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Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice

#26: The Inciting Incident: How to Get Your Story Into Motion

Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice

Savannah Gilbo

Education, Writing Advice, Plotting A Novel, Editing A Novel, Character Arcs, Fiction Writing Mistakes To Avoid, Story Development, Fiction Writing Tips, How To Outline A Novel, Character Development, Story Structure, Books, World Building, Arts, Writing Stronger Scenes, How To, Fiction

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2020

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today's episode, we’re going to talk about crafting a great inciting incident for your story. I'm also going to show you how the global inciting incident looks different across the content genres. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:45] The inciting incident is an event that occurs and upsets the balance of your protagonist’s life. Life can't continue on in the same way now. [02:00] The inciting incident is also what sets your story in motion and gives rise to your protagonist’s over...

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey there, Savannah here. Before we get into today's episode, I wanted to share our next book

0:05.0

pick with you because I'm super excited to dig into this book and see how and why it works.

0:10.0

Our next meeting is coming up on November 16th at 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we're going to be

0:16.0

digging into the fourth wing by Rebecca Yarrows.

0:19.1

Abigail and I are so excited to deconstruct this book and these meetings are always so much fun.

0:24.1

They're interactive so in addition to our presentation on why we think this story works

0:28.8

and why we think it resonates with readers, there are also polls and lots of opportunities to chat with other

0:34.4

writers and ask us questions and you know just participate in a group discussion

0:38.8

about a really awesome book. As always our aim is to analyze a novel and translate our learnings into

0:44.8

actionable tips, tools, and strategies that you can take and implement in your own

0:48.8

writing right away. So if you want to join us or if you want to learn more about how the book club works, go to

0:54.4

Savannah Gilboe.com forward slash book dash club.

0:57.8

One more time, that's Savannah Gilboe.com forward slash book dash club.

1:01.9

Hope to see you there. It's also what sets your story in

1:04.9

motion and what gives rise to your protagonist's overarching story goal so from

1:10.0

this moment on your protagonist will be trying to achieve something specific that they think will bring happiness or success or validation or whatever they think they need in order to restore balance to their life.

1:23.0

Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast.

1:26.0

My name is Savannah Gilboe and I'm here to help you write a story that works.

1:30.0

I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming.

1:34.0

So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies

1:39.5

that you can implement in your writing right away.

1:42.0

So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned

...

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