Re: Talkin' Bout Structure, Part II posted by Martin

which, contrary to what Burley said below, I think is the equivalent to McKee’s Inciting Incident, but then again, he’s got the books, not me

So he got them out to look it up. I present you with:

THE INCITING INCIDENT VS. THE POINT OF ATTACK / PREDICAMENT (aren’t you just juiced about this?)

First, the definitions.

From Story, by Robert McKee, pg 189:

The INCITING INCIDENT radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonists life.

pg. 190

…the Inciting Incident is a single event that either happens directly to the protagonist or is caused by the protagonist. Consequently, he’s immediately aware that life is out of balance for better or worse.

So, to sum up, the Inciting Incident is the event that really kicks the story in. Everything before is for empathizing what life would be like without the event.

Next, from How to Build a Great Screenplay, by David Howard.

No mention of the Inciting Incident, but this on page 288:

The point of attack is the first revelation of the material that will eventually create the main story. Imagine the main story is a thunderstorm and the undisturbed status quo of the protagonist is the quiet life on the farm. The point of attack would be the moment when we first hear thunder in the distance.

That’s very different than McKee’s Inciting Incident—this sounds more like a thematic foreshadowing. Howard doesn’t talk about the Predicament, he just goes straight into the main tension.

Finally, from Screenwriting, the Sequence Approach, by Paul Joseph Gulino. Page 14:

Usually, by the end of the first sequence, there arises a moment in the picture called the point of attack, or inciting incident. This is the first intrusion of instability on the initial flow of life, forcing the protagonist to respond in some way.

So, this sounds much more like McKee and less like Howard. But Howard always seems to dance around ideas more than just nail them down. He’d rather talk about the chicken or the egg problem of whether stories or story tellers came first.

Then, on page 15, Gulino says this about the predicament:

Whatever solutions the protagonist attempts during the second sequence lead only to a bigger problem, or predicament, marking the end of the first act and setting up the main tension, which occupies the second.

It sounds like he’s saying that the Predicament is like the second part of the Inciting Incident—whereas McKee tends to bundle the whole package—incident and response—Gulino breaks them up. The Incident and then the Predicament, which is essentially the character’s conscious desire to confront the issues raised by the Inciting Incident. I would say the character has some say in the Predicament, since it springs from her conscious attempts to restore order, and ends up with her creating more disorder.

I personally like the expansion of the Inciting Incident, so will take this into consideration with further developments of Tip Scum.

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