Playwriting - Part 1 - The Inciting Incident

When it comes to reading plays and playwriting, most plays have an inciting incident. Absurdist plays may not have one, but that doesn't mean a person won't be able to find one. The thing about an inciting incident is that different people will find different points that are inciting incidents. What is certain is that when a play has an inciting incident, it will be somewhere near the beginning of the play. This most likely means within the first 10 pages, although it may be a few more pages if the introductory material is engaging.

The inciting incident is an event that jolts your main charactger out of his or her everyday routine. It should be the spark that starts your plot. However, it is not something about which you need to stress. If you write well, you should automatically have an inciting incident once you are writing your play (or, honestly, any type of writing that follows a basic plot - e.g. a novel, a short story, a screenplay, etc.)

The inciting incident is not an active moment for your main character. In Legally Blonde: The Musical, most would agree that the inciting incident is when Warner dumps Elle. This happens to her and it sparks her journey to prove to Warner that she is not dumb and can make it through law school.

Here is a list of plays and what I find would probably be the inciting incident that sets the main character on his or her journey. You may disagree with me and as long as the incident that you find would set the main character off on his or her journey, yours can also be correct. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

• Hamlet: When Horatio tells Hamlet that he saw the ghost of his father.
• Macbeth: When Macbeth is made the Thane of Cawdor because this makes him think that what the witches say has to be true.
• The Winter's Tale: When Leontes suspects that Hermione is cheating on him with his best friend, Polixenes
• The Producers: When Max Bialystock is told that producing a Broadway play that is a flop can make him more money than producing on that is a hit.

This can also be done with novels, short stories, and movies.

• Harry Potter: When Hagrid tells Harry, "You're a wizard, Harry.
• Monsters, Inc: When Boo enters Monstropolis.
• Green Eggs and Ham: When Sam-I-Am asks the other character if he would like green eggs and ham here or there.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: When the white rabbit has a waistcoat and a pocket watch passes Alices.
• Oedipus Rex: When Creon tells Oedipus that Laius's murderer is to be punished.
• There's a Monster at the End of this Book: At the very beginning when it says, "There is a monster at the end of this book."
• The Monkey's Paw: When the Sergeant-Major takes the money's paw out of his pocket for the Whites to see.

Try finding the inciting incident in some of your favorite plays, novels, and short stories. What are they? Why not comment and let me know what you've found?