The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The difference between
the inciting incident and the end of the beginning
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 (and well before the the End of the Beginning and 1st Energetic Marker at the 1/4 mark)?
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. In this coming of age story, 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?
(I posted the following after the 2014 Writers’ Digest Los Angeles Writing Conference and repost here for ease)
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