Hook Readers With Solid Inciting Incident
Exposition is Your Basic Situation Plus Conflict
Playwright Charles Fuller once said, “I might begin a play a hundred times until I get it absolutely right. Because if I don't get you in those first few minutes, I've lost you.”
What Fuller torments himself over is a part of plot known as the inciting incident. The inciting incident is sometimes referred to as the basic situation or exposition. The inciting incident involves a main character with a desire of some kind, who endures opposition trying to get it.
Conflict and "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket"
Jack Finney’s classic short story, “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket,” follows an ambitious young grocery clerk as he struggles to get ahead at his job. His wife wants some of his time, but he’s too busy spending it on ideas that will get him ahead with his boss.
“Then the tap of her high heels sounded on the wood floor, and she appeared at the end of the little hallway… She smiled at him – a slender, very pretty girl with light brown, almost blond, hair – her prettiness emphasized by the pleasant nature that showed in her face. ‘It’s just that I hate you to miss this movie; you wanted to see it, too.’ ‘Yeah, I know… Got to get this done, though.’”
The exposition is the clerk loves his wife, but he’s torn between his desire to be with her, and his sense of ambition. What the clerk experiences is a form of opposition known as internal conflict. Had Finney chosen to start his short story with a fight between husband and wife, the clerk would instead be experiencing external conflict. Quite clearly, one form of conflict takes place between the main character’s heart and brain (internal conflict). The other occurs between him and another character or outside force (external conflict).
Internal conflict and external conflict are essential in creating a compelling inciting incident. Without this basic situation, readers will find something that does draw them. In these days of fast-paced movies, reality TV, and short attention spans, the inciting incident must not be delayed any longer than necessary.
Moving Quickly With Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire starts with a basic situation of Jamal Malik, a young Indian adult on the verge of winning 20 million rupees. In a few short seconds, the film asks one simple question, and viewers are its prisoner for the next two hours.
“Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it? A) He cheated, B) He’s lucky, C) He’s a genius, D) It is written.”
The inciting incident appears in less than two minutes of screen time. Grant it, Boyle’s medium of choice is more visually commanding than black and white text, but a writer has the capabilities of using all the same senses a filmmaker does, so long as he tempers his exposition text with concrete imagery and characterization.
Final Thoughts and References
Whether film or print, stories should be designed to help readers or viewers see. But those viewers or readers must first have a compelling reason to care. And that’s where your inciting incident must do its work.
Read Finney's short story at Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket.
Visit Slumdog Millionaire to see the trailer and learn more about the film.
Slumdog Millionaire
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