In fiction, the inciting incident is one that kicks off the rising action. At the very beginning of a story, the author will usually employ some exposition to set the scene, introduce a major character or two, and lay the foundation of the narrative voice and point-of-view. Then the inciting incident occurs to provide some complications to the story. In the exposition to "The Tell-Tale Heart," the reader learns that the narrator is trying to convince the audience that he is not mad, but he actually seems to be so. So the tone in the atmosphere of the story suggests that something outrageous is going to occur. Then the narrator tells us that he is going to tell us a story about how he planned to kill the old man because he was vexed by the man's pale eye. This is the inciting incident--at the moment we learn about the murderous plot, the story takes on complications as the reader yearns to hear more about the plot and its execution.
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