What do all I.I. have in common? I wanted to touch briefly on the elements of an Inciting Incident today before I post the winning I.I. (and I’m telling you, it was hard to choose, thanks to the gallery of great writers in Voices!)

By the way, next week, we’re going to take a breath and recap everything we’ve been talking about over the past two months, and show you how it all fits into the structure of the Hero’s Journey. So, if you’re feeling lost, or overwhelmed, I promise by the end of next week, you’ll have a framework in which to put all your gathered information and know where it will take you next on the Journey.

But, today – Inciting Incident! We talked this week about WHEN and HOW to use that I.I. (BANG!), and also the balance of delicacy (of the backstory) and resonance (of the event).

Today, just briefly, (because we’re going to hit on a lot of these items when we talk about our HOOK in the upcoming weeks) I want to go through the elements of the inciting incident. And, because it’s Saturday, and I can’t think of a great fun acronym, I’m just going to list them.

Sympathy
Stakes
Motivation
Desires
Fears
Action words

Let’s take a closer look:
1. Sympathy – ask yourself, what situation can I put my hero in that would make my audience feel for him? What collective experience or feeling can I touch on that makes him instantly identifiable and sympathetic to the reader? In my current WIP, a mystery featuring an amateur PI, my heroine’s inciting incident is returning to her hometown, and ending up fulfilling the prophecy of everyone who wants to see her fail. We’ve all felt eyes condemning us, perhaps, and I open with PJ right in that situation.

2. Stakes – We’ve talked about stakes for your story – but now, how can you hint about it in your first scene. In the scene I posted on Wednesday, the stakes were all about saving Will’s friend (and undercover agent) from being killed, and even saving America from terrorists. You don’t have to explain everything…a simple one sentence hint of what is at stake is all you need. But it should be something the reader will care about.

3. Motivation or Values – we need to know what about this situation the hero motivates him to move to the next step in the journey. Returning to Will’s scene (and you might have to go back to Wednesday’s post), his motivation is the death of his friend, Lew. We could also substitute a hint of his values for Motivation, because it is Values that drive our actions.

4. Desires – what does our hero care about, long for, dream of that is at stake? Sometimes, in an I.I., I offer a hint of his dreams, only to them yank them away. But I want him to know (and the reader to know) what he has to live for. Often, I work it in the last part of the inciting incident, and often it’s ever so subtle, but enough to know what the hero cares about. In Taming Rafe’s inciting incident, we see Rafe inviting his pal Manuel’s family to the big bull riding event, and we see that he is ever so longing of Manuel’s life – a wife, and family, admiration in his son’s eyes.

5. Fears – what is your hero deeply afraid of? Again, this is subtle, but it helps us to know him. For example, in Will’s case, he’s afraid that he won’t be able to save his fellow agent. In PJ’s case (my mystery heroine) it’s that she’ll forever be the failure/laughingstock of her town. One of the best inciting incidents I’ve ever seen is in a Bruce Willis movie called The Hostage. (It’s pretty violent, so don’t run out and get it, so I’ll tell you the I.I. here). Bruce is a hostage negotiator, and in the beginning of the movie, he is negotiating for the release of a little boy. He fails in his negotiation, and the little boy is killed. It destroys Bruce, and he drops out of negotiation work. The thing is, that is his greatest fear, and we get a cemented picture of that, and it’s used to great advantage when his own family is taken hostage. Hint at their greatest fears, and it will not only deepen your character, but give you something to work with in the plot.

6. Action words – the inciting incident has to be more than an event. You are trying to entice your reader to stick with the story. So you must “woo them with your words.” Use vivid descriptions (we talked about that when discussing storyworld), and active, strong verbs. Pick the right ones to convey mood, and give the scene texture. You want the words to reach out and pull your reader in, and not let go.

Now, before you say, “WHAT? I can’t possibly put all that into an inciting incident!” I want to say, Yes, you can! In fact, you probably have already done this, without realizing it. Here’s an idea – take a highlighter (every author should be armed with an arsenal of different colors!) and go through your inciting incident, and highlight the 6 different elements of an I.I. You’ll be surprised what is there. And if it’s not, you’ll know what to add!

Check back later today, and I’ll be applying the Highlighter method to the winning I.I.!