The term, Inciting Incident, although employed by Aristotle three-thousand years ago, was coined by the famous Syd Field. He was an innovator in the industry and today, all screenplay formats are based on his 3-Act Paradigm. However, the 3-Act Paradigm is considered to be a “very basic” approach to the organic process of crafting a story. It’s a great starting point though!
In film and stage play, ten to twelve minutes into the beginning of a story, which is page ten or twelve of the script, the Inciting Incident kicks off the main plot by forcing the main character into it. In novel writing, the Inciting Incident might occur on page twenty. For all mediums, the genre will play a large part in deciding where the writer should put the Inciting Incident. For example, in Crime genre, it could occur on page one in all three mediums. In Drama genre, it might appear on page twenty in a novel. In Action genre, in a novel, it might appear on page ten, the same as film or stage play. In all cases, the Inciting Incident changes the main character’s life forever. In a nutshell, it creates a story question that the climax must answer.
Furthermore, the Inciting Incident is an external event that impacts the Hero in some way that is connected to the Hero’s Desire and Need at the beginning of the story. The Desire and Need are not clear to the Hero, even though the audience/reader will usually understand what the Desire and Need of the Hero appear to be. The organic nature of a story means that the Inciting Incident is connected to the Hero’s flaws and Desire and Need, which are connected to the genre! A lot for the writer to incorporate.
So, the external event that will catapult the Hero into action and conflict will highlight the fact that the Hero has a problem, and the Hero’s psychological and moral flaws and his Need will be evident to the audience/ reader from page one. BUT, to write a great story involves not telling the audience/reader what those flaws are in specific words. For example, “she’s a shy person, bordering on recluse.”
Key point: Through the actions of the character, the moral argument of the story needs to be revealed! Even more for the writer to incorporate!
In the film, Witness, the little boy witnesses a murder at the twelve- minute mark, a.k.a. the Inciting Incident. John Book pokes his head into the room where the boy and his Amish mother are sitting and the rest of the story will take off in a direction that will propel the Hero (John Book) into action/conflict in a world he never would have anticipated, due to the crafting of his character flaws. The Amish world is the polar opposite of the world John Book has always known (his Ordinary World). So, the boy witnessing the murder has been the external event that brought detective John Book to the scene of the crime. His life is about to be changed forever. The boy’s life and the mother’s life are also about to be changed forever.