Resources
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Army of Bots: Deeper into the Vortex of Nigerian Marketing Scams
In this 2025 article on Victoria Strauss's scam-busting site, Writer Beware, she highlights the new wave of AI-generated scam emails that purport to offer authors access to book review communities, book clubs, or dialogue with famous authors.
Around the World in 8 Seconds
Monthly e-newsletter from Beto Palaio's Littera Tour blog showcases an eclectic variety of classic and contemporary poems, photographs and artwork, with commentary in English and Portuguese.
Arrow
By Maureen Sherbondy
All you want to do is fly away
from the trees you planted years before,
from the house collecting boxes
in the attic's dust, to flit away from fleeting
time. The husband snores in a shared bed
but you no longer know him. Overnight
some old man robbed his body and mind,
left behind an imposter in the four-post
bed. What was it you once desired?
A brick house on a quiet tree-lined street?
Sweet babies asleep in their beds?
In front of you a door you have a key to,
ridged metal leaves an achy red imprint in your palm.
Now you must knock from the outside
because you are just a stranger.
You want to bury the key in the yard,
to shoot an arrow into the clouds,
watch it land near a different town,
a different house, a different man.
Art and Fear
A small book full of wisdom about overcoming the psychological barriers that can prevent us from taking our own work seriously.
Art Has an Effect (Make Sure It’s the Effect You Want)
In this blog post from 2018, May Peterson (a/k/a M.A. Peterson), a romance and fantasy novelist and fiction editor, explains that an important goal of "sensitivity reader" edits is to remove inadvertently offensive details that don't advance the vision of the story. All character description is selective, so authors should be glad to prune away careless errors that could dilute readers' connection with the book.
Art/s and Theology Australia
Art/s and Theology Australia is open to English-language submissions from around the world that put theology and the arts in conversation. Editors say, "We welcome contributions from practitioners, creatives, scholars, curators, and others with an interest in the creative arts." Submissions may be short essays, reviews, poems, music, photos, and critical reflections. Prose should be 500-2,000 words and written for a general audience, not academic.
Artificial Intelligence Manifesto at the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, a venerable organization that advocates for authors' rights, issued this manifesto in 2023 to propose limits on the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT. The organization plans to lobby for laws and policies that will protect authors' copyrights, compensate them for the use of their work in training AI data sets, and allow them to opt out of such use, among other safeguards.
Arts and Faith
Discussions of literature, music, visual and performing arts from a spiritual perspective.
Arts Journal: Publishing
A quick way to get up to speed on the major stories.
Arts Writers Grant Program
The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program supports individual writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through grants in the following categories: articles, blogs, books, new and alternative media, and short-form writing. Grants range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the needs and scope of the project. Application deadline is typically in early June.
Artvee
Artvee offers free, downloadable, high-res images of public domain art from museums around the world. Great for book covers.
As If Gravity Were a Theory
Winner of the 2005 Cider Press Review Book Award, this first collection limns the wonders and losses of everyday life with clarity, compassion and a deceptive simplicity that is the distilled product of wisdom. Admirers of Douglas Goetsch and Wislawa Szymborska may find Colburn's poetic voice especially resonates with them.
ASBPE Editorial/Magazine Publishing Resources
The American Society of Business Publication Editors' website offers this extensive page of links for journalists, including trade associations, reference sites, job markets and legal basics.
ASCAP Resource Guide to Songwriting Competitions
ASCAP, the rights management agency for songwriters and recording artists, maintains this link directory. (Although we assume that contests listed here are more likely to be reputable, writers should still research each contest online before entering.)
Asian American Literary Review
In showcasing the work of established and emerging writers, AALR aims to incubate dialogues and, just as importantly, open those dialogues to regional, national, and international audiences of all constituencies. They select work that is, as Marianne Moore once put it, "an expression of our needs...[and] feeling, modified by the writer's moral and technical insights." Published biannually, AALR features fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, comic art, interviews, and book reviews.
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
AAWW sponsors the annual Asian American Literary Awards Ceremony to recognize outstanding literary works by Americans of Asian descent. Their reading room contains notable works of Asian American literature through the decades.
Association of University Presses Subject Area Grid
The Association of University Presses maintains this annually updated list, free to download, of member presses' special interests in particular genres and topics. If you're considering a university press for your poetry or literary prose book, this guide will help you target the right ones.
At First Light
...greater is He that is in you.... [1 John 4:4]
Half-past five. I am wan and waste.
Destruction clutches
hard beneath these ribs and brows.
Before the sheets are first thrown off,
passions resurrect that nurtured
in the day now past, pestered
on the breaths of night. I mourn
near certain sin in this new day,
yet try to snuff the spark that whispers
Peace, be still.
Please ...
Dew the deserts, salve the stings,
fill this pardoned purgator.
Kindle fresh your resurrection,
warm like anthracite inside.
Bend my spirit's steel
by your holy brawn and brooding.
Guide me with your strong hands,
since I fear that more astrays will come.
Draw near, sweet guest.
Transform my thorns that should be fruit,
Fill me for another day,
that I might not grieve you
even once.
