We’re still talking about the inciting incident. Last month, I gave you three rules it must do for your story. As promised, here are the last two rules.
- The inciting incident must create a point of no return.
This event, this moment must be irreversible. This happens when:
- a secret is revealed
- a crime is committed or witnessed
- a moral line is crossed
- a promise is made
- a divine calling is heard
- someone dies
- someone enters a new world or realm
- and so on
Examples
Psychological / Emotional
- The Masterpiece (Francine Rivers): Grace agrees to work for Roman.
*This single decision intertwines their lives in life-changing ways.
Action / Suspense
- If I Run: Casey runs.
*There is no undoing that choice.
Fantasy
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Lucy steps through the wardrobe.
*You cannot unsee Narnia.
Faith Journey
- Redeeming Love: Michael obeys God’s instruction to marry Angel.
*From that moment, he cannot return to “normal.”
A true inciting incident changes the story landscape forever.
- And, finally, it must catalyze change.
The inciting incident pushes the protagonist toward transformation—internally and externally.
It should target:
- their greatest fear
- their deepest wound
- their strongest desire
- their weakest point
See how all of your character development from the first chapter will pay off here?
Examples
Character Wounds Revealed
- Redeeming Love: Angel’s trauma colliding with Michael’s love exposes her core wound—self-worth.
*The incident forces her into a growth arc she didn’t choose.
Faith Tested
- The Shack: Mack’s grief and anger confront the mystery of God’s character.
*His worldview is torn open.
Identity Questioned
- The Shunning (Beverly Lewis): Katie discovers the hidden satin baby gown.
*Her entire identity and place in the Amish community are upended.
Good inciting incidents don’t only change circumstances. They change people.
So, let’s put it all together. What makes a powerful inciting incident?
It’s one that:
- Happens early—frankly, the earlier the better—and I know someone is thinking, can it happen off screen? Yes, yes it can.
- Is an external, concrete event
- Disrupts the protagonist’s world
- Launches the main plot
- Creates an irreversible shift
- Catalyzes transformation
- Establishes stakes
- Foreshadows theme
When all these elements work together, the moment becomes the earthquake that cracks open your protagonist’s life and puts the plot in motion.
Think about your current project and tell me your inciting incident. Then ask yourself if you took that out, would the story still happen?
I’m loving these craft posts, Lynette, thanks! As I’m working on my first novel, I’m finding them very helpful.
I’ve been struggling a bit with the beginning of my novel, and I’d love some feedback on the idea. I’m writing about a prodigal fitness influencer with neglect in her past, who deals with an online hit piece and sponsors suspending contacts. As she works to recover her brand image, she has increasing, mysterious health struggles. After a medical goose chase and failed attempts at full brand recovery, she’s diagnosed with Lyme disease, which catabolizes her career and leads to her night of the soul and spiritual turning point. I’ve been treating her online cancelation as the inciting incident while foreshadowing her health issues, but it’s the illness that irreparably shatters her career and leads to her change of heart.
Is this a broken premise? Chronic illness doesn’t start with a bang, so it wouldn’t be believable to have her go from her successful career to suddenly bedridden or diagnosed as the inciting incident. Thanks for any feedback!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you find them helpful. Here’s my take…
It’s not broken at all — you’ve actually got a really solid structure here.
The cancellation works as your inciting incident because its job is to crack the foundation, not deliver the final blow so to speak. The cancellation rips away her security, her identity, her public validation–all the stuff a prodigal character clings to instead of dealing with the real wound underneath which is the neglect, right. And it gives you a great start for the first half of the story. Here, she’s scrambling to recover, hustling to save her brand, convinced that if she can just fix this, she’ll be fine.
Then the Lyme diagnosis becomes the moment the story shifts from “can she save her career?” to “what happens when she loses everything?” That’s where the dark night of the soul lives, and it hits harder because she’s already been fighting so hard to hold it all together. And now this. Ugh…right?
And you’re right that chronic illness doesn’t show up with a bang. Foreshadowing the health issues while she’s focused on the other crisis is great. The reader feels that slow dread building while your protagonist is looking the other direction. I think you’ve got a great start here. 🙂 Congrats! I hope that helps. 🙂
Thank you so much for your feedback! This gives me the courage to move ahead with confidence. I’ve never been very good at specifically pulling out the “story question” from a plot, so that really clarifies mey direction, thank you.
Kelsey, if you need any background info or point of reference about Lyme, I almost died twice from late-stage Lyme before it was diagnosed correctly. Happy to say I’m a survivor!
“There’s nothing we can do for you,”
that’s what the doctor said.
In my heart I knew it true,
and didn’t like the way ahead
joined to palliative care,
and the drugs that it implied
which would make me lose my hair
and consider suicide,
so I went on my own way
to fight the wracking pain and fear,
and it has worked out okay
with a case of Miller beer
always within easy reach;
it’s like dying at the beach!