Act 1 of The 5-Act Structure: Hook and Inciting Event
I Have an Idea for a Novel. Now What???
You’re going to immediately start seeing how that Golden Thread will come into play here as we begin to brainstorm (plot) the first act of our book.
(Side note: this 5-act structure is one that I’ve put together using several different structures and methods. Nothing in my methodology is 100% unique and it is not 100% the same as other advice out there. But that’s where the best teaching and scholarship lies, right? Taking what’s come before and spinning it in a way that works for you, so that you can then teach what you’ve learned and someone else can adapt it?)
We’ll be working on this first act over the course of several posts, but for now, you should start with this:
Act 1 has two basic jobs. Job #1: Introduce your character’s lie.
You want to show your main character exhibiting a normal life, which is also dysfunctional because of that lie of theirs.
We want that self-protective lie we brainstormed for our Golden Thread front and center here. Say we have a woman (Sarah) whose lie is you can never trust anyone because people will always hurt you in the end. So in the earliest moments of seeing her, she’s:
Working in an office job where she interacts with no one. Eating lunch alone in her car. Purposefully going the opposite direction when she sees her neighbor in the hallway of her apartment building—the same neighbor who clearly has a crush on her. Refusing to text back family members. And, also, we should see signs of this hurting Sarah. Her isolation is wearing on her. Her work feels meaningless. Her lunch hour embarrasses her. Her nights are lonely.
Job #2: Introduce the inciting event.
This inciting event will throw the dysfunctional world off-balance. It will challenge the status-quo. And that’s a good thing. This status-quo needs challenging. Remember, this lie needs to hit the trash bin. You main character is unhappy because of it. What was intended to be self-protective is hurting them. This inciting event is step 1 in getting rid of that lie.
What makes a good inciting event?
It makes the lie expensive. Remember isolationist Sarah? Say word finally gets to her that she’s inherited her grandmother’s bakery…that is, if she’ll come to her grandmother’s hometown and run it herself and find 20 regular customers willing to sign an affidavit that she is herself continuing the business on in her grandmother’s legacy, with the same connection and care. The idea is, once she understands how the business is truly run, she’ll continue on or sell it knowing the kind of person who should have it. If Sarah doesn’t show up to run it, the business will go straight to the town’s Historical Society. Running a business deeply connected to customers is not an arena for someone who wants to hide in stairwells and never speak directly to another human being. But not going? That will cost her her inheritance.
It requires the opposite of the lie to succeed. A character who thinks they’re not strong enough will have to show courage. A character who thinks they don’t need anyone will have to build a team. In Sarah’s case, she’s going to have to step outside of herself and find connection in her grandmother’s customers, in order to better serve them.
It arrives from an unexpected direction or source. Someone like Sarah may know how to stay incognito in her workplace and her apartment building, but she knows nothing about the day-to-day functions of her grandmother’s business. Your character will always, to some extent, be a fish out of water, because they will be pushed outside of their comfort zone.
Your assignment this week:
Brainstorm scenes and write them. Remember when I said my method was a hybrid pantsing / plotting approach? Now you’re seeing what I mean. Brainstorm inciting events and scenes of normal dysfunction and write them. Doesn’t matter if these are the final ones you’ll use or not. Take them for a test drive. See if you like what they do on the page. Write as many as you have time for. Aim for 2 normal-but-dysfunctional life scenes and 3 inciting events. Learn from writing the scenes and take what you’ve learned back to brainstorm new possibilities.
Need a bit of additional help regarding the Golden Thread (which addresses your character’s wound and lie) or writing strong scenes?
Check out the writing resources I’ve listed for both.
Take the week to decide on your hook and inciting event. Next week, we’ll dive deeper into Act 1.