Copyright 2005 by John Alexanderson
Critique by Jendi Reiter
This month's critique poem, John Alexanderson's "At First Light," caught my attention because of its economical yet densely textured language, and its continuity with the tradition of classic Christian poetry. The tone and theme recollect 17th-century metaphysical poets such as George Herbert, while the style pays homage to Gerard Manley Hopkins' delight in word sounds, adapted to a more modern idiom.
In the opening stanza, Alexanderson uses alliteration and assonance to intensify the sound of his words, lifting them beyond mere prose. We hear a dark harmony in the clenched sound of "destruction" and "clutches," the grinding "R" of hard/ribs/brows. The slightly old-fashioned vocabulary ("wan and waste") also signals that the author is introducing a subject of more than everyday importance. In a more overwritten poem, such language might seem affected, but Alexanderson skirts that trap by using simple, short sentences that maintain the natural and direct style we expect from contemporary verse.
The second stanza concisely lays out the universal dilemma that torments the narrator. Returning to himself from sleep, he sees himself as the flawed element that will spoil the gift of the new day just as he did before. How soon the passions that seemed to "nurture" in the morning turned pestilent before evening!
The heart of his problem is that he simultaneously desires and shuns God's transforming power: "I mourn/near certain sin in this new day,/yet try to snuff the spark that whispers/Peace, be still." The apostle Paul expressed a similar sentiment in Romans 7:18-19: "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing."
After catching his breath on a stanza break, the narrator gasps out only "Please...." In the release that follows this prayer, cascades of words tumble out, sped by alliteration: "Dew the deserts, salve the stings,/fill this pardoned purgator." Alexanderson channels the voice of Hopkins in the wonderful lines, "Bend my spirit's steel/by your holy brawn and brooding." I loved that unusual, melodious pairing of male and female, forceful and nurturing, with its echoes of Hopkins' "Holy Ghost [that] over the bent/World broods" (from the poem "God's Grandeur").
The combination of tender intimacy and humble formality in "Draw near, sweet guest" reminded me of Herbert poems such as "Love Bade Me Welcome". Because the power to be good comes from God and not himself, the speaker dares to ask what first seemed impossible: "that I might not grieve you/even once." Instead of looking inward with despair at his own faults, he looks outward with hope in his relationship with God.
Where could this poem be submitted? There are a growing number of excellent literary journals with spiritual themes, which I've recommended before in these pages. Publications to investigate include Windhover, Literature and Belief and Image. I support the mission of these journals, but I also encourage writers of spiritually oriented poetry to explore "mainstream" publication outlets, so as to open up new channels for dialogue between the religious and artistic subcultures. These upcoming contests may also be of interest:
Greensboro Review Literary Awards
Postmark Deadline: September 15
http://greensbororeview.org/contest/
$500 in each category (poetry and fiction); no simultaneous submissions, but unlimited free entries allowed
This poem and critique appeared in the August 2005 issue of Winning Writers Newsletter.
At Meiji Shrine
By Rick Lupert
Long path from train
through gates, large like trees
A sea of umbrellas come
to visit the enshrined souls of
Emperor Meiji and his consort
the empress.
We wash hands
ritually like before a Jewish meal.
We bow and clap.
We drop coins in box.
People hang votive wood notes
like prayers in a Western Wall.
This is not an ancient place
But it is quiet like history.
Until young boy with his
bird sounds video game
forces us to move to a
more quiet corner.
The soul of the emperor
is broken up by rain drops.
We take him away in our wet clothes.
Attack of The Saurus
By John Reinhart
The dictionaries cower in fear
while the complete Shakespeare
runs for cover behind the less nimble
classical texts in Greek.
Modern poetry babbles incoherently,
even the no nonsense nonfiction
was unprepared for this rabid
assault, attack, barrage, battle, battery,
charge, duel, fight, fracas, joust,
melee, offensive, onslaught, siege,
from the previously, until now, earlier,
erstwhile friendly, content, happy,
nice, passive, pleasant, polite, tame,
timid thesaurus.
Audio Archives from the Academy of American Poets
Beginning with John Berryman's historic first reading of The Dream Songs on Halloween night, 1963, the Academy of American Poets has presented and recorded over 700 poetry readings, lectures, and symposia, making the Poetry Audio Archive one the world's richest aural records of poetry. You can search for audio clips by author or poem title, or browse the most popular selections. See their online store for poetry CDs to purchase.
Auroras & Blossoms
Launched in 2019, Auroras & Blossoms is dedicated to promoting positive, uplifting, and inspirational art and creativity. They accept short stories, flash fiction, essays, drawings, paintings, photography, and digital art. As a family-friendly platform, they want work with no swear words, dirty words, politics or erotica. Payment (adults only): ongoing royalties and complimentary copy of publication. No simultaneous submissions. Reprints are eligible if you own the rights. There is no submission fee as of 2023, but they require a small donation if you would like a digital copy of the issue where your work appears.
Austin Kleon’s Writing Newsletter
Writer and illustrator Austin Kleon is the bestselling author of the creativity guide Steal Like an Artist and other books. His free weekly e-newsletter (archived on his website) features 10 links to writing, art, and other media that he finds worthwhile and relevant to the moment. An example of Kleon's playful, down-to-earth writing advice: "When I am beginning a new project, I often ask myself, 'What's something you despise in the culture that you wish were otherwise?' and I go from there."
Author Level Up
Michael La Ronn is a prolific self-published science fiction and fantasy author. His website is updated weekly with videos that share his best advice on writing, publishing, and marketing. We liked his 12-minute spiel on "How to BEAT Self-Doubt as a Writer".
Author Media
Author Media features product reviews, marketing tips, and technical advice for selling your books. Their offerings include the Novel Marketing Podcast.
Author Solutions and Friends: The Inside Story
This 2015 article from self-publishing expert David Gaughran's blog "Let's Get Digital" exposes the deceptive marketing practices of Author Solutions and its questionable partnerships with major publishing houses. Author Solutions is the umbrella company for several well-known self-publishing imprints such as iUniverse, Trafford, AuthorHouse, and Xlibris. According to allegations in a pending class-action suit: "Author Solutions operates more like a telemarketing company whose customer base is the Authors themselves. In other words, unlike a traditional publisher, Author Solutions makes money from its Authors, not for them. It does so by selling books back to its Authors, not to a general readership, and by selling its Authors expensive publishing, editing, and marketing services that are effectively worthless."
Author’s Guide to Agency Agreements
This 2017 article on the Authors' Guild website discusses the provisions that should be included in author-agent contracts and what they mean.
Author’s Republic
Author's Republic is a platform for creating and distributing audiobooks. They support books in a variety of formats, including Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. You can create the book through them, using one of the narrators from their curated roster, or upload your already-created audio files for them to format and distribute to a variety of sales channels.
Authors Access
This site features free downloadable podcasts of interviews with people around the world who can help authors better manage their writing careers. Popular guests have included Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of 'The Frugal Book Promoter'; Jo Virgil, a community relations manager for Barnes & Noble; and publicist Maryglenn McCombs.
Authors Alliance Fair Use Guidebook
"Fair use" is the legal principle that determines how much of a copyrighted work can be quoted without a license. The Authors Alliance offers this free online guide to fair use for nonfiction writers, covering common scenarios and their legal resolution.
AuthorsPublish List of 35 Literary Journals Accepting Translations
Writing resource site AuthorsPublish compiled this list in 2023 of three dozen reputable magazines that are open to English translations of poetry, fiction, or essays. The list includes science fiction, mystery, and horror magazines as well as literary journals.
AuthorsPublish List of Journals Open to Publishing Reprints
Writing resource site AuthorsPublish compiled this list, current as of Spring 2023, of 26 journals that accept previously published poetry, fiction, or essays. Some are magazines with a specific theme, like speculative fiction, while others are general-interest.
AuthorsPublish List of No-Fee Poetry Manuscript Publishers
This list compiled by Emily Harstone at AuthorsPublish features 80+ publishers that do not charge reading fees to consider poetry manuscript submissions. Among them are major British presses like Carcanet and Faber & Faber, as well as reputable American literary publishers like Able Muse Press, Damaged Goods Press, Milkweed Editions, and Persea Books.
Autistic Representation and Real-Life Consequences
Disability in Kidlit is a multi-author blog that reviews portrayals of disability in books for children and young adults. In this 2015 essay, speculative fiction author Elizabeth Bartmess surveys common stereotypes and limiting depictions of autistic children in fiction, and how they contribute to mistreatment in the real world. This piece is a must-read for fiction writers in all genres who are developing a neurodiverse cast of characters.
Autumn Fire
By Linda Principe
Autumn fire
these trees in a row
like flaming candles against the blue.
Fall is a feeling,
not unlike the setting sun;
the most beautiful kind of dying.
They know, these trees,
about borrowed time,
that brazen, courageous orange,
a last stand against the onslaught of wind
that will strip them to skeletons,
their death no more merciful
than anyone else's.
Every year, for weeks,
they move from flicker to flame,
to autumn fire,
time the accelerant that reduces them
to embers on the grass
strewn about like pages
from books we barely remember,
though we know how the story ends.
Avantacular Press
This virtual press edited by Andrew Topel publishes e-chapbooks of visual poetry, a form that combines text with abstract art and other images. Email submissions to andrewtopel@hotmail.com.
Avoiding Literary Agency Scams
Warning signs include agents who advertise too aggressively for new clients, or gather most of their fees from the writer rather than the publisher.
Avoiding Scams in Agent-Curated Self-Publishing
This article from David Gaughran's self-publishing blog "Let's Get Digital" warns about overpriced intermediaries.
Award-Winning Tales
This enjoyable collection of short fiction in the Western genre features the top stories from the Cowboy Up contest sponsored by Moonlight Mesa Associates. The book includes adventure tales, humor, and romance, in settings both modern and historical.
AWE
Marrying surrealism to a childlike matter-of-factness, in a voice reminiscent of Gertrude Stein, these poems convey the delight and bafflement of having "your mind...whipped by the large whisk of God."
Awful Library Books
Michigan librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner created this humorous blog to defend the necessary but controversial process of culling the library's collection to make room for new titles. Their motto: "Hoarding is not collection development." Some classics destined for the pulp mill include God, the Rod, and Your Child's Bod: The Art of Loving Correction for Christian Parents; Nazis in the Woodpile; Children's Head Injury: Who Cares?; and Eat Your Troubles Away.
Bad Bad
In this unique offering from Fence Books, the author indulges her passion for the textures of language (and clothing), while poking fun at the pretensions of the academic poetry scene. Adopting the persona of a naughty little girl, the speaker of this book deflects criticism by flaunting her frivolity, yet at the same time secretly hopes to impress everyone with her cleverness. The pleasures of this book (particularly its 68 "prefaces") compensate for some repetitive passages.
Bad Poets, a short essay by Randall Jarrell
Mr. Jarrell (1914-1965) was a leading American poet and critic. These are his blunt yet compassionate reflections on judging badly written poetry.
Badilisha Poetry X-Change
Badilisha Poetry X-Change is both an online audio archive and a Pan-African poetry show delivered in radio format. Now the world's largest online collective of African poets, Badilisha features over 350 poets from two dozen countries. The project aims to introduce African readers to the best contemporary and classic work from their continent, bringing together literary cultures that had been isolated from one another by colonialism and language barriers.
Badlands
They accept submissions of original and translated poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction in English and Spanish, as well as artwork. In addition to general-interest submissions, the journal is currently seeking work by combat veterans of the US Armed Forces, for inclusion in several upcoming feature sections showcasing work by veterans. Include cover page with contact info, word and page count, title and genre of work, and brief bio (50 words). Do not include name in actual submission as works are read blind. Files should be in doc, docx or pdf format. See website for online submissions form.
Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida offers 7,000 children's books to read online or download for free, spanning the 19th century to the 1950s.
Ballad of the Arthur and Edith Lee House
By Yvonne
Like an itty-bitty dollhouse.
Made of pretty, white wood.
Happy green grass in front and back.
Cozy and still it stood.
Some say it came right out the box.
Right off a train from Sears.
It came from heaven Mama sang,
An answer to our prayers.
Papa checked the basement and roof.
The windows, doors, and stairs.
Then he nodded his head and winked,
Mama's eyes bright with tears.
We came in a big friendly truck.
Truck full of old and new.
Beds, chairs, tables, lamps and dishes.
We thought the sky smiled blue.
That night we heard a far rumble.
We thought it came from dreams.
Next morning flung at our doorstep:
"Get out!" "No colored!" Screams.
"Fighting in France, who moved me out the mud?
"I will make this house, my home." Papa said.
All day the sidewalk grumbled
A storm up from the ground
Building a wall of angry fear
White faces all around.
Somebody said, "Think of your kid.
And wife. Let's make a deal."
Hundreds more cash—than Papa paid.
"Our buy-back price, your steal."
All night the neighborhood trembled
Earthquake's defiant fear.
Next day the crowd swelled like a flood.
Not one cop, far and near.
"Colored boy don't want our buy-back?
Where's the government?"
Somebody picked up mud and rocks.
Somebody, excrement.
Inside we huddled with friends.
Our first lawyer talked and talked.
Up on our lawn, up three front steps
The loud mob walked and gawked.
"Nobody moves me out. Alive or dead.
Not at war in France. Not home." Papa said.
Who called again law and order?
"No! Burn it down! It's done!"
"Let's make a deal" somebody said.
Lord! Who said, "Here's my gun."?
Round and round, back and forth, the mob
Blazed and sputtered for days.
The world deaf, dumb, and blind because
The press shuttered its gaze.
Then on the 15th of July
The press uncorked that choke.
Home Stoned in Race Row! Mob Mauls Cop!
The gates of hell just broke.
Three Thousand Renew Their Attack!
From miles and miles they came
Like a lynching or a witch-burning
Clogging streets without shame.
Then a prim Amazon of the law
Hammered her gavel down
"My client has nothing to trade,
Barter or sell. It's done."
"I have a right to establish a home." Papa said.
What Papa said, he did. Yes, he did. Yes, he did.
What Papa said, he did.
Reprinted by permission from HOME: an anthology of Minnesota Fiction, Memoir, and Poetry (Flexible Press, 2020).
The Arthur & Edith Lee House at 4600 Columbus Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN was the center of an urban riot in the summer of 1931. The Lee Family stayed in their home until the autumn of 1933. During that time, they slept in the basement, and their daughter Mary was escorted to kindergarten by the police. Their house is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the home of their attorney, Lena Olive Smith, a female pioneer of African American civil rights.
Balloons Lit. Journal
Balloons Lit. Journal is an English-language online journal based in Hong Kong that publishes creative writing and art for readers aged 12-16. BLJ particularly invites submissions from schoolteachers familiar with this age group. Editors say, "We prefer something that is surprising, explosive, unforgettable, extraordinary, mind-blowing, humorous, bold, unique, layered, witty, educational, original." Read back issues on the website to see their taste.
Bang! Choosing an Inciting Incident
Struggling to find the right way to begin your story? Here are 14 tips.
—Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
Dear Annie,
I'm having trouble picking my inciting incident. I don't want to pick one that's too early or not substantial enough. What should I do?
