How to Launch Your Story with the First Plot Point of Your Novel (According to Brain Science)

Gina Kammer Author

Now it’s time for your character to make an impossible decision and risk the consequences for a chance at her ultimate desire.

How to Launch Your Story with the First Plot Point in Your Novel

What Brain Science Says about Writing with Story Structures #6

The insights from cognitive psychology can help us understand the effects and usefulness of story structures, and this is what I break down in this series. In these articles on story structure elements, I dive into the effects of story on readers and how these structures play a part in that. I also offer suggestions for what writers can do to have the best of both worlds — both the joy of just writing and creating a tale readers will want to read.

Some event has crashed into your main character’s life. It’s brought with it a slice of the main conflict of the story. This inciting incident all but forced your character to consider a choice. Of course, it’s likely an impossible choice. But now it’s time for your character to make this decision and risk the consequences for a chance at the character’s ultimate desire. The final decision marks the first plot point.

What Is the First Plot Point?

The first plot point is the main character’s decision coming out of the inciting incident. It launches the main story conflict by moving the main character out of his or her status quo. Some refer to this as entering the new world and leaving the ordinary world (such as in the hero’s journey structure). The first plot point ends or nearly ends the first act in a simple version of the three-act structure.

The main character’s decision here is key. The inciting incident isn’t an active moment for the character. It’s an event that acts on the character. But the first plot point contrasts that incident by encompassing the first main, crucial decision the character actively makes.

The main character can first stubbornly refuse to act, maintaining his or her status quo, or attempt to flee — or whatever might be the opposite of engaging with the main story conflict. But this is where brain science comes in. Maintaining such a status quo does not subconsciously compel readers to want to learn how this character transforms and overcomes — the character doesn’t.

The only exception might be a story arc (see more on universal story structures here) in which the character is trying to get back to the status quo after disaster strikes. But even then, the character does not remain unchanged and rises to that challenge. The decision to return is an active one. The opposite would be, perhaps, succumbing to despair, already defeated.

Therefore, the first plot point is the first plot point. It’s not the first thing that happens in a story (that’s the hook), but it is the first point of character action in the main conflict of the story. In essence, it’s the point that gives us a story worth reading. Because brain science.

What Makes a Story Worth Reading?

Let’s take a look at how this works to compel readers to want to find out how the main character fares in accomplishing his or her goals. As we know from the previous post, the main character has already been struggling with some inner conflict. The character wants something deeply. Yet, more often than not, the main character’s inner flaw is somehow all tied up with the thing that stands in the character’s way.

The inciting incident choice should have already been prodding the main character’s points of discomfort based on his or her inner conflict. From there, the decision the character makes — in other words, the first plot point — will come from a flawed place, but one that still has a flicker of hope for attempting to reach the character’s desire.

Your character may or may not balk at first. But at some point between the inciting incident and the first plot point — the decision to enter the main conflict — something happens that the main character can’t ignore. Suddenly, the main conflict becomes personal. Ultimately, the character makes the active decision to leave the normal world.

Because readers connect to story through character, and because their underlying desire is to learn how the character transforms to overcome obstacles and adversity, readers now have a fairly locked-in reason to care about the story and the main conflict too.

So let’s trace these in a few of the same examples from the previous post to trace the inciting incident through the first plot point to see all of this in action:

The Hobbit:

• Inciting incident: Gandalf and the dwarves show up and urge Bilbo to join their adventure. Bilbo’s cozy and neat life is thrown into disorder and talk of messy, decidedly unsafe adventures.

• Choice: Bilbo at first wants nothing to do with any of it. He wants to maintain his status quo. But he’s conflicted, and that conflict begins to surface. Something in him (described as the “Took” side) has longed for something more. It takes over in force when everyone is gone and Bilbo has some FOMO (fear of missing out).

• Decision (first plot point): Finally, Bilbo gives in to adventure. Gandalf had already seen in him what he did not want to admit to himself. Thus, the main story starts in earnest as Bilbo joins the quest to reclaim Thorin’s treasure from the dragon, Smaug.

The Lord of the Rings:

• Inciting incident: Bilbo “vanishes” at his birthday and leaves the One Ring to Frodo. Gandalf confirms that it is the Ring of Sauron, and that he knows the Ring is in the Shire. He will do anything to get it back and enslave all of Middle-earth.

• Choice: Frodo knows he needs to do something to be rid of the Ring and its danger. He could keep it himself (as the Ring has already begun its hold on him) and possibly fall prey to its corruption or give it to someone else. Or he can try to destroy it. Another option may also be to hide it and ignore it, hoping the problem will go away. He first wants (but fails) to destroy it. So then he wants to give it to Gandalf, who refuses. In each of these, Frodo tries to maintain his status quo. Finally, the real choice is presented: the Ring can be destroyed in Mount Doom, but will Frodo be its guardian or not?

