Inciting Incidents

by Susanne Brent

Everything changed when three coyotes arrived at the city park where I walked my poodle, Darla, each morning. People who before allowed their dogs to roam freely, used leashes. One woman began carrying a big stick for fear the coyotes might attack her collie. People who never spoke to me in the past would stop and warn about the coyotes lurking beneath the trees or in the bushes. Groups of pet owners gathered in the park to discuss what actions could be taken to make the park safe and coyote-free.

The coyotes were a prime example of what is called the inciting incident of the story, the seed from which conflict is introduced. From the inciting incident the spool of your story is unraveled and takes us to interesting places.

Inciting incidents may be large or small.

What they have in common is they trigger further action. Conflict was introduced to the park by the arrival of the coyotes known for hunting small animals, including dogs like my darling Darla.

A quiet, safe park with tall trees and birds singing creates a lovely, but boring, story. Serenity is great in life, but in stories it puts readers to sleep. We want action whether interior, exterior, or both.

Inciting incidents strike the match to begin conflict.

Not all inciting incidents are obvious. For example, I received a letter a few years ago from an attorney involving the pension of a man I knew in the 1970s. The man wanted to retire, but he had put me as a beneficiary on his pension. He couldn’t collect his pension without my signature releasing the funds. We hadn’t spoken in decades but, due to that signature we had both long ago forgotten, we were reconnected. And from there a story, a dramatic story, rife with conflict, and better told another day, began.

Okay the inciting incident could be when I received the letter in my mailbox. However, it could also be traced back to that tiny, dotted line. My signature began a story that concluded decades later.

Lately, I’ve attempted to define the inciting incidents in books.

Sometimes it’s complicated, less obvious, but often it’s easy to see. In the bestseller Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng the inciting incident occurs when single mother and artist, Mia Warren, and her teenager daughter move to Shaker Heights and shake things up. If you’ve read this book,  what do you think?

In Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the action is fueled each time a new client visits the detective seeking help. Holmes opens the door to his study and there stands an inciting incident in the form of someone needing a mystery solved.

Look at favorite books and try to find the incident which ignited the action. Then, even better,  look at your own work.

What is the inciting incident in your work?

Some are subtle, some are obvious, but there should be one.

There is usually one event, an unexpected visitor, moving to a new town, a terrible storm, a death, a birth, which could be defined as an inciting incident. If unable to find one in your work, do you have enough conflict in your story?

Meanwhile,  back to the coyotes.

For a while people threw rocks to scare them off. Others called animal control. I imagine some stopped bringing their pets to the park while others didn’t pay attention or weren’t worried. The coyotes were hungry, but I didn’t want them to eat my beloved dog, Darla. So, we still visited the park but always stayed on guard.

I am happy to report no coyotes have hurt any dogs. Or at least that I’m aware. But I am thinking of all sorts of dramatic possibilities incited from the unwelcome arrival of, perhaps not coyotes, but any event that might launch a story.

About Susanne Brent

Born in Chicago, I grew up reading the Chicago Sun Times that my dad brought home every night after work. The newspaper inspired me to become a journalist. I earned a journalism degree from Metropolitan State University in Denver and moved to Arizona to work on a weekly newspaper. I wrote on a freelance basis for a variety of publications including The Arizona Republic. I am hoping to complete my novel this year.