How to Craft an Inciting Incident for Your Novel or How to Kick Your Protagonist Into the Plot

As with all things in writing, the inciting incident goes by many names: the catalyst, the call to adventure, the plot thrust, and the hook. That last one is super confusing and not helpful!

What you call it isn’t important, but it is vital to understand what it does and that your story must have it.

The inciting incident is an event that hits your protagonist alongside the head and says, “Dude, so everything you thought was true... yeah, it’s not. Here’s what you are up against. Have fun now. Bye Bye.”