Beginnings

Just just about everyone is familiar with this beginning: “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep . . .” (Genesis 1: 1-2 RSV) In a sense we’re playing God once we write a story. We create the characters, plot, and setting, turning a blank page—nothingness—into a compelling story.

Not only is your 1st scene the 1st impression of a story, it is the door that invites your reader on a journey. 1st scenes are what determine whether or not your reader is going to follow your characters to the end.

Your beginning must accomplish several things:

Introduce your characters

Establish the place and time the story occurs

Introduce the conflict or point at which change begins.

Your opening sets the tone, mood, situation or problem. It really begins in the middle of things.

Looking at the 1st lines of Genesis from a strictly literary standpoint, the 1st lines introduce God as the protagonist. The time and setting (simply) is the moment of Creation, same as the point of change. Before God created the earth there was nothing. For the intention of this illustration from a literary standpoint, Nothing was what happened before the story begins. It starts in medius res—in the middle of things.

Let’s look at a few opening lines of another stories.

I could tell the minute I got in the door and born my bag, I wasn’t staying. “Medley” by Toni Forsaken Bambara

This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night. “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver

She told him with a little gesture he had ne'er seen her use before. “Gesturing” by John Author

Something has already happened before the opening line. The 1st line is really the middle of the story. Each story has its own history. The plot is affected by thing that happened before the 1st sentence on the 1st page. In Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter’s book, What If? They describe story beginnings: “ . . . think of the story as a straight line with sentence one appearance somewhere on the far side the start of the line—ideally near the middle. At several point, most stories or novels dip back into the past, to the beginning of the straight line and catch the reader up on the situation—how and why X has gotten himself into such a pickle with character Y.”

Take out an old story, or one you’ve been working on. Look at the opening scene. As yourself: Makes the story have a past? Is the current conflict grounded in the history of the story? If you answer no, then you don’t cognize your story’s past well enough.

John Irving said: “Know the story—as more of the story as you can possibly know, if not the whole story—before you commit yourself to the 1st paragraph. Cognize the story—the whole story, if possible—before you fall in love with your 1st sentence, not to mention your 1st chapter.”

About The Author

Rita Marie Author has written and promulgated many short stories, articles, and essays. Her novel, Living in the City was discharged Gregorian calendar month 2002 by Booklocker.com, Inc. She based the Mania Scribendi Creative Writing Workshop in 1999.

This article was announce on Feb 19, 2004