The Inciting Incident

Beginning a novel is the pits. Where to start? Start too early and the story bogs down. Start too late and you end up with a skid load of flash backs. The current wisdom is to start at the "inciting incident." At least for us mystery-writing folks.

You can describe the incident, but you have to get in a little (not too much) about the main character, and whet the reader's appetite, and appeal to the senses, and have a nice little hook. And don't start with the weather. And prologues are passe. Cripes the rules start to get a little intimidating, and then every other book one picks up breaks them, and rather elegantly, too.

This writing business is hard, I tell you. But you knew that.

In 14 minutes I'm going to watch Glen Close and company in Damages. It's the one thing I've been watching consistently since the Sopranos, but I think Big Love is pretty good, too. And yeah, I watch the Red Sox. And the food channel when I'm ironing or want to chill or maybe even take a nap.

Now it's 10 minutes. Up the stairs I go.

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