Last week we went over the first of two ways to begin the transition out of Act I (the ordinary world we’ve established with all its global problems and challenges for our protagonist.) The first technique we addressed was the character-centric Moment of Longing, in which we reveal our character’s most inner desires and hopes. The second was the dropping of Mysterious Hints and Clues that let both our central character and our audience know that a change is coming. These next two story segments do more than simply set up the forthcoming change – they instigate it! It should be noted that the first of the two techniques, the Call to Adventure, is not always used and is fairly specific to a certain type of storytelling structure. However, it may be altered slightly for use in many stories. The second technique on the other hand, the Inciting Incident, is used in virtually ALL storytelling forms and genres and is vital for solid plot structure.

The Call to Adventure

Okay, so we're drawing close to the end of our first act and getting ready for Act II! If we've done our diligence, we’ve revealed our central character’s most desperate desire and given our readers a couple of tantalizing hints that change is just around the corner. Now there may come a moment when our hero is openly presented with an opportunity to undertake a quest to bring about change to the ordinary world. In mythic storytelling (the Hero’s Journey) this moment is The Call to Adventure. Many times this is a direct call to action in which the hero is told specifically what is needed of her, asked to go on a quest, or recruited to complete a certain deed. The Call to adventure is usually delivered by a messenger from the Special World: that place or time in Act II into which our hero must soon venture. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of examples of the Call throughout literature and film, but here are a few examples to better highlight the concept:

In the Hobbit, the Wizard Gandalf arrives on Bilbo Baggins’s doorstep and asks him to join a quest to the lonely mountain to recapture a lost dwarf treasure from the dragon Smaug.

In very nearly all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, a fresh adventure always begins with the arrival of a new client, outright asking Holmes and Watson to come solve a strange and awful case, which they describe to him in some detail.

In one of Michael Crichton’s most unique novels, the Eaters of the Dead, Ahmad ibn Fadlan is sent as an ambassador from Persia to the wild Vikings of the north. But, due to a local superstition, Ahmad is then recruited to be the thirteenth member on a quest to free a Viking city-state from the horrors of an ancient evil.

In the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, two government agents come looking for Indiana Jones to tell him that the Nazi’s may have discovered the resting place of the Lost Ark of the Covenant and ask for Indiana’s help in finding it first.

Just a couple more thoughts on the Call to Adventure: First, the messenger, in many cases, often turns out to be a Mentor to our hero. Again, this is a common theme in the Hero’s Journey. Gandalf, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Merlin are all characters who invite an innocent bumpkin on an adventure and teach the inexperienced initiate how to become a hero. Secondly, the hero, in spite of the longing she may have expressed just a few, brief pages ago, often refuses the call. Sometimes this refusal comes because of fear, insecurity, or even laziness. To use the example directly above, Indiana Jones, in both Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, tells the men asking for his help that there is another, better archeologist they should be looking for instead. Luke Skywalker tells Obi-Wan that he can’t go off rescuing princess – he has farm work to do (which he was just complaining about to his uncle!) The refusal of the call is just as important as the call itself, for it segues perfectly into perhaps the single most important (and final) moment of your first act: the Inciting Incident.

The Inciting Incident

The Inciting Incident (sometimes called the First Turning Point) is not only one of the most vital segments in your first act, it is one of the most important moments in your entire story. None of the other three techniques we’ve previously mentioned: the Moment of Longing, the Mysterious Hint, or the Call to Adventure are ever enough to push the character into action. It’s just not compelling enough. How often does a well-written character in one of your favorite stories simply decide to have an adventure and head off on some crazy escapade into danger and darkness on a lark? Even in real life, bodies at rest tend to stay at rest. If you recall from an earlier post, the Ordinary World is like a rut or a plateau, a place where people and things have grown stagnant – and human beings in general need a real kick in the pants to jolt them into action!

Think about all the great pitches or log-lines you’ve ever heard for a great story. In those ultra-brief summaries the lead character is almost always forced, driven, pulled, thrust, or propelled into the heart of the action. Unlike the Call to Adventure, the Inciting Incident should be an event or discovery of such power and dread that the hero has no choice but to act. The more compelling you make your inciting incident the more exciting the story for your audience and the more storytelling momentum you provide to drive your protagonist to the end of the journey.

Perhaps one of the best (and most famous) examples can be found in L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dorothy doesn’t choose to go to Oz - a tornado picks her up along with an entire building and whisks her away to a place so far from Kansas, that it will require much effort, adventure, and magic to return home.

If you’ve ever read the science fiction classic Dune, by Frank Herbert (and you really should if you haven’t!) Paul Atredies has been given hints that he possesses very unique powers, and is told outright that the native Fremen believe him to be some sort of messiah. Yet it is only when Paul’s father is assassinated and Paul is forced to flee for his life that he enters into the world of Dune and is forced to put his powers to the test.

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is bored and indeed follows a talking white rabbit to his hole (and who could blame her really.) But the adventure doesn’t really take off until Alice falls down the hole herself and must traverse the bizarre landscape of the special world she’s found in order to get back home.

In C.S. Lewis’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lucy and Edmund Pevensie discover that the wardrobe is a magical portal to the land of Narnia, but it isn’t until all four children are chased into the wardrobe by Mrs. McCready that the adventure really begins.

In Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father for the summer when his plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. Alone and with no hope of rescue, Brian is forced to grow up quickly and learn to survive the dangers of the wild.

Lastly, to use a couple of examples from film, in the Academy Award winner Braveheart, William Wallace refuses to fight the English, hoping to raise a farm and family peacefully. But when his new bride his murdered, Wallace is driven by vengeance into war.

The inciting incident even holds up in comedy, such as the Will Farrell hit Talladega Nights. Ricky Bobby is a natural behind the wheel, but he would never have gotten the chance to prove himself if the original stock car driver hadn’t quit mid-race and the desperate crew chief left with no choice but to throw Ricky Bobby out on the track.

Notice how dramatic and irreversible the above examples are? That is what makes the Inciting Incident so integral to great storytelling. It is an event that pushes your character beyond the point of no return and into the throes of action. Take a few minutes to flip through some of your favorite reads – can you find the inciting incident? What type of events do you find? How many times do you see a death of someone close to the hero, a need for the hero to run for her life, someone close to the hero captured or held prisoner, the hero becoming lost in an unfamiliar world, or a sudden and desperate need for money (or some other elixir/solve-all.) You will also notice that all of these acts leave the protagonist with a natural and irresistible motive for action: vengeance/retribution, rescue, need to regain something valuable or irreplaceable, need to get home, etc.

As we said earlier, the strength of your inciting incident will drive your story through the second act (and often times to the very end of the story.) It is vital that you create a moment of weight and impact for your main character. We will talk more about this next time as we take our first look at Second Act structure (my favorite!) But for now, here are some questions you could ask yourself as you’re reviewing your manuscript:

1. Am I going to use a Call to Adventure? If so, who is going to ask my hero to go on this quest and why?
2. Will the messenger of the call become my hero’s mentor?
3. Will my hero refuse the call? What will be her reasoning for doing so?
4. As Act I draws to a close, have I used an Inciting Incident to force my character into action?
5. Is my inciting incident dramatic powerful enough? Does it leave my character with little or no choice but to move forward into the world of Act II?
6. Does my inciting incident create a natural motive for my protag’s following actions in the second act?

I can't wait to start talking about Act II structure! Also, I know there are probably many of you who have techniques or concepts of your own that you love to use. Please feel free to share them in the comments section. Be back next week with the next post - Happy Holidays everyone!