All great relationships have obstacles, including the relationship we have with writing. Sometimes the muse loves us, other times…not so much.
What to do When the Muse Stops Talking
It’s hard to hear your muse when you’re worried. Worry is loud. It drowns out the wonderful inner voice that spurs your creativity.
Instead of stressing because nothing is coming to mind try:
Meditation. Freeing the mind for as little as five minutes can dredge up interesting thoughts that might be useful to your writing.
Going for a walk. Physical activity is great for releasing stress and clearing the mind.
Playing with a pet. Our pets, or if we are speaking of cats, our roommates, seem to have a sixth sense regarding our feelings and often know that we are stressed out before we do. Playing with them is freeing. Your inner voice will be back in rare form in no time.
Dwelling on the inability to hear your muse is a waste of time. Step away from the keyboard, do something mindless, and the inner voice will return.
How to Find Time When There Isn’t Any
We make time for those things that are important to us. Whether you should be writing every day or not depends upon several things, including:
Where you are in your writing journey?
Do you have other responsibilities that demand your attention?
What do you want from your writing journey?
If you are beginning your writing career chances are you’re working a full-time job and writing in the wee hours of the morning when the house is quiet, or whenever quiet time happens to be. For those who choose writing as a hobby, writing may not be on the daily agenda.
However, if you want to be a professional writer, you’ll need to be productive.
“You resign yourself to writing lots and lots of rubbish. You just got to write that out of your system and sooner or later you will hit what you should be doing.” — J. K. Rowling
Here are four helpful steps to get you on your writing journey:
Set a routine
According to Psychotherapist Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D., maintaining a route helps keep us grounded. Make a schedule that works for you.
“I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach or prepare.
"When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten. I do pushups and sit ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not.”
Have a daily word count
How much can you realistically write every day? If it is around 200–400, no worries! Set the goal, but stick to it. Value consistency over quantity. Stick to your daily word count for as long as necessary. Eventually, you will be able to write 1000–2000 words or more each day. Practice will get you there.
Allow for cheat days
Just like being on a diet, there will be writing cheat days. Accept that fact of writing life. Although you may not be writing, these days can still be productive.
Brainstorm ideas
Look for visuals
Plot your course
Read for fun
Set a sleep routine
Here are the sleep routines of a few fine writers.
Toni Morrison had two children and a day job when she started her writing career. She rose at 4 a.m., and then wrote until it was time to get her children up and off to school.
Virginia Woolf got up with the sun. After breakfast with her husband, she went to her writing room at 9:30.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of "The Great Gatsby" regularly slept until 11 a.m., and then spent the afternoon trying to gear up for a writing session.
James Joyce usually slept until 10 or so, then lounged around in bed for another hour, pondering.
Each writer followed their specific sleep routine. Sleep is critical for your mental health and creative voice.
What do you do when your muse stops talking? Do you keep a routine for writing?
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About Ellen
Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works In Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and Crystal Memories, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi.
How do you, as a writer, capture your readers’ hearts and minds? With a spark that grabs the reader. No, that spark is not the first sentence, though it is important. The spark that grabs the reader is an inciting incident that ignites the reader’s imagination. Crafting the right inciting incident is crucial to laying the foundation for a can’t-stop-reading story. To create the best one for your story, you must understand what it is, why it’s a powerful piece of your story, and how to create one.
What is an Inciting Incident?
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to incite means to move to action,stir up,spur on,urge on. So far, so good. But there’s more to what an inciting incident is.
Let’s look at what some writing experts say the inciting incident is.
Kathryn Craft at Writer Unboxed says: “A story exists because something happens in a character’s life—the inciting incident—that upsets her equilibrium and arouses her desire to restore balance.”
According to Sara Letourneau on DIYMFA it’s “the launching pad that thrusts a character into the conflict.”
Janice Hardy on Fiction University says, “The inciting event is the moment when something changes for the protagonist that draws them onto the path that is, or will become, the novel’s plot. If this moment didn’t happen, the story would not have happened.”
No matter which genre of fiction you write, it is a pivotal moment. It is when the protagonist is at the t-junction of her life. There is no continuing on the path she’s been on, at least in her mind there isn’t. She must turn onto an unfamiliar path. If she does not turn onto this path, the rest of the story either doesn’t happen or makes little sense.
