Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How to start a story after the inciting incident?

I highly recomend reading the novel "Holes" (the 2003 film is probably the only film to break the "book was better" rule, being 99% faithful, but I still recommend a read through). Long story shor...

posted 4y ago by hszmv‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:13:09Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48868
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar hszmv‭ · 2019-12-08T13:13:09Z (over 4 years ago)
I highly recomend reading the novel "Holes" (the 2003 film is probably the only film to break the "book was better" rule, being 99% faithful, but I still recommend a read through). Long story short, the novel basically has three stories running through out, and the first starts in media res and the "inciting incident" of that first story is told concurrently with the present day first story and flashback second story. Later a 3rd entirely seperate flashback story expands upon a minor plot point mentioned in the begining.

With In Media Res stories, your "Inciting Incident" is not going to be the backstory, but the events that happen as a result of the heroes meeting up. Consider Star Wars (A New Hope) which opens with Vader's ship attacking Leia. The inciting incident isn't "Leia has the Death Star plans" and we don't get to see that story for nearly 40 years. Rather it's Luke receiving her "Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi" while repairing R2-D2 (and they are focused on so heavily because at the time, George Lucas was homaging the Japanese film "Hidden Fortress" which is an epic Jidi Geki (lit. Period Piece, basically a Samurai Film. Also the origin of the word "Jedi") told from the point of view of the comic relief duo.).

Another film you should look for inspiration is Rashamon (also a Japanese film, but I you've probably seen the basic plot... Hollywood loved this film). Here, the story starts almost at the end, with a priest and a wood carver, reflecting on a disturbing series of events that took place. A samurai was recently murdered and at the trial, three separate witnesses tell an incompatible tale of events leading up to the murder. Not unusual accept each witness confesses that they and they alone killed the samurai (and one witness is supposedly the spirit of the samurai himself!).

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-11-07T12:50:14Z (over 4 years ago)
Original score: 2