
The inciting incident does not need to occur in chapter one, like the hook. The only term I don't think is helpful is the hook, since it combines the inciting incident, which holds a structural place within every story, with the hook, a device used to capture the reader's attention in the first pages of a story.

This unexpected disturbance also complicates the character as they attempt to achieve a scene goal, or want, and that character will spend the rest of the story attempting to achieve it.Įxamples of the goal might be to escape a terrifying natural disaster, to get revenge for the murder of a loved one, to get together with the romantic interest, or even to explore a new worldview opened up by the event.

In other words, a situation comes out of nowhere, throws the main character into turmoil, and creates a problem that they have to spend the rest of the plot trying to solve.Īs Robert McKee says, “The inciting incident radically upsets the balance of forces in your protagonist's life.” This begins the story's movement, either in a positive way or negative, that culminates in the climax. The inciting incident is an unexpected event in a story that upsets the character's status quo.