• Decision (first plot point): Without Bilbo — the real adventurer and more veteran guardian of the Ring — though not without his influence, Frodo decides he must leave the safety and love of home in order to keep what he loves safe, even if he must sacrifice himself to succeed in such an impossible task. While he doesn’t at first intend to take the Ring all the way to Mount Doom himself, he still rightly fears its corruption and therefore puts himself at risk for a chance at achieving his goal of safety for the Shire. In so doing, he locks into place his personal role in the main conflict of the story — the fight to save Middle-earth from evil.

Harry Potter:

• Inciting incident: “Yer a wizard, Harry”—Harry is invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry always knew he was different, and now he knows just how different he is.

• Choice: But will he accept? Or will he have the choice? His aunt and uncle do as much as they can to prevent anything that hints of magic. So while this call to adventure may be more like a dream come true than in other stories, the struggle to maintain the status quo before the final decisive action is still fulfilled in this way. In addition, Harry gets a peek at the wizarding world on his trip to Diagon Alley only to find he’s once again “different.” But it also further pushes him to realize he might have a chance to really learn who he is and who his parents were, despite the uncomfortableness.

• Decision (first plot point): Harry decides to accept admission to Hogwarts and gets on the Hogwarts Express, literally leaving the ordinary world behind. There’s no turning back now! And Harry’s search for answers continues to lead him right into the main conflict and villain.

The Hunger Games:

• Inciting incident: Katniss Everdeen’s sister is selected for the Hunger Games. For Katniss’s kindhearted sister, Prim, the likely outcome of this event is death. This knowledge very neatly prods a major pain point for Katniss. Katniss feels she is solely responsible for keeping Prim safe.

• Choice: Katniss now has a choice. She can let events happen and let Prim go or she can take her place. Even the second option is precisely pinching a pain point for Katniss in that leaving Prim means no one is left to protect her (since their mother is rather out of commission).

• Decision (first plot point): So Katniss makes the choice to face death herself by volunteering as tribute, but she also decides she needs to win since her death would mean no one to return to continue protecting and sheltering Prim. Therefore, Katniss enters the deadly Hunger Games and main conflict, eventually leading her to an even bigger revolution.

In all four examples, the points at which the characters enter the main conflicts soon have them facing obstacles and adversity, learning more about themselves, and transforming to overcome their inner and outer conflicts in the end. Since this change is what readers unconsciously look for and crave, this structure delivers. Otherwise, we’d just have characters maintaining their usual lives and carrying on as normal. There’s no story in that! Or, at least, not the kind our reader minds desire. We’re seeking something more.

Launch Your Story with a Compelling First Plot Point

When you craft your own novel’s first plot point, break it down into similar steps. Start from your inciting incident. What (relating to the main conflict) happens to your main character first? Keep the protagonist’s internal conflict in mind. Remember that it pokes at that inner stuff your character is dealing with. This is important to know for giving your character a believable reaction.

Next, think in a logical cause-and-effect sequence. Given your character’s fear or inner flaw, what would he or she do? Often, the status quo or “ordinary world,” is the character’s comfort box — or, at the very least, the familiar enemy for those situations in which the character is in a dismal starting state. Your protagonist will likely balk at the unknown. She won’t leave her box lightly! In fact, she may try to flee from the edge.

Sometimes we need to rinse and repeat a bit. Once ignoring the incident fails to work, the character might flee. When that still doesn’t quite work, the character might try to pass off the burden, the call, the knowledge, etc. on to someone else. But when that person refuses? Well…

Even if the protagonist is doing everything in her power to maintain life as usual, something always makes the main conflict suddenly personal. Perhaps that’s a new piece of knowledge or a clarification of some kind. Maybe it even comes as a consequence for the protagonist’s refusal to do something about the incident in the first place. Whatever it is, find a way to give the protagonist some strong stakes in the main conflict.

Now the protagonist must make a final decision. The choice isn’t actually optional for you, the author. Obviously, to write a compelling story worth reading, you have to set things up well enough to make sure your protagonist would believably choose to engage with the main conflict storyline.

You can do this by getting clear on your protagonist’s inner conflict, how it’s reflected by your story’s outer conflict, and how to connect the inciting incident to some personal stakes. Then it should feel believable for your protagonist to take such action.

This action is your first plot point. It sets your main story and conflict in motion. So you want to launch what will be the bulk of your story with the right plot/character setup, expectations, and tone. These are the components that can put a reader under your story spell so thoroughly.

We’ll cover more about how this main conflict might look in coming posts, but use these examples and step suggestions to get your imagination gears turning with the benefit of a few parameters to make your first plot point not only that much more effective but also more creative. Or, if you already have a manuscript, use these examples and suggestions to hone your existing first plot point and structure in your revision for greater reader impact.

Categories: story structure