Deep Dive Notes: Getting Started with Inciting Incidents

The first thing to happen in your scene or your story has to do more than one thing.

Photo by Irham Setyaki on Unsplash

Earlier today, we had a great conversation about beginnings in the May 2026 Deep Dive. Here’s a summary of what I remember (and what’s not incriminating). 😅 No, I’m still not going to record the monthly deep dives or use the “ai” summary feature of Zoom. The Deep Dives are for you. I hope you can show up for the next one: Cast Design Tools. (Link to register below for paid subscribers.)

These are all the aspects of an inciting incident (what I’m going to begin calling the Ignition from now on) that we talked about for an hour, just in summary form…

Yes, we also rambled around the psychology of story, talked about how Miller’s Law is a bitch, and lots of other gossip-y story nerd things as well.

Set the Stage

When you kick things off with a bang, you need to do it in a way that establishes what kind of a conflict this is going to be, the setting where it’s taking place, and boundaries of the arena in which the crisis will play out.

If you don’t do this, Miller’s Law will eat your lunch and ruin your story for the reader because of the cognitive limitations of your reader’s prefrontal cortex. In order to bypass these limitations, you either need to write for robots (who don’t have human cognitive limitations) or engage the reader’s dream-mode mind (a.k.a. their story neurology). If you do this correctly, they don’t have use their limited and expensive cognitive capacity and will remember and retain more of your story by using more of their brain than just the prefrontal cortex to absorb it.

⚠️ You missed my stellar the explanation of how to do that. But you could read Lisa Cron’s seminal Wired for Story if you want some of the details. I’ve accumulated more thoughts on the subject from too many other sources to (remember?) list here.

Identify the Antagonist

Whether it’s the Ignition of a scene, the Ignition of the global story, or the Ignition of the global plot, the external event, beat, or moment must identify the character or force that is happening to another character (the protagonist).

I’m using Lisa Cron’s definitions (from Story Genius) of story (the internal arc or journey of a single character) and plot (the external events that all characters share).

Disrupt the Status Quo

Although not always the point of view (POV) character, the protagonist of the scene arrived with some sort of expectations, goals, or plans…which will absolutely not happen now the way the protagonist believed they would. The Ignition must disrupt that status quo in an irreversible way.

Punch/Counterpunch

The Ignition of a unit of story is a beat. Two parts. Punch then Counterpunch. The antagonist acts. The protagonist reacts and/or responds. If it doesn’t do that, it’s not a working Ignition.

Must Be Irreversible

The protagonist cannot yet recognize that it’s irreversible or at least not be willing to accept that the disruption is irreversible yet, because the protagonist will immediately respond (as part of the Ignition beat) to try to defer, deflect, or otherwise return to the status quo in a least-effort, path-of-least resistance way. In the same way that I describe “the turning points” as necessarily being complete input/output or stimulus/response units.

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Establish the Value at Stake

The Ignition must put some fundamental human value at stake. It could be Life/Death. It could be Justice/Injustice. It could be Love/Hate. Look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, rely on your global theme, or think about your protagonist’s core fear to find the necessary target to attack.

If you need help with cast design and figuring out your protagonist’s core fear, crack open Claire’s great book Write Iconic Characters and find your inspiration there.

Align the Reader to the Crisis

One often overlooked item of the Ignition is that it must (in retrospect or hindsight) inevitably lead to the Detonation of the story. Yes, I’m inventing terms now. I’m told that’s what one must do to write a craft book of one’s own. (Here’s to hoping I can finish Hacking Story before Author Nation 2026. 😅) You might recognize the Detonation beat as the Crisis/Climax pair of things that Robert McKee talks about in his seminal book Story.

Inject Chaos into the Plot

At whichever level of narrative we’re talking about, the Ignition must throw the external events into disarray. And by external events, I mean the best laid plans of your hapless protagonist. Yes, still using Lisa’s definition of plot.

It’s possible for Ignition to make things better or worse, as long as it adds chaos. Ignition is where the antagonist engages entropy against the order that the protagonist wishes to preserve.

If your scene level Ignition isn’t related to the sequence, act, novel, or series plot, ask yourself why it’s on the page in this book.

Inject Energy into the Story

The same thing goes for the internal character arc or journey of your protagonist. Yes, still using Lisa’s definition of story.

Ignition must bust it up in some way. Whether the antagonist is a proverbial bull in the protagonist’s emotional china shop or a temptress luring the protagonist away from the straight and narrow, Ignition at every level of the story must inject positive or negative energy into the system that is your protagonist.

If your Ignition moment doesn’t move your character closer to or further from their ultimate internal state, ask yourself to do the right thing and fix it or cut it.

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Establish the Emotional Baseline

The moment of Ignition establishes the zero point for your protagonist’s (and your reader’s) emotions. Everything after this needs to have an absolute value (if you’ll pardon the math-y term) bigger than this. It can be higher or lower, but it just can’t be on the same level.

Every beat after Ignition needs to do more and be more than the Ignition event (and each previous beat) in order for the reader to intuitively trust that we’re getting progressively closer to the Detonation.

Any flat spots or less emotional spots need to be enhanced or cut. 💥

Would You Like Help With Yours?

Unfortunately, I’m aware that these were just the notes from the Deep Dive, and not a comprehensive dissertation. Sorry. Maybe you’ll make it next time?

However, if you’re having trouble with your Ignition at any level (scene, sequence, act, novel, or series), let’s talk about how I can help you. Book a free campfire chat.

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