Hey, friends, here’s the worksheet I promised you. I hope you find it helpful.
Your Inciting Incident Worksheet
Print this out. Fill it in. Use it on every project.
SECTION A: CHARACTER GROUNDWORK
My protagonist’s name:
Their ordinary world (daily routine, comfort zone):
Their deepest wound (what happened in their past):
Their greatest fear:
Their strongest desire:
Their weakest point:
SECTION B: THE DISRUPTION
What event would make it impossible for my character to keep living this way?
How does this event target my character’s wound, fear, or desire?
Describe the event as it happens on the page (external, concrete, specific):
When does this event occur in my manuscript? (chapter/page):
SECTION C: THE THREAD FORWARD
What central story question does this inciting incident create?
How does my climax answer that question?
SECTION D: DIAGNOSTIC CHECKLIST
Check each box. If any answer is no, revisit the step indicated.
- Is it an event? (Something concrete happens on the page.) → Step 3
- Does it disrupt the ordinary world? (The “before” is clearly broken.) → Step 1
- Does it launch the main story? (Remove it and the story doesn’t exist.) → Step 4
- Is it irreversible? (The character cannot go back to normal.) → Step 2
- Does it catalyze transformation? (It targets wound, fear, or desire.) → Steps 1 & 2
- Does it happen early enough? (Readers still have momentum.) → Step 3
- Does the central story question connect to the climax? → Step 5
- Is it the inciting incident and not just the hook? → Part 3, Mistake #1
And that’s it. You now have everything you need to craft an inciting incident that can carry a novel.
You’ve done the hard work of learning the craft behind this moment.
Next month I’ll start talking about another topic. I’m still noodling on that. Do you have any suggestions for what it should be? I’d love to hear what you want to me to share.
But for now …
… Go write your earthquake.
Fabulous worksheet! Thanks!
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Thanks, Lynette, this is gold! This series helped me spot and fix the weaknesses in my inciting incident.
If you want suggestions for another topic, I’d personally love to hear about pacing, both within a scene, and transitioning between scenes. Writers hear so much about showing, not telling, that I’m realizing I’ve developed an unhealthy fear of narrative exposition of any sort. This has led to stretches of my draft where I feel claustrophobic reading my character’s every minute move, but still don’t have access to her thoughts. I’d love to hear about how to write exposition, maybe through an interior monologue, that allows us to feel what the character feels emotionally without info- dumping or spoon-feeding the reader.
The second part of my struggle is with pacing on a broader scale. I know enough not to have my character wake up with her alarm and go to bed every night, but how can I smoothly skip over longer stretches of time? My novel spans a stretch of several months, as my character’s pregnancy progresses and her chronic illness worsens. I definitely can’t show every day, so I’d love to learn more about tying scenes together that don’t directly follow each other chronologically.
I look forward to learning more on whatever topic you choose to teach next on the blog. Thanks for sharing your expertise! 🙂
I’ll keep this in mind. Thank you so much for the idea! 🙂
Lynette, thank you for this very helpful resource!
You’re very welcome. 🙂
So good, Lynette! I refer writers all the time to your blogs. They’re excellent.
Thank you so much, Janet, I appreciate the kind words. 🙂
Thanks for this practical resource sheet. I have found the series helpful.
I have a question: Is it possible for the hook and the inciting incident to be one and the same? I think I may have done that in my debut novel.
I would like to see a similar outline to help me with writing our story about living in Saudi Arabia for five years while my husband was building airports. We lived in 3 cities during those five years – Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran.
Almost every chapter (or story within the chapter) has an inciting event. For George while he dealt with challenges at the construction site and for me as I used my music skills – performing on the piano or accordion and teaching piano lessons.