Dramatic Action Inciting Incident and Character Emotional Development Dark Night

A writer asks: isn’t the inciting incident of an example I use — the Pulitizer Prize winning The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt — when he steals the painting?

Yes, the dramatic action inciting incident is when he steals The Goldfinch in the museum. His action energizes the external action, changing the ordinary to the dramatic — thus inciting the dramatic action plot.

I was describing just prior to her question the scene that occupies the all important 1st Energetic Marker: the End of the Beginning. Rather than the scene where he steals the painting earning the marker moment, the scene that steals the coveted spot is when his father arrives. His father’s arrival is a pivotal no-turning-back moment that earns this honor because at its heart, this story is primarily character-driven. Long before his mother dies in the explosion, his father inflicted the protagonist’s backstory wound when he walked out on them.

Yes, the dramatic action makes this a page-turning novel — will he or won’t he succeed? The answer we come to care about more deeply is will he or won’t he find peace?

After that presentation and especially so after presenting solo Plot and Character Transformation in Novels: Character Goals versus Character Traits, I find I don’t even try to resist throwing in what negative reviewers seem to hate in The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master — the Universal Story, especially how it applies beyond stories to us in the human realm. I come home energized about my up-coming: Transform Your Creative Life through the Universal Story: Seize the Life of Your Dreams online personal transformation workshop. Join me and move from where you currently are in the Universal Story to your heart’s desire.

Today I write!
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For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.
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