Conference Schedule 2019
Friday, February 22, 2019, 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
In Search of the Inciting Incident: Novel Plot and Structure with Matthew Salesses
Date(s): Friday, February 22, 2019, 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Location: Heritage, University Club (view map)
Type(s): Presentation
Genre and Form(s): Fiction, Mixed Genre, Novels
Tags: Structure, Plot, Composition
About the Session
Have a great idea for a novel but don't know how to start it? Stuck in the middle of novel-drafting and stalling out? Much of writing a novel through to its end is about what is set up by its premise. A novel, a great writer once said, is a structural machine. That structure begins at the beginning. Agents and editors want to see the first 50 pages of the novel for a reason--a lot has to happen in those 50 pages to sustain a book-length work of fiction. What exactly makes an inciting incident, though? Exploring that question will help the writer set the groundwork for a novel.