In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Susan DeFreitas suggests three ways you can tell if you are starting your story in the right place. “There are many different places in the overall timeline of your novel that your story could begin,” she says. “So what makes one option superior to another?”
Some writers make the mistake of delaying their opening, while others jump in too fast, potentially leaving the reader confused or indifferent. While it’s a good idea to show the inciting incident early, “early” can mean different things. You may be tempted to start immediately with the inciting incident, but “even movies generally don’t attempt to start with the fireworks of the inciting incident, despite screenwriting’s focus on action, action, and more action,” DeFreitas says.
First, the reader needs enough information to understand why the inciting incident matters to your protagonist and why he should care. To make that work, DeFreitas says you need three things on the page before the inciting incident:
- Basic context. “If we have no idea where the story is taking place, and no context about the protagonist’s life, we cannot understand what the inciting incident means,” she explains.
- Problems. Even before the problem caused by the inciting incident, your protagonist needs everyday life problems. “In storytelling terms, problems are some sort of external trouble that’s indicative of an internal issue,” DeFreitas writes. “And though it may seem counterintuitive, it’s actually these sorts of issues that make us care about the protagonist.”
- What the protagonist wants, and why. By showing your hero’s problems, you give your reader insight into what she wants.
‘The stronger tactic, generally speaking, is to do what 99 percent of all those books and movies you love actually do: Start just long enough before the inciting incident to establish these three things—the context in which the inciting incident will occur, the main problem in your protagonist’s life prior to it occurring, and what it is this protagonist of yours longs for in life,” DeFreitas says. “Once you’ve established those three things in your novel—whether it takes you three pages or thirty—your reader will be ready for the inciting incident.”