Why it’s Important
The inciting incident often focuses on a smaller issue related to the big conflict of the story. This leads some writers to believe that the inciting incident is minor.
It is not a minor event.
I think Janice Hardy says it best, “If this moment didn’t happen, the story would not have happened.” The right inciting incident deepens the questions in your readers’ minds. It hints at problems to come. Often the protagonist misunderstands the meaning of the moment. Sometimes the reader also misunderstands. Sometimes the reader knows more than the protagonist. Either way, the reader wants to keep reading.
Example:
In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker is a young man living with his aunt and uncle on their farm. He dreams of a life of adventure, but accepts his uncle’s words that he must work another year on the farm first.
While cleaning a droid his uncle bought, Luke discovers a message from a princess to an Obi Wan Kenobi. It sounds desperately important. So Luke must deliver the message. He leaves the farm in search of Obi Wan.
It is that decision, that search, that takes Luke away from the farm at a crucial moment. It introduces Luke and the viewer to Obi Wan and the Force and the Rebellion. And it makes the viewer understand his choice when Luke returns to the farm and discovers his aunt and uncle are dead. By that time, the viewer must know what happens next.
Note, if Luke hadn’t gone to find Obi Wan, he would have died too. Or Luke could have been in the field and escaped death, but he would never have learned about the Force and the Rebellion. Either way, the rest of the story wouldn’t happen.
Characteristics of an Effective Inciting Incident
Story Specific: Link your inciting incident to your specific story problem. Let’s look at Star Wars: A New Hope again. If we had seen Luke working on the farm without a goal, he wouldn’t have wished for an adventure. And the viewer would not have linked the droid’s message to Luke’s need or desire for adventure.
Happens On the Page: The inciting incident must happen on the page, not in-between pages or in the past. The reader needs to experience the moment with the character.
Relevance, Impact, and Commitment: The inciting incident should directly affect the protagonist. It should also lead to the story’s central conflict. The impact on the protagonist should reveal an obstacle strong enough to create some level of commitment by the protagonist to resolve the issue.
Emotional Resonance: The inciting incident should evoke emotions within the protagonist and the reader. It could be a moment of joy, sorrow, anger, or fear, as long as it creates a strong emotional connection. The best inciting incident connects the reader to the protagonist and the protagonist’s problem.
Introduce the Catalyst: Introduce the inciting incident in a way that disrupts the protagonist’s life. It can be a shocking event, a surprising revelation, or an unexpected encounter. The event should change the status quo such that the protagonist must make a change.
Raise Questions: Your inciting incident should raise questions that need answers. Create a sense of intrigue or curiosity, a mystery, a conflict, or a problem the protagonist needs to overcome.
A Logical Goal or Motivation: The incident should provide the protagonist with a logical goal or motivation. To accomplish this, make your protagonist’s goals, inner conflicts and external conflicts related and actionable.
Convey the Stakes: The stakes of the inciting incident won’t be the same as the stakes for the central story problem. Nonetheless, the consequences and urgency of the problem if the protagonist does not solve it should propel her forward.
Ignite Action: Like the forced turn in the photograph at the top of this post, that goal or motivation propels them into action. It should give them a reason to overcome obstacles and drive the story forward.
Misunderstanding: There must be something that the protagonist doesn’t understand. (If your readers understand, they feel smart. If they also misunderstand, their sense of suspense grows.) The protagonist may think she knows what’s going on, but she doesn’t have the full picture. Often, the protagonist’s false belief leads to that misunderstanding. Moving through the story, the protagonist and the reader uncover the truth. That helps them learn about and resolve the story’s central story problem.
Mirroring or Foreshadowing: The strongest inciting incident mirrors the end of the story. Sometimes the easiest way to find this reflection is by writing the ending. Then you can go back and tweak the inciting incident so it shows an emotion or action that is an opposite of the ending. For example: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope isn’t a perfect example, but there is foreshadowing going on. The inciting incident shows us that Luke takes on the small adventure of finding Obi Wan. The ending shows he’s fully embraced the adventure of being a fighter pilot for the rebels.
Where Does the Inciting Incident Go?
An inciting incident usually falls about halfway (10-15%) through the beginning. In a novel that would about the middle of the first act. Why not precisely halfway? It’s important not to force it. For pacing, it needs to fall close to that perfect halfway point. Yet, if the writer forces it, she may skip or cut important reader-character bonding moments.
