Inciting events: Stuff that seems to set off illness

In fiction writing, an inciting incident “sets the main character on the journey that will occupy them throughout the narrative”—or, otherwise put, it is a “ball of chaos that spins into the story and knocks the protagonist’s life out of balance.”

They say life imitates art, and in my work, I have seen inciting incidents play out in many people’s health stories. With my startup Pictal Health, I’ve helped 80 people create visual timelines of their health history — first by hand, and now with our health history timeline software. (Sign up for updates as we continue our invite-only beta.)

Along the way, I’ve noticed trends in what types of events appear to kick off people’s health problems and “knock their life out of balance.” I’ll call them “inciting events,” for brevity.

Let’s look at the types of inciting events I have seen, and then let us discuss implications.