Story Structure

Chapter Six

The inciting incident.

Write 1000 words which ends which ends in the potential for disaster. The reason I say potential is because the actual central conflict (the big problem) doesn't happen here. That happens at the First Plot Point. 

The difference between the Inciting incident and the first plot point, even though both deal with THE BIG PROBLEM, is that the inciting incident is the cause of the problem, not the problem itself. Its the thing that happens and creates a new situation, a new "world" which our main character will start to debate about in the next few chapters. If you've set everything up in the previous chapters correctly, the reader is starting to get nervous about what this is going to do to the main character but the real problem isn't clear as yet. 

P.S. We didn't talk about stakes. Stakes is basically, letting the reader see what the character stands to lose if something happens, or doesn't happen. At the inciting incident, we should have an idea of how this event will affect our character because we know them well enough now and we know what's important to them.

In my story, Junior Year, the main character, a 17 year old girl is secretly in love with her best friend's brother. And she's happy to live like that, until his ex-girlfriend transfers back to their school. Now, all along our main character felt safe with this little crush of hers, but when the ex comes back, her world is threatened, because the idea of the guy being with someone else is potentially a real problem now and she needs to decide how she feels about that. The arrival of the ex causes a set of events to occur which takes us to the first plot point.

So, in your story, something needs to happen in these 1000 words to cause a disturbance. This disturbance will cause a domino effect leading up to the first plot point.

You're on 6000 words now. KEEP GOING!