Screenwriting guide
Inciting Incident: Definition and Examples
The inciting incident is the event that knocks your protagonist’s life off balance and starts the story. In a feature it usually lands around page 10 to 12: Syd Field puts it near page 10 of 120, and Save the Cat calls it the catalyst on page 12 of 110. It asks the question your ending answers.
Written and reviewed by ScriptLix Editorial
What page should your inciting incident land on?
Aim for pages 9 to 12 in a 110 page script.
- Inciting incidentPage 9
Syd Field. Page 10 of 120: the event that sets the story in motion.
- CatalystPage 12
Save the Cat. Page 12 of 110: the telegram, the knock at the door.
- Break into TwoPage 25
Save the Cat. Page 25 of 110: the hero chooses to act.
- Plot point onePage 25
Syd Field. About page 27 of 120: the turn into Act Two.
See every act break for your length in the three act structure calculator, all fifteen Save the Cat beats in the beat sheet calculator, and how a first page sets it up in how to start a screenplay.
What does an inciting incident look like on the page?
Two original scenes, a discovery in a feature and an arrival in a short, rendered as script pages with notes on what each line is doing.
Inciting incident · discovery
The Recount
A political drama. A county clerk who has never broken a rule finds something she cannot unsee, about page 10.
INT. COUNTY RECORDS OFFICE - NIGHT
Fluorescent hum. Boxes of ballots stacked to the ceiling. MARGARET TELL (60s), reading glasses on a chain, counts envelopes in fives.
She stops. Two envelopes, same precinct, same handwriting. She lays a third beside them. A fourth.
She checks the clock. 11:52. The certification deadline is midnight.
She picks up the phone. Dials. It rings once.
DEPUTY (V.O.)
Margaret? It's late.
MARGARET
I need you to come down here.
DEPUTY (V.O.)
Sign the form and go home.
She looks at the form. At the envelopes. The second hand ticks.
She puts the pen down.
Written for this page as a teaching example. Not taken from a film.
- The routine comes first: a woman counting in fives at night tells us she does this every time, by the book.
- The discovery is visual. Matching handwriting, laid out one envelope at a time, so the reader sees it as she does.
- A clock gives the event urgency. Ignoring it is easy and costs nothing, which is exactly the temptation.
- She does not commit yet. Putting the pen down is a pause, not a decision, and that leaves room for the debate before plot point one.
Inciting incident · arrival
Second Helpings
A comedy. A widowed chef who cooks only for herself gets an arrival she did not order, on page 1 of a short.
INT. TINY APARTMENT KITCHEN - MORNING
One pan. One egg. One plate. ROSA BENEDETTI (70s) cracks the egg like she is angry at it.
A KNOCK. She ignores it. Another KNOCK, louder.
INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS
Rosa opens the door. A BOY (9) holds a covered casserole dish and a note.
BOY
My mom says you used to run a restaurant.
ROSA
Your mom is wrong.
BOY
She says you have to teach me. She's in the hospital and I'm hungry.
He holds the note up. Rosa does not take it. Behind her, the egg starts to burn.
Written for this page as a teaching example. Not taken from a film.
- One pan, one egg, one plate: her whole life in three nouns, set up in a single line.
- In a short there is no time for a long set up, so the arrival comes on the first page.
- The boy’s line turns a knock at the door into a problem with stakes she cannot shrug off.
- The burning egg is a small comic image that says her routine is already over.
How to use it
- 1
Write the hero’s normal life first, so we can see what the event breaks.
- 2
Make the event happen to the hero, or force a choice on them, on screen if you can.
- 3
Tie it to what the hero wants or fears most, so ignoring it is not an option.
- 4
Land it near page 10 to 12 of a feature, or within the first page or two of a short.
- 5
Check that the ending answers the question this event raises.