It takes a lot of skill and the right story for the inciting incident to begin a successful story. This doubles and triples the work your inciting incident must accomplish. Placed in the very first sentences of the story, it also becomes the hook. Hooking a reader isn’t simply a matter of writing a clever sentence or scene. A strong beginning introduces the setting, the main characters, the stakes, and a reason for your reader to relate to your protagonist and her goals.
Placing the inciting incident midway through the beginning is important. That placement gives the writer time to make enough introductions that the reader isn’t confused and can’t stop turning pages.
Should You Plot or Discover the Inciting Incident?
It doesn’t matter whether you plot the perfect inciting incident before writing or you discover it in one of your re-writes of the story. The best inciting incident is the one that fits your character and your story no matter when you create it.
Need More Help?
Young book writer writing in library
It may take a little study for you to understand the inciting incident well enough to create the best one for your story. How do you study it? By taking other stories apart. Take a movie or book that you love and divide it by time or by pages into sixths. (I suggest movies because typically they follow structure more rigorously. They also require a shorter time commitment than novels.)
Re-read, or re-watch, the first one or two-sixths and the final one or two-sixths. Look specifically for an inciting incident and how it mirrors the ending. Pretty soon you’ll start noticing inciting incidents in all the movies you watch and books you read and especially the ones you write.
Final Words
The inciting incident’s job is to be the bridge between the opening scene and the core conflict of the novel. It transitions the protagonist into the main plot by giving them an interesting problem that leads to the bigger issues and themes of the novel.
Most readers don’t know what the parts of a story are. They don’t care about the names we give those parts. But readers are familiar with story structure because it is in nearly every successful story ever written. They expect to come across most, if not all, the parts we writers talk about in the same order that most stories follow. Why? Because they care about story. Just like you.
What are your favorite your movie or book inciting incident?
About Lynette
Lynette M. Burrows is an author, blogger, creativity advocate, and Yorkie wrangler. She survived moving seventeen times between kindergarten and her high school graduation. This alone makes her uniquely qualified to write an adventure or two.
Her Fellowship Dystopia series takes place in 1961 Fellowship America where autogyros fly and following the rules isn’t optional. It’s a captivating story exploring the power of choice, identity, transformation, and unimagined heroism. Books one and two, My Soul to Keep, and If I Should Die, are available everywhere books are sold online. Book three, And When I Wake, is scheduled to be published in 2024.
Lynette lives in the land of OZ and is a certifiable chocoholic and coffee lover. When she’s not blogging or writing or researching her next book, she avoids housework and plays with her two Yorkshire terriers. You can find Lynette online on Facebook, or Twitter @LynetteMBurrows or on her website.
Imagine writing in front of a crowd and keeping the action moving. Imagine a writer improvising in front of an audience. Now imagine that the main characters are all actors with their own agency and agendas, assistant storytellers who occasionally go rogue, all in the name of creating a more interesting story. Eric Campbell, Game Master (GM) for the Streampunks, is a stunning storyteller.
Start with a genre.
Why did I fall in love with the Streampunks instead of Critical Role? It was all about the genre they played in. Mostly science fiction with the occasional cyberpunk story. They told stories I couldn't resist.
Each season, they pick a game setting to play in and create a world for the story. Often these are niche fandoms like Dr. Who and Star Trek. They know exactly what their fans love, and they create in these spaces.
Decide on a set of rules.
Each game has a set of rules. Story mechanics like talents, weaknesses, superpowers, and, in some ways, pacing are driven by the rules and processes designed by game designers.
Does magic exist?
What is the cost of using a superpower?
They set and clarify the rules at the beginning of each game. Some games have elaborate rule books. When I hear writers talk about a story bible, I think about how visually beautiful some of these rule books are.
It is not unheard of for the game to stop, the actors to pull out the rule books, and then for our GM to decide how those rules will drive the story. Example: Yes, your character can fly, but you’re in space and you can’t breathe there. Also, you are floating. So unless you put on a space suit, you’re not going anywhere.
Build meaningful characters.
Each of the players creates a character at the beginning of the season. The GM also creates several random extra non-player characters (NPCs) that he can pull out as needed. Some of these will be villains, mighty opponents that they must defeat.
