as well as regret in the backstory. From here, the story takes off into action, and we don’t return to Lew’s story (and how it fits into Will’s motivation) until a few more chapters. However, we do know that Lew was a soldier, and that Will had to send his letter home, which makes Will sympathetic, as well as motivated to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And, hopefully it has raised questions (ie, who is Lew, and what does the invitation from Bonnie have to do with the story, and what is Will’s mission?) In the middle of the inciting incident, the last thing we want in a long, drawn out history lesson. However, without some resonance, we don’t understand the motivation.

Think of backstory like this…it’s a speed bump. It hiccoughs the reader’s forward motion. As you’re writing your scene, ask yourself, on every line…have I bogged down the action? Here’s a trick I try – after I’ve written the scene, I go through and ask myself does the reader need to know this? Can I take this line out? Can I say this more succinctly, with active verbs, in deeper pov that moves the story? And if I have backstory, I try to keep it to two lines at a time.

Delicacy and Resonance, two keys to an action packed Inciting Incident.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about choosing the I.I. – where to start in the story. And then on Friday, we’ll talk about options — not all of us write high-impact romantic suspense, so we’ll take apart a slower scene, and see what kind of elements we can find that help us create the I.I, regardless of our genre.

If you are willing to help your fellow voices and want to share your I.I. with the MBT readers, send me the first page (no more than 200 words) to booktherapy@susanmaywarren.com. My MBT team will pick their favorite and post in on Friday (and the winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift card!) So – send me your scenes!