: Re: Do I need to start off my book by describing the character's "normal world"? I know a lot of books do it (Harry Potter, LOTR, Wheel of Time). It's even part of the "Hero's Journey". However,

@Rivera824

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Not an answer here, but a point--the inciting incident is what starts the protagonist on a journey. It can mark the ActI/ActII boundary in screenwriting.

It does not need to be the first plot point in the story. There can be over a dozen plot 'points' that are named and recognized--the hook is one of the early ones and happens before the inciting incident.

I think many of us as we begin writing confuse the hook with the inciting incident. they are not the same.

One other structure not mentioned--the structure of starting with 'the previous crisis' ala James Bond. Each movie opens in media res with the last mission, the climax of Bond's last case, and him succeeding.

That is a contract and a prologue and a hook and a normal world all in one.

Bond then goes to meet M and Q and get his next assignment. The inciting incident is the bad thing that the villain did, which Bond responds to on his next journey.

This approach isn't used in fantasy, but it does help a person think about these plot points a little more broadly.

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