One of my favorite things about Eric’s extra characters is the diversity and respect he puts into even the most minor of characters. His villains are so nuanced that both the audience and some of the actors have become enamored with them. One of the most beautiful scenes I’ve seen was after two deeply damaged characters were defeated, the crew then rescued them and rehabilitated them. They became heroes in their own side stories with depth and joy.
Each character has strengths and weaknesses, superpowers and fatal flaws. They are careful that no character is so over-powered (OP) they'll steal the story.
Respect your characters.
Each individual player has a list of things they will not do. Some like in-game romance. Some want to avoid it. Some have had traumatic events in real life (IRL) that they don’t want to explore in a game.
The storyteller (GM) moderates and protects the players to avoid putting those actors in those scenarios. Occasionally if a scene will have an issue, he’ll offer a trigger warning and protect the actors who have that trigger. (Cover your ears until I tell you it’s safe again!)
Push the limits.
Everything else is fair game. Pushing the characters to deal with life situations that are challenging is considered game enhancing. It is beyond cathartic for the actors and for the audience.
Watching them deal with real emotions in the game world enhances the audience's involvement.
You see, these games are played with a live audience texting the characters and chatting throughout the entire game. More on that in a moment.
Don't be afraid to go in unplanned directions.
As one of the main characters once said, "Always do the bad thing." If there is a way to make the story more dire, a way to raise the stakes, that is the way that actor will choose to go. Why? Because it makes for much more interesting stories!
These games are played with dice and allow characters to make decisions the GM doesn't plan on ahead of time.
One time our intrepid GM accidentally killed a main character. The audience panicked. The other characters freaked out. We had to wait a week for the next episode to see if they could resuscitate her. That entire week, social media for the group was boiling with ideas.
Another time, the group rolled so high trying something silly that they succeeded. Suddenly, the entire plot of the story had to change. I think it is a mark of a pro that the GM took a breath and laughed it off. And then created a new plot spontaneously. And made it look easy.
Sometimes my characters go off the rails, too. But there's no space for writer’s block when hundreds of fans are waiting to see what you do next.
Pay attention to the audience.
Which brings me back to that audience and something I think writers miss out on too often. These games are played with the audience in a live chat room.
The audience tries to guess what each character will do next. They talk about the emotions that come up. And they'll often be huddled together (virtually) hanging on every word, in fear for their favorite characters. Our storytellers have instant feedback from the fans.
Fans of the Streampunks call themselves the Aux Crew and are occasionally written into the stories. Those of us who pay money (Patreon subscribers) can create our own character and the GM may include them as an NPC to provide ambiance. Fans can also invest money to request special scenes. One time they included a requested wedding in the story to delight the audience.
There is nothing like the joy of a fan squealing "That's me!" in the chat. A lot of people give money to keep the Streampunks on the air. And we won't even talk about the $11 million that Critical Role raised in a Kickstarter.
These fans are literally invested.
Bring the feels.
Why are people so involved? Because the stories are packed with emotions. Powerful, heartwarming, visceral emotions that bring the stories and characters to life.
Fans care deeply about these characters and their life experiences. Often the fans write fan fiction or draw fan art and share them on social media. The actors and the GM will comment, share them around, and bring attention to these beautiful creations.
They even have a special area where fans can tell their own collaborative stories in their worlds whenever they want.
Feelings power these interactions.
Feelings in the stories, and the feelings that the characters and the fans share.
Cliffhangers are powerful.
Eric Campbell is known for his masterful Campbell Cliffhangers. As it gets to be time for the session to end, chat gets nervous. Surely, he won’t do it to us again. The story arc is almost complete, right? But then he'll improvise the most amazing cliffhangers. I’m not talking about cliffhangers that feel fake or tacked on. They feel like this was the point the story was building to all along.
But now we must wait a week to find out what will happen! Argh! There will be panic in chat.
And then we'll head over to social media and private forums to debate what comes next.
As writers, I think we can learn a lot from these folks.
Have you ever played an RPG (role playing game)? Have you watched someone improvise a story like this in front of an audience? What can we as writers learn from this transmedia example? Do you think writers can find this same connection with their true fans? How?
AboutLisa
Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.
Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter to be the first to see her new classes! (And she's got some fun things she'll be sending to her subscribers over the next few months!)
