Steven Pressfield: “Inciting Incident = Hook”

Steven Pressfield is an author, novelist, and essayist who hosts an excellent website which features weekly posts on the writing craft (Writing Wednesdays). His latest: “Inciting Incident = Hook”.

Why do we even have inciting incidents? Who says there has to be one? Can’t we just plunge in with Word One? Why are we worrying so much about “starting” the story? Doesn’t the story start all by itself?

Answer: the inciting incident is indispensable because the inciting incident is the Hook.

When Shawn talks about Hook, Build, Payoff (Act One, Act Two, Act Three), he’s talking about the unshakeable structure of a screenplay, a novel (some of ’em anyway), a play, a joke, a seduction, a plot to overthrow a despot, not to mention your secret 18-year-plan to get your newborn daughter into Harvard.

Beginning, Middle, End.

Beginning = Act One.

Heart of Act One = Inciting incident.

Inciting incident = Hook.

I’ve always admired Pressfield because of his excellent book on the craft “The War of Art”. Now I have more reason to resonate with him because this — Inciting Incident = Hook — is the exact same language I’ve been using since I began teaching in 2002. Here’s an example from a previous blog post:

In my current Core I: Plot class, we have had a great week digging into the theory of screenplay structure. The online forums have been buzzing with questions and excellent discussions. Here is an excerpt from one of them.

The subject came up about two major plot points which typically happen in the story’s setup: The Act One Midpoint and the Act One End. The question came up: What’s the difference?

Our forum conversation led us to consider the setup from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. I pick up my response from that point:

The Hook: When the U.S. government officials seek out Indy’s help re the Ark of the Covenant.

The Lock: The sequence with Marion, the German agent Toht, the fight, and resulting partnership between Marion and Indy (“I’m your goddammed partner,” Marion yells).

Let’s dig a bit deeper and use the language of the Hero’s Journey. There is the Old World, the way the Protagonist has been living. In Raiders, Indy has been rolling along doing his archeological trips and teaching at a university.

Something happens. Campbell calls it the Call to Adventure. Some in Hollywood call it the Inciting Incident. I call it The Hook for two reasons: (1) It is generally the first Plotline point to hook into the story and give the narrative significant a twist. (2) It also should serve to hook the reader’s attention. “Ah, so Indy is heading off into a mystery involving the Ark of the Covenant. Cool!”

Examples of The Hook in other movies:

* Star Wars: A New Hope: When R2D2 plays the message from Princess Leia to Luke Skywalker: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope.”

* Casablanca: When Rick takes possession of the letters of transit.

* The Wizard of Oz: When Miss Gulch takes Toto, Toto escapes, and Dorothy runs away.

* Tootsie: When Michael’s agent tells him no one will hire him as an actor.

* Up: When the court orders Carl to go live in an old folks home and he remembers his promise to Ellie.

* Little Miss Sunshine: When the pageant calls to inform the family that Olive has been accepted into the competition.

Something happens. An event that precipitates a change in the Protagonist’s life circumstances.

One thing Pressfield doesn’t address is how most stories begin by establishing some sense of the Protagonist’s ‘ordinary’ world before The Hook. Why? First, to settle the script reader into the story universe, faces and places, culture and atmosphere, key characters and dynamics. Second, to provide a touchstone for where the Protagonist is in the life they have cobbled together before FADE IN, so as to give the reader a reference point as the character heads off on their adventure and goes through whatever psychological and personal metamorphosis.

For The Hook to come across as something unique and different, the writer has to provide the reader a context in which to place this event which springs the narrative into action.

By the way, you can sign up to receive Pressfield’s Wednesday’s posts via email. You can find out about that and read the rest of his Hook post by going here.