Inciting incident vs catalyst vs plot point one
| Beat | Where it lands | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Inciting incident (Field, McKee) | About page 10 of 120 | Upsets the hero’s life and sets the story moving |
| Catalyst (Snyder) | Page 12 of 110 | The same job under Save the Cat’s name: news, a knock, an offer |
| Debate (Snyder) | Pages 12 to 25 of 110 | The hero resists or weighs the call |
| Plot point one (Field) | About pages 25 to 27 of 120 | The hero commits, and the story turns into Act Two |
What is an inciting incident?
It is the event that disrupts the protagonist’s ordinary life and sets the main story in motion. Robert McKee, in Story (1997), describes it as the event that radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonist’s life. Before it, the hero has a routine. After it, they cannot go back to that routine without paying a price.
A good inciting incident raises a dramatic question the audience wants answered: will she find the boy, will he win the case, will they get off the island. The climax is where that question gets its answer.
Where does the inciting incident go in a screenplay?
In Syd Field’s paradigm from Screenplay, the inciting incident falls around page 10 of a 120 page script, inside an Act One that runs to plot point one around pages 25 to 27. Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! (2005) puts the catalyst on page 12 of a 110 page script. Both are guides drawn from produced films, not rules, and plenty of good scripts land the event a little earlier or later.
Scale it to your length. In a 90 page comedy that is roughly page 8 to 10. In a short film the incident often happens on page 1 or 2, because there is no room for a long set up. Use the page finder above to see the marks for your own page count.
What is the difference between the inciting incident and the catalyst?
For most writers they name the same beat. Catalyst is Snyder’s word in the Save the Cat beat sheet; inciting incident is the older term used by Field, McKee and most screenwriting teachers. Some writers draw a line between them: the inciting incident can be an event that sets things up, even one that happened before page 1, while the catalyst is the moment the hero personally feels it. If your outline has both, make sure they are not doing the same job twice.
Is the inciting incident the same as plot point one?
No. The inciting incident presents the problem; plot point one is where the hero commits to dealing with it. Between them sits what Snyder calls the debate, where the hero hesitates, refuses or prepares. A detective is handed a case at page 10 and refuses it; at page 25 her partner is shot and she takes it. The first is the inciting incident, the second is plot point one.
What are the types of inciting incident?
Most fall into a handful of shapes. An arrival: someone or something enters the hero’s life. A discovery: the hero learns a fact that changes everything. A loss: a person, a job or a home is taken away. An offer: a chance the hero cannot quite turn down. A threat or attack: danger arrives. A decision: the hero breaks their own routine by choice.
Brief, well known cases show the range. In Star Wars (1977), Luke finds Leia’s message hidden in R2-D2. In Jaws (1975), a swimmer is killed in the opening scene, before we have met the hero, and the story turns on what Brody does about it. Both raise a question that only the ending can settle.
Can the inciting incident be a coincidence?
Yes, and it often is. A chance meeting or an accident can start a story, because the audience accepts luck that creates a problem. What they resist is luck that solves one. Keep coincidence at the start and make the hero’s choices drive everything after it.
What are the most common inciting incident mistakes?
Arriving too late, so the reader spends 20 pages in set up waiting for the story to begin. Happening off screen and being reported in dialogue, which drains its force. Being too small to justify the film, or too big for the hero to plausibly ignore through the debate. And not connecting to the ending: if the climax answers a different question, the script will feel like two films.
Questions writers ask
What is an inciting incident in simple terms?
The event that turns the hero’s normal life upside down and starts the story. Without it, nothing in the film would happen.
What page should the inciting incident be on?
In a feature, roughly page 10 to 12: Syd Field places it near page 10 of 120 and Save the Cat puts the catalyst on page 12 of 110. In a short, often page 1 or 2.
Can the inciting incident happen before the story starts?
Some writers treat an earlier event as the inciting incident, but the audience needs to feel its impact on screen. Show the moment it reaches the hero.
Is the inciting incident the same as the catalyst?
Usually yes. Catalyst is Blake Snyder’s name for the beat in the Save the Cat beat sheet; inciting incident is the more traditional term.
Can a story have more than one inciting incident?
A film has one main inciting incident for the A story, but subplots can have their own, and a TV episode often has one per storyline.