Signed, Plotless in Pittsburgh
Dear Plotless,
Choosing an inciting incident can feel overwhelming, I know. So many possibilities. And, since it happens at the beginning of the book, it can seem like there's a lot at stake. But when you get right down to it, the idea of the inciting incident itself is not that complicated.
It's the moment when things shift from "normal"...to "not normal".
For example, "I was going about my day as a letter carrier when a strange red car pulled up to the curb." The red car pulling up is the moment when things go from normal to not normal.
"Sarah ate ice cream at Nice Ice every Friday. But this time, the front door was locked." The normal pattern of Friday treats is interrupted when the ice cream parlor is unexpectedly closed.
The shift from normal to not normal appears in every market-friendly book you've ever read. (Know of an exception? Please email me the title. I'd love to read the book.)
In your quest for the best way to start your book, consider these two questions:
1. What is the normal pattern of life before my story starts?
2. What interferes with that pattern?
The answer to question two will be your inciting incident. Of course, there are other angles to consider. An inciting incident isn't necessarily just something that "happens". It's part of a pattern of escalating tension and release that culminates with the climax and concludes with the resolution. It intersects with other developmental concerns like narrative emphasis, scope, genre expression, target audience, style, motif/symbol/metaphor, and more.
All of these factors can be leveraged to help you choose the perfect inciting incident for your book.
Inciting incident tip #1: Don't confuse it with exposition or rising action
Some authors confuse the inciting incident with other plot stages that happen at the beginning of a book, like exposition and rising action. That can make it harder to choose an inciting incident because the author has lost track of its purpose: signaling the shift from "normal" to "not normal".
Choosing the right inciting incident gets easier when you know the different functions of the exposition, inciting incident, and rising action:
Exposition = What was "normal" before the inciting incident
Inciting incident = The moment things become "not normal"
Rising action = What happens after things become "not normal"
What might it look like when the three get confused? One example might be when a book starts in media res: in the middle of something that's already going on, like a conversation or a chase scene. Some authors automatically assume that whatever comes first is the exposition, followed by the inciting incident, followed by the rising action.
In reality, though, a book can start with the inciting incident or even part of the rising action, then circle back to the exposition later. (Think about when characters say things like, "You might be wondering how I got here...").
The inciting incident and exposition don't have to take place "on screen", as it were, in every story. Sometimes they happen before the book starts and the reader learns about them later. They also don't have to be revealed at the beginning. Harlan Coben and other mystery writers often hold back from revealing the inciting incident until later in the book, starting with a false inciting incident and spending the rest of the book peeling back the layers of what really happened. The true inciting incident might even be revealed as part of the climax.
Starting your book in medias res or in your rising action? It might help to review what you've already written and ask: "Does this scene take place when things are normal, becoming not normal, or already not normal?"
If option two is the case, you might already have your inciting incident. If option three, then you can ask: "What happened to make things not normal?" That could be your inciting incident.
Tip #2: There doesn't have to be just one
"Inciting incident is such a simplistic idea. My story is more complex."
Some authors get turned off by the idea of the inciting incident because they assume that it's formulaic and boring. Not so. Just as life changes our plans in a variety of unpredictable ways, so can a book have multiple inciting incidents working together to change the landscape of a character's life.
The essential function of the inciting incident is to clearly demonstrate the shift from "normal" to "not normal". The particulars are totally up to you.
Maybe the inciting incident is actually a sequence of smaller events happening to one character in succession.
Maybe it's a collection of events happening to an ensemble cast that launches them on their related plot lines that intersect at the climax.
Maybe it's a single event that the reader gets multiple versions of from different characters' points of view.
Any of these approaches are reasonable as long as your choice demonstrates going from "normal" to "not normal".
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "Do I feel constrained or turned off by the idea of only one inciting incident? Might I really be looking for more than one? Do I already know what one or more of them are? How can they work together to create an overall sense of life in the story moving from the normal to the not normal?"
Tip #3: Have a specific type of book in mind, or at least be open to commitment
It's hard to pick an inciting incident when your book hasn't committed to anything: "My book is for everyone." "My book is every genre." "My book is about life: all its lessons and wonder."
I understand the impulse to keep things open, but those mindsets don't offer any clues for choosing anything, including your inciting incident.
Committing to specificity on a wider scale makes choosing an inciting incident easier.
For example, instead of leaving genre totally open, tighten the bounds: "My book is a sci-fi/fantasy war novel, not a domestic drama. I won't include family content beyond what supports the war narrative." Where before you had to choose between the war narrative and family plot for your inciting incident, it's now clear that the inciting incident will support the larger war story.
Instead of a universal target audience, narrow it down: "My target audience is queer individuals over 35 who enjoy Booker Prize shortlisters and The New Yorker. I'm going to avoid material that isn't likely to interest that audience." Previously, you had every topic in the world to choose from. Now you only need to choose among the things your target audience would enjoy.
Rather than trying to make your book give the reader every possible experience, focus on creating a more limited range of experiences really well: "My book is plot-driven and should raise the reader's pulse. I will edit out material that doesn't contribute to the plot or raising their pulse."
The more factors you can narrow down, the better. Get specific about genre, target audience, and reader experience...and scope, narrative emphasis, style, and more! Your inciting incident is waiting for you at their intersection.
