I recently acquired several plant cuttings from my city’s downtown planter boxes, my pocket knife and tote bag surreptitiously in hand (don’t worry, I only took the overflow). Proudly placing my treasures in vases and settling them on a sunny window sill, I willed a few tender roots to emerge from their nodes. By now, several cuttings have grown roots over an inch long and are almost ready to be planted!
Stay with me for a moment, and imagine that my cuttings are your character of choice. They have just been removed from their home and transplanted into a new space, unsure whether they will ever feel the certainty of soil beneath their roots again.
I tend to think of inciting incidents like the slice of my knife against a stem.
An inciting incident is the event that jars your character from their slumber, awakening them to a world of possibility, as well as a bit of discomfort. When characters are cut off from the life they’ve always known, they behave in a similar way to my cuttings, investigating their environment and deciding where and how to take root.
The total disruption involved in each instance invites both plants and characters into a new life.
Like my cuttings, each character responds differently to being removed from its home and placed in a new setting. Some may take to their new context like a fish to water, while others may panic and self-destruct. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to use a few of my current cuttings as examples:
Burrow’s Tail: Already growing aerial roots before I cut it and currently soaking up all the water I can give it.
Creeping Stonecrop: Sending out sparse, thin roots a couple inches long to investigate its new surroundings.
Brazilian Joyweed: Initially stunned, but growing stocky roots from two nodes that look thick and healthy.
English Ivy: No roots yet, but unfurling downy leaves at its tips.
Asiatic Jasmine: Dried up despite the water.
While there are infinite responses to change and new stimuli, this spread reveals a diverse sampling of the ways our characters might respond to a change in their own environments. For this week’s prompts, I invite you to consider the way your character responds to a sudden change (inciting incident or not) and to visualize that response through the lens of a cutting.
Creeping Stonecrop
For our first trick, envision your character in the moment of its “cutting.” At the time of an abrupt shift in the course of their life, how prepared are they for what lies ahead? Are they already seeking an adventure like my Burrow’s Tail? Or maybe they’re like my Brazilian Joyweed, utterly shocked and dismayed at this unexpected change in plans. Take stock of the internal resources at your character’s disposal, and write for six minutes.
Once cut, consider the resources given to your character to help them grow. In the case of my cuttings, those resources are sunlight and water. In the case of your characters, those resources might be affection from a mentor, an influx of cash, or the inheritance of an ancient purpose. Think about what elements of your character’s new life stand to aid them in their journey, and write for eight minutes.
Now, I invite you to consider how your character responds to the resources at their disposal in their new environment. Do they cautiously analyze their new life like my Creeping Stonecrop? Maybe they try to continue growing as they always have, without committing to new roots, like my English Ivy. Perhaps, like my Asiatic Jasmine, they simply cannot thrive in their new environment and decide to find something new. Write for ten minutes.
English Ivy
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KAY TEEKELL is Claire’s Summer Communications Associate and fellow creative writer. She has five years of writing and editing experience that ranges from content writing for blogs and magazines to grant writing for nonprofit organizations. Kay is passionate about the power of storytelling and strives to amplify voices that might otherwise be forgotten. She is excited to use her artistic and literary skills in her professional aspirations and will continue to develop her talents for the rest of her life.