Inciting Incident?

Now that a new year is here, I want to start going in another direction. This year’s focus for this column will look at different components of screenplays—how there are alike and different from fictional novel writing.

It can be hard to get going at the beginning of the year. Traditional folklore states that what we spend the first day of the year doing will set the pace for the rest of the year. Thus, when I was growing up my mother always warned me to be careful about what I did on the first day of the year. Here are some of the things she warned me about:

• Don’t clean – Cleaning on the first day means your house will be dirty all year.
• Don’t sleep all day – You’ll have an unproductive year.
• Don’t borrow money – You will be in debt all year.
• Don’t argue or fight – you won’t have any peace that year.

Like the first day of the year we want to start our screenplays off right, this is why it’s important to have a clear inciting incident.

Inciting incidents?

The inciting incident is the event in any story. Whether it’s a novel or a screenplay, the inciting incident is the first domino that falls and sets off the chain of events that leads to our protagonist’s goal or destiny.

It doesn’t have to be the opening scene or in first beat of action, but in screenwriting, the sooner the better. It’s understood that the first ten pages of the screenplay are valuable real estate, because it must grab the audiences’ attention. This is why a lot of writers plant the inciting incident around page 5 or 7.

It gives a writer time to introduce the main characters and set up the need for change or conflict. Inciting incident ignites the fuse to get our story going forward. Often it gives our protagonist the motivation to pursue something or someone greater than themselves.

Since the nature of film is visual it is easier to present the inciting incident in a visible manner instead of using lines of dialogue full of exposition—we can see the inciting incident in action. (Show vs. tell.) Below are a few good examples from past movies:

1. Rambo: Last Blood – John Rambo’s friend’s daughter runs off to Mexico to find her father and doesn’t return.
2. Gran Turino – The attempted theft of a Gran Turino.
3. Friday Night Lights – Jason gets paralyzed playing a sport he loves.
4. Saving Private Ryan – The Death of three Ryan brothers leads General Marshall to find the last missing Ryan boy.
5. Die Hard – The arrival of  Hans Gruber at the party.

Each of the above scenes sets a chain of events in motion that takes our characters on a journey from point A (pre-incident) to point B (the final action resulting from the inciting incident.)

While these scenes aren’t the opening scenes of the movie, they are the tipping points that get the ball rolling toward the eventual climax.

Just The Beginning?

Robert McKee explains it like this, “The inciting incident, the first major event of the telling, is the primary cause for all that follows, putting into motion the other four elements—progressive complications, crisis, climax, resolution.”[i]

As McKee notes above, movies are made up of numerous components. Although the inciting incident doesn’t necessarily happen at the beginning of the movie, it is the real beginning of the story you want to tell. Each of the components below has a direct relation to another (cause and effect.)

• Characters: The participants in your story.
• Actions: What your participants do in your narrative.
• Conflict: Obstacles your characters face in your story.
• Plot or Plotline: The sequence of events, where each event affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect (think about our domino analogy.)

While the timing and placement in a screenplay will vary from script to script, each should be a direct result of your story’s inciting incident!

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[i] McKee R. (1997).  Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg. 181.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.