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask:
"Am I open to committing to writing a specific type of book, for a specific audience, about specific things, that talks about certain things but not others? If not, do I need to do some inner work to become more comfortable with the literary/craft/commercial sides of writing as opposed to the personal/social/self-expression sides I'm already comfortable with?"
"If I am already open to committing to getting specific with my book's content and goals, then what elements am I already pretty set on? Certain plot points, characters, ideas, genre identity, other elements? How could I use these specifics to brainstorm an inciting incident?"
Tip #4: Choose one that reinforces your premise
Please don't roll your eyes when I tell you:
Your inciting incident should involve what the book is about.
No, not all authors do this automatically. I often find myself in conversations like the following:
Author: "My book is about Kenny Asheville, a daredevil motorcyclist who must set a world record for jumping the most buses end to end if he wants to win enough money to keep his father's farm from getting foreclosed on."
Me: "Sounds good, but then why is your inciting incident about Kenny's childhood flirtation with sweet Jessica Jane down the road as he walks her home from their kindergarten, only to lose her respect when he says he wants to be a pharmacist like his uncle instead of an officer in the Air Force?"
Jessica's disapproval might be the inciting incident of some book, but positioned as the inciting incident of this book, it gives readers a false impression about what the book is really about.
The inciting incident should be consistent with the premise. If the story is about Kenny putting his life at risk to save the family farm, the inciting incident should be, too. Specifically, how things went from "normal" to "not normal" vis-a-vis the motorcycle and/or foreclosure situation.
Sometimes authors have trouble finding their inciting incident because their premise is just too vague: "My book is about Kenny Asheville as he struggles to become fully himself in the face of lies and secrets." "My book is about Kenny Asheville learning life lessons about love and loss." Okay, that's all nice and friendly-sounding. But there's no "there" there, no suggestion of an arc or a shift from "normal" to "not normal". It's hard to locate a specific inciting incident when almost anything could fall under the premise.
If you find yourself in the vague-premise boat, perhaps narrowing it down will make it easier to select an inciting incident. Writing Mastery has an article that could help.
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "What is my premise? What inciting incident would best express it? If I'm having trouble relating my premise to a concrete inciting incident, might that indicate that my premise is too vague? How could I make it more specific?"
Tip #5: Choose one that reinforces your narrative emphasis
Every market-friendly book has primary elements it devotes more words to than anything else: A primary plot. A primary character or group of characters. Primary themes. These are the book's main narrative emphasis. Anything else is only shown to the extent that it enhances the emphasis.
"I'm writing a humor novel about a ghost who must scare away the current occupants of her haunted house before a gang of demons takes it over, killing everyone and dragging their souls to everlasting torment."
Sounds good to me. But then why is your inciting incident about the ghost redoing the bathroom plumbing as part of a larger renovation she has been working on for over eighty years and the ongoing challenge of sourcing PVC and granite tiles due to lack of a credit card? With a twenty-page sideline about her friendship with a roofer who can see dead people, and an additional ten pages just describing the roofer's relationship with his mom, who lives far away in Pittsburgh? The story gets to the demons and current occupants eventually, but they're buried in all the other details and events.
I like this premise, and humor novels usually do have a little extra wiggle room with things that feel random…but at the same time, a collection of good ideas doesn't make a narrative. It's necessary to emphasize some things over others.
Maybe as the story goes on, the renovation, roofer, and even the roofer's mom really will have a part to play…but the inciting incident itself should be something to do with how the ghost's "normal" shifted into a "not normal" involving the need to scare away the haunted house's occupants.
If the term "narrative emphasis" feels too technical or general, just remember: your inciting incident must highlight the main character, theme, and plot line. As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "What are my main character, plot line, and theme(s)? What inciting incident would focus readers' attention on those main narrative elements?"
Tip #6: Choose the one your target audience wants
Early-career authors are prone to making plot decisions based on their own inspiration and input from family, friends, writing groups, and other people in their lives. However, those close-to-home readers don't necessarily represent the readers who are actually going to buy the book.
"My book is about Jae, a nonbinary teen attempting to ride the rails from Georgia to Oregon to find their bio-mom in hopes of escaping the foster system."
Then why is your inciting incident about how Jae's cisgender foster brother is about to get kicked out of school for selling cocaine to school staff...leading to a rising action mostly about the brother and brother's girlfriend's teen pregnancy?
"My beta readers told me they were interested in Jae's foster brother, so I expanded his role."
Fair enough, but your query says this story is for queer readers and their allies. Mightn't queer readers, and nonbinary readers in particular, want to see an inciting incident directly involving Jae?
When imagining your inciting incident, really try to picture your specific target audience. What would they find compelling, relatable, curiosity-provoking, and stakes-raising? The opinions of the people around you don't necessarily matter...unless they're helping you brainstorm the needs of your target audience.
If you're writing in the hopes of getting agent representation or winning a literary contest, your target audience gets a new layer: what inciting incident will the agent or contest judge find distinctive? What will set it apart from other books in their submissions pool?
Find out as much as you can about your target audience before you try to come up with your inciting incident. Read up on the demographic. Spend time with them. Ask them what they care about. Read whatever else they're reading. Go online and research your prospective agents or contest judges.
