Episode Two: Inciting Incidents

She woke up, walked down the stairs, made herself some breakfast and then posted her podcast about how you decide the right place to start the story. Mer and Bri discuss the fine balance between hooking readers’ interest and forcing an inciting incident too early into the plot, and how just because TV executives want big action to come within the first thirty seconds—to keep audiences from changing the channel—that doesn’t mean you should shove your first chapter full of dead bodies. Come for our honest reaction on some bad writing advice, and stay for us working through Big Feelings about editorial feedback. Books we recommend on this episode:Last Stop at Union Station by Sarah JamesJulie Chan is Dead by Liann ZhangMurder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone