STARTING A STORY
By Stu Leventhal
Often authors start by stating why they are writing the tale. “When I was in my childhood, I witnessed a horrific event…” Or, they start because something in their life happened, “Last night my older brother Henry didn’t come home…” Or maybe something is happening in society, locally or nationally or globally that angers them and they wish to speak out about it.
Perhaps a writer is just writing to ease their own daily tensions by getting things off their chest or trying to figure out how they feel about their own life. "I recently came to a very important decision and I would like to share the events with you that caused me to reevaluate just about all I had previously believed important."
Others write to preserve and record incidents so we all do not forget important things that happened or are occurring. Authors frequently like to honor an event that moved them or put a person on a pedestal who they admire.
A writer may come to realize that they feel deeply about something as simple as an old wise tale like, “Hardship and struggle is the road to the truth.” Therefore they decide, I am going to write a story that shows that perseverance and determination will eventually bring about happiness. They are starting with a theme that is dear to their heart and they are trying to demonstrating the life’s message they believe, through depicting an event real or imagined, fiction or nonfiction. Of course there will probably be other writers who wish to show that very same message is just false hope.
There are many reasons for telling a story and thus there are going to be infinite ways to start the telling. Usually the method or means of which you introduce your tale stems from a particular mood that you wish to create for your reader. You want to get your audience, into a particular state of mind so they are ready to receive the coming details of your story.
You may wish to shock your readers into paying full attention right at the beginning or it may be better to lull them into a peaceful, calm and tranquil state so you can delightfully surprise them a few paragraphs later.
A story has many component or features; characters, themes, plots, sub plots, a setting…. It is told from a particular point of view. A tale may not always be the author’s vision it can be told through the eyes and words of a character or told by an observer. Your author may wish you, the reader, to feel as if your writer is keeping his or her own opinions out of the telling and thus leaving it all up to you to decide the merits of the various aspects of the story. After all there are as many ways to judge a tale as there are to tell a tale.
Many authors like to start their stories in the heat of the action and then go back and let the reader know the backstory that lead up to the monumental event. This is to capture the reader’s interest from the start in hopes that once readers have invested themselves in reading a nice chunk of pages, they will continue to read the whole tale. Other scribes just start at the very beginning and let the story develop as it goes in precise chronological order of time, beginning to end.
Know that the beginning of your tale must be interesting enough to hook the reader in. Personally, I do not believe a good author starts any of his or her stories in the exact same way. Each story is unique and thus needs its own special starting point. More often than not the beginning of a book or short story has been re-written, reworked and retooled more than any other portion of the story.
The start of the reading must mesh with the title of the story. There must be intrigue. A hint of mystery or humor is usually a good way to get readers interested enough to keep reading.
My advice is to never delay, write! Start telling your story wherever you are most enthused about writing at the moment. Get your thoughts down on paper as they are coming to you. Do not spend time on creating the perfect opening to your tale before you write the tale because you can always write the beginning after the bulk of the story is written down or even finished. Many writers write their story’s opening last.
The key to starting a good story is writing, writing, writing… You need plenty of words to cut and change, reword and revise. You will probably create lots of events and dialog that get edited out in order to improve the flow of the story. Let your writing continue to flow. Experiment and try things out because, bear in mind, there will be revision steps and lots of rewriting.
Get the story written down and then later on, reorganize it into the order in which you wish to unveil things to your readers. Remember the start of your story is a promise you are making to your readers that you must deliver on if you wish them to become fans who cannot wait to read everything else you write.
In today’s modern world, full of flashy distraction, the art of storytelling is becoming more important than ever. Business writers and politicians are using stories. Professors, managers and educators of all kinds employ stories because stories are memorable. Stories teach and inform and inspire better and quicker than preaching or other formal classroom and text book like instruction. Stories simply make learning more enjoyable.
People have been telling each other engaging stories since the beginning of human existence. Storytelling will continue as long as mankind exists. Improving y your storytelling abilities will make you more popular and appear more intelligent whether you are in a writing career or not.
How does one start the telling of a great story? By showing how enthused and excited you are about sharing your tale with other people. Your audience must be convinced, in the first few words that you, their author feels it is very important that others hear what is about to be revealed.
How do you start writing a new story? Feel free to share your methods, techniques, ideas...
By Stu Leventhal
Often authors start by stating why they are writing the tale. “When I was in my childhood, I witnessed a horrific event…” Or, they start because something in their life happened, “Last night my older brother Henry didn’t come home…” Or maybe something is happening in society, locally or nationally or globally that angers them and they wish to speak out about it.
Perhaps a writer is just writing to ease their own daily tensions by getting things off their chest or trying to figure out how they feel about their own life. "I recently came to a very important decision and I would like to share the events with you that caused me to reevaluate just about all I had previously believed important."
Others write to preserve and record incidents so we all do not forget important things that happened or are occurring. Authors frequently like to honor an event that moved them or put a person on a pedestal who they admire.
A writer may come to realize that they feel deeply about something as simple as an old wise tale like, “Hardship and struggle is the road to the truth.” Therefore they decide, I am going to write a story that shows that perseverance and determination will eventually bring about happiness. They are starting with a theme that is dear to their heart and they are trying to demonstrating the life’s message they believe, through depicting an event real or imagined, fiction or nonfiction. Of course there will probably be other writers who wish to show that very same message is just false hope.
There are many reasons for telling a story and thus there are going to be infinite ways to start the telling. Usually the method or means of which you introduce your tale stems from a particular mood that you wish to create for your reader. You want to get your audience, into a particular state of mind so they are ready to receive the coming details of your story.
You may wish to shock your readers into paying full attention right at the beginning or it may be better to lull them into a peaceful, calm and tranquil state so you can delightfully surprise them a few paragraphs later.
A story has many component or features; characters, themes, plots, sub plots, a setting…. It is told from a particular point of view. A tale may not always be the author’s vision it can be told through the eyes and words of a character or told by an observer. Your author may wish you, the reader, to feel as if your writer is keeping his or her own opinions out of the telling and thus leaving it all up to you to decide the merits of the various aspects of the story. After all there are as many ways to judge a tale as there are to tell a tale.
Many authors like to start their stories in the heat of the action and then go back and let the reader know the backstory that lead up to the monumental event. This is to capture the reader’s interest from the start in hopes that once readers have invested themselves in reading a nice chunk of pages, they will continue to read the whole tale. Other scribes just start at the very beginning and let the story develop as it goes in precise chronological order of time, beginning to end.
Know that the beginning of your tale must be interesting enough to hook the reader in. Personally, I do not believe a good author starts any of his or her stories in the exact same way. Each story is unique and thus needs its own special starting point. More often than not the beginning of a book or short story has been re-written, reworked and retooled more than any other portion of the story.
The start of the reading must mesh with the title of the story. There must be intrigue. A hint of mystery or humor is usually a good way to get readers interested enough to keep reading.
My advice is to never delay, write! Start telling your story wherever you are most enthused about writing at the moment. Get your thoughts down on paper as they are coming to you. Do not spend time on creating the perfect opening to your tale before you write the tale because you can always write the beginning after the bulk of the story is written down or even finished. Many writers write their story’s opening last.
The key to starting a good story is writing, writing, writing… You need plenty of words to cut and change, reword and revise. You will probably create lots of events and dialog that get edited out in order to improve the flow of the story. Let your writing continue to flow. Experiment and try things out because, bear in mind, there will be revision steps and lots of rewriting.
Get the story written down and then later on, reorganize it into the order in which you wish to unveil things to your readers. Remember the start of your story is a promise you are making to your readers that you must deliver on if you wish them to become fans who cannot wait to read everything else you write.
In today’s modern world, full of flashy distraction, the art of storytelling is becoming more important than ever. Business writers and politicians are using stories. Professors, managers and educators of all kinds employ stories because stories are memorable. Stories teach and inform and inspire better and quicker than preaching or other formal classroom and text book like instruction. Stories simply make learning more enjoyable.
People have been telling each other engaging stories since the beginning of human existence. Storytelling will continue as long as mankind exists. Improving y your storytelling abilities will make you more popular and appear more intelligent whether you are in a writing career or not.
How does one start the telling of a great story? By showing how enthused and excited you are about sharing your tale with other people. Your audience must be convinced, in the first few words that you, their author feels it is very important that others hear what is about to be revealed.
How do you start writing a new story? Feel free to share your methods, techniques, ideas...
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