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask:
"Who am I really writing this book for? What are their day-to-day concerns, fears, hopes, needs? How are they being underserved by the books currently available to them? What inciting incident would be the most relatable, riveting, stakes-raising to them?"
"What specific agents or writing contest judges am I hoping to get attention from? What books have they represented/awarded in the past? What inciting incident would help my book stand out from others in their pile?"
Tip #7: Make it primarily character-driven, plot-driven, or theme-driven, just like the rest of your book
All popular novels have plot, character, and theme arcs, but will pick one as primary and designate the others as supporting. For example, most speculative fiction, like Jurassic Park or The Three-Body Problem, is primarily theme-driven, with character and plot arcs supporting the development of the themes. These books have theme-driven inciting incidents: the rising action is initiated by the characters encountering ideas that make them question their understanding of reality. In contrast, thrillers and crime novels tend to be plot-driven. Domestic dramas, psychological dramas, and romances tend to be character-driven.
Once a novel commits to a drive source, that's it. The book doesn't change midway through, for example, from character-driven to theme-driven. If the rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution are character-driven, the inciting incident should be, too.
I once critiqued a book that was billed as a psychological coming-of-age narrative, ostensibly character-driven. However, the inciting incident was the kidnapping of the protagonist's younger sister. I can understand why the author thought it might work: kidnapping is dramatic and might well impact a protagonist's psychology. The problem was that the kidnapping was external to the character, belonging more to a plot-driven book.
The author ended up choosing a more psychologically-based inciting incident for the protagonist, a series of troubling dreams that made her believe that her sister was still alive. The kidnapping still happened, but in a supportive rather than primary role.
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "What is the main thing my book is exploring: the events of the plot arc? The character's internal development? Themes and ideas? How can my inciting incident reflect that?"
If your answer to this question is, "They are all equally important," that could indicate you don't yet have clear narrative emphasis. You might need to firm up which parts of the story are primary and which are supporting.
Tip #8: Choose one that reinforces your book's genre expression
All six of the main narrative stages, including the inciting incident, must double down on your chosen genre or genre mix. Writing historical Wild West romance? The inciting incident should involve things that are historical, Wild West-y, and romantic. Writing a literary novel about chess masters? The inciting incident should be in the literary fiction mode and involve something chess-related.
You'd be shocked at how resistant authors can be to the idea of genre consistency. I once worked on a crime novel set in outer space…but the inciting incident was a young zookeeper in Perth noticing that her favorite kangaroo had gone missing. I'm not saying that could never work, but dear reader, it did not work. It belonged to a whole 'nother book.
The author assured me it was the best choice because he "didn't want to make things too easy for the reader." Other authors defend their random-feeling inciting incidents by saying "That's just where the story took me" or "That's what the character told me to do."
Those books don't typically succeed on the market. If you're writing space crime, the inciting incident should give space crime.
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "What is my book's genre identity? How can my inciting incident enhance that genre identity? If my book is hybrid-genre, what inciting incident will express all of the hybrid elements?"
Tip #9: Make sure it's within your book's scope
An inciting incident can take place before a book starts, but not too far back. An effective inciting incident will fall squarely within your book's chosen scope.
Scope has to do with how much "stuff" a book includes: the span of time, number of settings, number of characters, amount of ideas, size of the cast, and more.
Authors are creative people who can imagine a huge amount of things and love to express themselves. Scope can balloon out of control pretty quickly to the point where it's hard to tell what a book is about.
Memoirs are prime offenders when it comes to putting the inciting incident too far back. If a book's blurb describes it as "a riveting account of one woman's battle with breast cancer," the inciting incident should have to do with the start of that battle. It's a red flag if the reader opens the book and sees something like, "It all started when my great-grandmother immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden."
Of course, writing is never one-size-fits-all. Maybe the great-grandmother immigrated to a Minnesota town that, unbeknownst to her, was being severely polluted by a nearby lead-smelting plant, causing a generational cycle of breast cancer within the author's family. In that case, though, maybe the blurb needs to be changed to be up front with readers about the wider scope if the book is actually "a riveting account of a family's multi-generational battle with cancer in the heart of lead-smelting country".
Novelists who love character backstory can also struggle to keep the inciting incident within the story's scope. "This book is about Binyamin and Jeshua's journey to Fillipi from Akre. However, it wouldn't have happened if Jeshua hadn't been born in Sha-hel, or if Binyamin had gone to his aunt's settlement instead of ending up in Ra-ael in the years before Jeshua's sister introduced them. So really, the inciting incident is the schism that sent Jeshua's parents to Sha-hel and Binyamin to Ra-ael."
Say it with me now: No. It's. Not.
If you're committed to writing a book about the journey to Fillipi from Akre, then readers really don't need to know all that backstory. It's beyond the scope of the current book.
Maybe a tiny bit will show up to support the forward movement of the Fillipi-Akre trek...or maybe it won't. Either way, don't just throw it out. If readers like your novel, you'll be glad you saved it. Prequel time!
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "What is the scope of my story? Do the options I'm weighing fall comfortably within that scope?"
