A lot of stories start off just trying to get the reader or viewer comfortable with the world they've entered into by using the main character as the eyes and ears (and nose and tongue and, you get the point) to experience the story.
Some stories are easy to get the hang of because they’re so similar to our own world, sometimes you have laser swords and spaceships and elves and dragons and it's a little different... although how awesome would a spaceship be? I know I'd probably lose a hand with a lightsaber, no matter how badly I wanted one growing up.
But in the beginning of the story, we're just trying to get you to care about the main character so much that no matter what happens next, we're rooting for them in whatever journey they go on.
I encourage you to really give it some thought as to what needs to happen to help a reader care about this character. It's great to give them a save the cat moment, and we want to make them clever or kind or interesting, but sometimes the best way to give the reader something to root for is to give the character a goal or a want that they are going after but might feel a little impossible when we first meet them.
A writer friend once told me that the Pixar story team in their early days used to all get together and sit down and watch the Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro together before they embarked on the next Pixar story.
My family loves Totoro and we watch it on a regular basis, but part of the magic of that story is how long the story takes to have anything fantastical happen. Totoro doesn't even show up until the movie is 30% finished!
But we get to know Mei and Satsuki as they familiarize themselves with the new house they're moving into and everything is different to them. The only familiar thing they have is their family, but their mom is sick and at a hospital and they really want her to get better. It takes a while before we get a hint that there is some fantasy at play, and we spend a lot of time watching the two of them just be sisters together.
Because of how much time we invest in the two of them and their dynamic at the beginning, when there is peril at the end of the story, we really care and want everything to turn out okay.
All this to say, you may be really excited that your story has, let's say, aliens arriving to shake things up with the stories. But if we haven't spent any time with the main character to get to know them, if the aliens arrive on page 3 (or even the end of a short first chapter), the story might start to feel more like a series of events happening to someone instead of going on a journey and figuring out what they want and need.
The Inciting Incident
This is the exciting part of the story where we've set up the main character and their world and we're just about to start getting comfortable... and then something really interesting happens.
Often this happens about 10% of the way into a story. Usually if you're watching a movie this will happen about 10-15 minutes in. In My Neighbor Totoro, we get the first hint of fantastical elements when around 10 minutes in, they discover soot sprites living in the attic... but after that not much else happens until we meet Totoro in Act 2.
It can be way more dramatic. A boy wizard can get an invitation to a wizarding school. A fancy new toy can be a birthday present and threaten the established favorite toy. Just think of your favorite stories and when things make a big shift that pose a threat to how things usually go.
It's an opportunity for them to learn something about themselves, but usually it is an outside force coming in to change things in a way that means things can't go back to the way they were.
Now, this isn't the time our hero runs off to immediately face the change. They aren't going to fight the dragon or save the day this early in the story. Remember they are still who they are at the beginning of the story so they aren't going to be ready to face this challenge yet.
They have some growing to do.
And growth comes from the facing of challening things and the learning that comes from that. Most characters (ourselves included) will usually want to have our day go as easily as possible. We'll make the choices that cause us the least amount of pain or discomfort...but that's not usually when we grow or develop.
Learning from mistakes or having to change things to adapt to difficult situations help us grow, and it's also why we find stories so interesting. We get to watch someone else face a big challenge and figure out what they're going to do about it (and how it's going to change them, hopefully for the better).
Writing can be therapeutic.
Writing, for me, has been an opportunity to work through some tough seasons of my life. It has allowed me to create a character who is wrestling with the things I'm wrestling with, and then I get to send them off into their fictional world and face the challenges that I'm either facing or I'm worried I'll have to face.
And writing their story is kind of a way for me to personally work through all of the 'what if' scenarios I would be afraid to face unprepared in life... and after the story is finished, I feeel a bit more prepared because I have examined that fear thoroughly and either realized it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, or I feel more prepared for it and have a better idea of how I would handle it.
Storytelling can be very theraputic for the writer, which is why I think choosing an inciting incident that maybe hits a little close to hope is an opportunity for you to work through your own worries or fears and come out the other side of the tale better off.
Plus, if you're being honest about what you're wrestling with, then you're very likely not alone in that struggle, and someday someone else who is dealing with those same things might stop and read your story and feel a little less alone too, and then you'll have helped them as wel as yourself with your storytelling.
Activity: What If Bracket
I want you to come up with 5 crazy ways the hero's life can get disrupted.
Some examples could be:
New competition arises (classmate, pet, sibling)
Surprise change (they have to move, the thing they want is suddenly gone)
Something bad happened (to someone they care about perhaps)
They've been picked for something they don't feel ready for.
Something amazing happened unexpectedly, but there are strings attached (With great power comes great responsibility...)
They forgot something important was coming up and they feel unprepared.
After coming up with 5... let's do 3 more. Dig deep. Sometimes the best ideas come when you push yourself a little past the surface level thoughts.
Now, since we have 8 ideas... that's a great number to BRACKET! Make them face off against each other until you have the idea that the two of you think will be the most interesting thing that could happen to your character.
Best idea wins! See you in the next lesson!
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