Novel Writer's Toolkit: Revised Edition

Tool 6: Idea Into Story: Plot

Narrative Structure

Narrative structure can be used as a frame for your outline. I use the template of the five elements of narrative structure.

Inciting Incident

Escalating Conflict

Crisis

Climax

Resolution

Inciting Incident

This is a dynamic event and should be seen by the reader. It upsets the balance of forces and the rest of the novel is an attempt by your protagonist to restore the balance or change things for the better. Often the inciting incident is brought about by the antagonist. A good way to twist the inciting incident is to have what appears to be a good thing turn out to be the worst thing that could possibly happen. We’ve all heard stories of someone winning the lottery and it ended up ruining their life.

Your opening scene is going to do one of two things:  introduce the problem or introduce the protagonist.  When you make this decision, right away you are signaling to the reader which you believe to be more important.  You could start with the protagonist in the problem, but both have backstory and it could be overwhelming to the reader to get that all at once.

Whichever one you open with, generally the next scene introduces the other.  Thus, by the end of the second scene, the reader should know who the protagonist is and what is the problem that needs to be resolved.  Don’t be a secret keeper—withhold the plot from the reader thinking this engages them.  This just upsets readers.

The initiating event is where things change, the fights starts, the balance has been upset.  You definitely need a hook within the first few pages of your book.  Something that engages the readers emotions and gets them excited to go on the ride that is your story.

If you have a flashback or memory in your opening scene, perhaps you need to rip that out and put it in normal time sequence and make it the opening scene?  After all, it’s so important, that you need to toss it in there so quickly, maybe by itself it would be a great opening?

One lesson I learned writing thrillers was to introduce the protagonist before they become aware of the problem.  In a thriller, since the plot stakes are so high, you usually introduce the problem first.  Then we go to the protagonist.  What you want to do is give a brief view into the protagonist’s ‘normal’ life before they become aware there is this big problem.  This is key because it ‘sets’ the core personality of that character in the reader’s mind.  It’s a small, but important thing.  

For example, in Peacemaker, the story starts with the problem:  ten nuclear warheads are stolen, one is detonated to cover the bad guy’s trail.  As that one goes off in red flame, we suddenly shift to blue water.  The protagonist, Nicole Kidman is swimming laps.  We get about ten seconds of that, then a Marine is standing at the side of the pool telling her ‘we have a problem’.  What does that brief glimpse of her swimming laps tell us about her?  She’s used to things being in order.  She doesn’t like chaos.  And she’s about to be thrust into chaos.

In Stargate, the story starts with the Stargate being found.  Then we shift to the protagonist Kurt Russell, sitting in a young boy’s bedroom holding a gun in his hand.  We find out that his son found his gun and accidently shot himself with it.  This tells us Russell has nothing to live for.  When he goes through the Stargate with that nuke, if necessary, he will detonate it and close the gate.  Here’s an interesting question:  did they pick Russell because of his skills as a commando, or because they knew about his son’s death and that he was the perfect person to send on what could be a one-way mission?