Tip #10: Incorporate the book's major style points, motifs, symbols, or metaphors
All market-friendly novels and memoirs use symbols, motifs, and style, even if that style is "transparent style". The major motifs, metaphors, and symbols should be incorporated into every narrative stage from exposition to resolution. That includes the inciting incident. Style should remain consistent throughout.
Going back to Kenny Asheville's daredevil motorcycle jumping, imagine a version of the book that uses the motif of a key: the key to his motorcycle, the key to his father's farmhouse, the key to the bank safety deposit box where they keep the deed; Kenny seeing his own do-or-die stunt as the "key" to saving the farm, etc. Maybe the inciting incident could involve a key of some kind, too. What if Kenny finds out the farm is in trouble when his father locks himself into the farmhouse and won't come out? Or what if he comes home from the garage one day to find a slick, shiny, expensively printed eviction notice rolled up tight and shoved into the big, old, iron keyhole in the front door?
Style goals can give clues, too. If you're going for a clean, spare voice, don't give Kenny an overwrought reaction full of ten-dollar words. Keep it spare. Maybe choose a setting and event that will aid a clean voice rather than tempting you to get too rich with vocabulary and detail. For example, don't have Kenny find out about the threat of foreclosure in the middle of the town fair surrounded by costumes, rides, interesting foods and smells, colorful people and strangers. Put him on the dusty porch with his dad on the other side of the old plank door and no one else around for miles.
On the other hand, if the style is meant to be more ornate, put him (just for instance) in a church or by a river, somewhere the language has a place to dwell on beauty and intricacy even as Kenny's world is rocked by news of the impending foreclosure.
As you think about your own inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask:
"What are my major motifs, symbols, and metaphors? How can I use my inciting incident to bring one or more to the fore?"
"What style am I going for? What inciting incident would help me maximize the potentialities of that style?"
Tip #11: Work backwards from a later narrative stage
Many authors I talk to view their inciting incident through the lens of character or plot: "What would Taylor do now?" "Where does the high school football story truly begin?" This approach is fine but can lead to frustration when ideas aren't coming, as well as weak direction later if the chosen incident doesn't lead to a strong through-line.
All six narrative stages need to be about the same main plot. So if you already know one stage, like the climax, you can work backwards to find your inciting incident.
For example, maybe you know your climax involves a cave explorer finally emerging into the sunlight and fresh air. Working backwards from that, the inciting incident could be the decision to explore that specific cave.
Or maybe it's the moment in the cave when the expedition shifts from routine to extra dangerous.
Or maybe the book sets us up with a temporary inciting incident in the decision to explore the cave, then later in the story we learn the real inciting incident was actually twenty years ago when the caver's older sibling vanished in that cave.
Use the bigger picture of your narrative emphasis to guide your decisions.
As you think about your inciting incident, it can be helpful to ask: "What am I already set on in my exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution? How can I work backwards from those anchors to find my rising action? What had to change about 'normal' life in my book to lead to the parts of my plot that I'm satisfied with?"
Tip #12: See what incidents are found in similar books
Don't laugh, but choosing an inciting incident can be as easy as looking at other books in your genre to see what they're doing.
No, it's not cheating. No, readers won't be mad. Few readers criticize a book for its inciting incident. They might not even notice it at all. They just need something they can feel in their gut has gotten the main plot going.
So look at recent books in your genre and ask: "What is the moment when things went from normal to not normal? How would that translate in my book?"
Tip #13: Just pick one
Because writers tend to think of an inciting incident as something that happens near the beginning of a book, they might feel they have to think of it early on in the composition process. That's hard, especially because the inciting incident is part of a larger system. If you don't have anything else about the system settled yet, it can feel like pulling the whole engine for a story out of thin air.
So if you feel backed into a corner and still have no idea what your WIP (Work In Progress) is really about, you're not alone.
No worries, though, because it's fine just to pick something to act as scaffolding, then replace it or modify it when a clearer picture emerges about genre, scope, narrative emphasis, premise, and more.
Possible tools for Just Picking an incident include:
Putting the first ten things that come into your mind on little pieces of paper, then picking one out of a hat
Pulling a tarot card
Opening the dictionary and putting your finger down on a random word
Going with your gut
Asking your cat or dog and pretending they replied to you (or maybe they actually do reply to you in their way)
Mirroring the inciting incident from another book you like
You are not committing to this choice. It's just scaffolding to help you start putting the rest of the system together, so it's likely that you'll have to change it later. So don't get too attached, or you might end up with a sprawling, lopsided, or flat manuscript in the long run.
Tip #14: Realizing it's just one tiny part of the whole
Choosing an inciting incident can feel like a lot of pressure since it kicks off the whole plot. But in the big picture, it's just one little thing that most readers won't even notice.
A market-friendly book is a system made of many small parts working together to create an escalating pattern of tension and release. As long as your inciting incident contributes to that pattern without distracting from it, everything will be okay.
So no stress! Plug an inciting incident into your WIP and keep on going!
Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature
Founded in 1998 in the UK, Banipal is a thrice-yearly magazine featuring English translations of poems, short stories, and novel excerpts by established and emerging Arab writers worldwide. Banipal also publishes book reviews and interviews with authors, publishers, and translators.
