2. The Problem
Often we can have a really
good idea for a story but
find starting the hardest
part – we know it’s got to
be good but can struggle to
work out how to do this….
3. Aims
• To identify what a good opening has to do
• To explore ideas about starting points in
narrative
• To evaluate alternative starting points, their
strengths and weaknesses
4. A Good Opening?
• Will hook the reader and make them want to
read on – through the style, interesting
characters, creation of enigmas….
• Will give the reader the basic information they
need to follow the story:
– When the story is taking place
– Where it is set
– Who the main characters are
– What is going on
5. Choosing a Good Starting Point
The first thing to note is that,
whilst a story will have a
chronological shape (a
beginning, middle and end),
it doesn’t need to tell its
events in that order.
One of your first decisions
will be where to start your
story.
6. Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov is a
Bulgarian theorist who spent
a lot of time analysing folk
tales to identify the common
structure of stories.
He decided that all stories
contained the same steps
outlined on the next slide…
7. PHASE DESCRIPTION
The world of the story before anything happens to kick start
EQUILIBRIUM
the action – normality before the story starts
Something happens to disturb the status quo – may lead to
DISRUPTION
a series of further disrupting events
The characters realise something has happened to upset
RECOGNITION
normality
The characters work to resolve the disruption and sort
REPAIR
things out, often leading up to a climactic scene
The disruption is now resolved and normality is restored –
RE-
albeit the world may be a better or worse place than it was
EQUILIBRIUM
to start with!
8. Activity 1:
You will be given a sheet with a
story outline, split into these five
sections and need to match up the
section with the correct phase of
the story…
Brownie points for anyone who
can tell me the film of which this is
the actual plot!
9.
10. Activity 2:
Now you have the plot in chronological order, we can
experiment.
Identify three different points at which
you could start the story. For each
point, try and assess the strengths and
weaknesses of starting the story at this
point….
Which do you think would be the most
effective point at which to begin this
story in terms of capturing the
audience’s attention?
11. Activity 3:
Now let’s look at the
openings of some
published stories.
See if you can identify at
which point the story
starts and why you think
the writer chose to do
this and how they make
it interesting….
12. So, what have we learnt about
starting stories?
•You don't need to start at the
beginning
•Each possible starting point for
your tale can interest the audience
in a different way
•Consider different points at which
to start your tale and find the one
that creates the most interest in
your tale
13. Of course, having decided at which point of the narrative
to kick-start your work, isn’t the end of the story (!).
There are other choices to be made too:
•Which narrative point-of-view to use – 1st or 3rd
•Which tense to tell the story in – present or past
•Which format to tell the story in – conventional narrative,
letters, diary, dialogue, stream of consciousness
•How to use language effectively to gain attention
These are all worth studying to help you write an
engrossing yarn.
14. And the best way to
learn how?
To study the experts
– read lots of good
literature!
