In my current outline the "inciting incident" occurs 6 chapters in. Using a chapter structure of 6-12-6, this perfectly sets up my MC to "enter the new world" in the beginning of Act 2/chapter 7 (my "inciting incident" and "entering new world" scenes are explicitly paired.). But, with the new faster-paced structure I'm considering changing to (9-9-9), the "inciting incident" has to be in chapter 2, thus making the "entering new world" scene occur early on, in ch. 3, instead of ch. 7 where it should be. Optional context: My MC is a 16-year-old-girl living in the Massachusetts Colony in 1704. The inciting incident is when her town is raided and she's captured by Native Americans. The "entering new world" scene takes place immediately after the "inciting incident", when she's forced by her captors to set off on a march into the wilderness. So my question is: do I, A) Come up with a different inciting incident? There are lots of foreshadowing events, like "omens" and conspiracies throughout the village. I could possibly make one of those the inciting incident and have my MC mentally spiral until the climax. I anticipated showing the MC's life slowly unravelling anyway as tensions within the town (and her family) build to a breaking point, which then is interrupted by the raid in chapter 6/the climax of Act 1. Or do I, B) Make the raiding event the inciting incident? This would ultimately give my story a much quicker start and fit in with the new-faster 9-9-9 plot structure, but then it completely gets rid of 5 chapters that I'd have to add randomly elsewhere. And as aforementioned, might be strange when she's entering the new world in chapter 3 -in the beginning of act 1- instead of in chapter 7 in act 2. I'm at a loss for what to do. I'm leaning towards sticking with my original outline, as it makes the most sense to me, but I don't want to risk boring my readers if there isn't a super dramatic inciting incident in the first 5 chapters. Any help or advice would be appreciated!
don't get hide bound by structure ... a story has as many chapters as it has, its not a football formation... my inclination is to put the inciting incident into the first couple of chapters but don't get too wrapped up in oh but i need to add extra chapters to reach 9-9-9... it actually comes out as 9-8- and 6 the reader won't care in the slightest in terms of what the inciting incident is and structure it depends on what the book is primarily about... if its about her life after the raid then 6 chapters before it is far too many... if the real story is about the unravelling of her family with the raid incidental to that then a) the raid isn't the inciting incident and b) whatever is should occur in chapters 1 or 2
I never looked at it like that before. My book is definitely more character focused, and the family is really the center of the story, so what you're saying makes sense. Thanks so much for the help, I'll be thinking about it to help clarify my story. Thanks again!
More commercial books establish the "end goal" as soon as possible (Whodunit? fiction is the best exampe; its classic "framework" has the murder or theft right at the start). I am unsure in this case as you mention "inciting incident" even; does that mean the end goal might remain unclear even after that? Or is the end goal / character goal defined early on? EG, if you write a story about an FBI agent resolving a case, then I believe it's better to have the "case" featured as early as possible. But if your story's about a new hire plunged into the world of the FBI brought down by cabinet duty and menial tasks right before she'd find JUST THE RIGHT case to pursue in order to prove her worth, the "case" can appear midway through.
If you’re trying to sell the book to an agent or editor, laziness/ short attention span is the rule, they won’t look at a thing that doesn’t set everything up in the first couple pages. Otherwise though do what makes sense to you, according to standards that make sense to you. Tolkien takes a leisurely 50 pages before he tells us about the ring quest.
That doesnt sound likely to me... in general publishers want well written books not lazy halfarsed efforts (they ask for your first few pages to assess whether you can write, not because they expect them to set up the whole plot... which is why its common for them to also ask for a synopsis)
I think sometimes we can get carried away with the notion that an inciting incident always has to have tons of action in it. Or that in order to grab a reader's attention there has to be some kind of action taking place. In fact, what is just as successful at grabbing reader attention is a dilemma. The main character is having trouble with what? Her family is falling apart? And she doesn't know what to do about it? Make this situation as vivid as you can, and the reader will be hooked long before the kidnapping takes place. The alternative—starting with the kidnapping—can also work, but then you have to backtrack a bit in order to catch the reader up with the context. Kind of ...yeeks, I'm being kidnapped—although you don't know me yet—and after I've been dragged kicking and screaming from my home, then I have to backtrack and tell you that my family was falling apart before the kidnapping took place. Seems a bit cart-before-horse-ish to me. But both approaches CAN work, if you can weave the two situations together in the single opening scene. See how much life you can inject into your opening scenes, and you'll have no trouble grabbing reader (and agent) attention. The outline is there to keep you reminded of what you have to accomplish. But it shouldn't be so rigid that you're just filling in the form.
I'd say no later than chapter 2 for an inciting incident. If not the end of chapter 1. It doesn't have to be crazy inciting, but you don't want the readers plugging through Chapter 3 wondering what the story is going to be about. I'm speaking only about genre fiction with that. Literary will go hundreds of pages without anything happening... trying to decipher an inciting incident in Faulkner or Cormac would be painstakingly foolish.