1. LexStorm

    LexStorm Member

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    What can be an inciting incident when your main character already doesn't have a home?

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by LexStorm, Dec 6, 2019.

    For a lot of fantasy heroes, the story starts off with them living an ordinary life in their village or farm before something happens changing their life and forcing them to go on a journey. The inciting incident is usually the hero leaving their normal life at home to a dangerous one they know nothing of. My main character's situation is a bit different. He's a lone thief that doesn't have a home, so he's constantly traveling, and he's no stranger to the dangers of the world. So my question is, how would you make an inciting incident for a character who's already out and exploring the world?
     
  2. X Equestris

    X Equestris Contributor Contributor

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    An inciting incident is all about launching your character straight into the main plot. You can go about this in a variety of ways, no home required.

    Consider "The Tower of the Elephant", one of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories I recently reread. At this point in his career, Conan is a wanderer making a living as a thief and mercenary. He's always on the move.

    At the start of this story, he's in a tavern and overhears another thief boasting of his prowess. The titular Tower of the Elephant comes up, with the other thief describing the riches it contains and the dangers that await anyone who crosses the wizard living inside. Conan immediately decides he's going to rob this tower, but when Conan gets there he finds much more than he bargained for.

    This tavern scene forms the story's inciting incident, giving Conan key information which leads him to develop a goal: break into the tower.

    Opening in a tavern is a pretty big fantasy cliche these days, but this should give you an idea about some of the possibilities other than "forced out of a quiet, ordinary life in their rural home".
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2019
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  3. ElConesaToLoco

    ElConesaToLoco Active Member

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    Just draw two lines. One line is the character's life, the other is the plot. Make them crash into each other. You seem to have the character, so just figure out the plot. The collision will come naturally to you.
     
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  4. Kalisto

    Kalisto Senior Member

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    What does your character currently have that he cares about? What does he want? If you can figure out a character's wants and what they care about, you can often find a conflict in one of those two things. So, he might be wandering the world and feel very content doing so. But what if something happens that threatens him from being so content. Such as the guard having a huge crack down on his activity. Or he's accused of a crime he didn't commit?

    How about he's not so content, and someone offers him a way out? What about that? He's supposed to steal something for example. But the job turns out not to be that simple.
     
  5. Cephus

    Cephus Contributor Contributor

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    A character doesn't have to leave a home, they just have to have an event that drives them into the plot of the story, whatever that happens to be. They have to have a reason to act. Give it to them.
     
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  6. cosmic lights

    cosmic lights Contributor Contributor

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    All the inciting incident is, is an event that happens which pushes your character into action and therefore the main plot. It doesn't have to involve property or leaving home. Most inciting incidents don't. it's just Fantasy is usually focused around a quest of some sort. The inciting incident for your character could be.

    His horse gets stolen. Stealing it back is what ends him up in the plot.
    Inciting incident could be he is kidnapped and taken to a King who wants him to steal magic so he can rescue his daughter from the Dark Lord.
    Or for something totally different. He bares a resemblance to a rich man's son. This man will pay him to pretend to be his son (for whatever reason) and the thief must learn to act like a lord and curb his stealing. He is kidnapped and taken to the rich man.
    It can also be a character made incident. Like maybe he applies to an add in the news paper for a royal thief position.

    It's just an event.
     
  7. Storysmith

    Storysmith Senior Member

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    Fiction provides us plenty of examples of heroes who go looking for adventure, from knights errant, to the wandering cowboys cleaning up towns before riding into the sunset, to superheroes turning vigilante to protect a city, to the protagonists of sword and sorcery yarns as X Equestris points out.

    These are the kind of people who just need a hint of an adventure to grasp it with both hands. They're very different to the farmboy or prince(ss) stereotypically forced into battle against their will. Your character sounds like one of them, so I suggest going with that approach.
     
  8. StoryForest

    StoryForest Banned

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    What you're describing is the "Hero's Journey" which is one kind of story archetype used in adventure stories where a MC leaves their home to enter a new world/journey and returns a changed man/woman.

    It's a story template that is more commonly used than many people realize because the concept of "home," "new world," and "return" are merely symbolic representations of what the words literally mean. For example, if you're looking to use the Hero's Journey template, your MC leaving their "home" doesn't literally have to be their house/village. It simply means he has to leave his CURRENT norm/state/habit in order to enter a DIFFERENT norm/state/habit. Then, through that journey, he must turn into a new (usually better) character which will establish a NEW norm/state/habit for him in the end of the story.

    So just think about what is "normal" to your MC now and consider what would force him to leave this normalcy to initiate his journey.
     
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  9. NobodySpecial

    NobodySpecial Contributor Contributor

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    Your inciting incident is usually going to be that single event which most disrupts the status quo for the main character. What one event changes whole worlds for someone? Consider all the main characters, because identifying the true inciting event can also sometimes identify whose story it really is and from whose viewpoint it should be told.
     
  10. LexStorm

    LexStorm Member

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    I think the way you and others describe it makes a lot of sense. Based on the stuff I’ve been watching/reading recently I guess I had the impression for whatever reason that all adventure stories start with a character leaving their normal life in a village to begin their quest. Right now my MC is someone who travels alone living life day to day (because to him life is better when you only have to worry about yourself), but gets put in a situation where he’s forced to travel and depend on someone else. Would that work or does there need to be more? I also have to figure out a goal that he must strive for, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
     
  11. StoryForest

    StoryForest Banned

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    You could have gotten that impression because it has been done many times and is also one of the most straight forward ways to start a story. Yes, traveling alone and being forced to travel with someone else would work as well. You're also on the right track to think about goals as that should be one of the first things to figure out on when initiating an MC's journey.
     
  12. NK_UT

    NK_UT Active Member

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    Simply witnessing something could be an inciting event.
     
  13. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    I think I can help as my long suffering wop is centered on a homeless girl.

    She's in a depressing yet stable routine of daily, weekly and monthly actions and seems to have found comfort in this stability. My inciting incident is very simple. One of the men she exchanges sexual favors to (for access to the cemetery at night where her dead twin is buried) gives her a birthday present. This shakes up her entire world, triggering a chain reaction that ultimately leads to
    her death

    So for me it's the action of someone with nothing gaining something, which isn't the wonderful event we initially take it for.
     
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  14. keysersoze

    keysersoze Senior Member

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    I like your main character. I like the idea of a thief, much like my childhood Aladdin from 1001 Arabian Nights. You character might seem like freewheeling and carefree all the time. But there is a lot that he consciously steers clear of. He is always on the run so he cannot really make a commitment to anyone of friendship, loyalty, etc. He also keeps his life away from any serious venture. He lives from day to the next day basis. There is no larger plan of his life.

    The first way this can change is that he meets someone. This character should be a mysterious character. It can be a fortune teller, can be someone wise. Or some incident that only slightly reveal that there might be more to him than being just a common thief. Or him being a thief has some special providential significance.

    Or he can enter a theft that is more serious than his usual adventures and brings more things at stake than he is willing to let. Now he has to decide. What should he do? Should he go ahead with this new path. And as usual in the Hero's journey the call will be refused initially.
     
  15. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    He could pick up an unexpected companion. Or maybe something happens that makes it impossible for him to carry on living the kind of life he's been doing. Maybe he gets badly injured or crippled. Maybe he witnesses something that changes his view of how things should be.
     

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