Snip! Snap! Spin! Story begin.
Snip! Snap! Spin! Story begin.
Once upon a time, not so long ago … a storyteller forgot their words. All the stories and tales in their memory became muddled and mixed. The beginnings became endings and vice versa. Heroes married villains, fools advised the wise and the storyteller was at a loss.
This would be my nightmare! However, the heroes and villains could be sorted eventually, as could the fools and the wise ones, although there are some characters who share traits - just to be interesting. And there are the fools who are wise in their own simple ways. The bones or core of the stories would help for organising them into different types of tales. But there are so many different ways to begin a story! ‘Once upon a time …’ and ‘Long, long ago …’ and ‘In a land far, far away …” are just a few of hundreds of story beginnings.
Does it really matter how you begin a story? Well, sometimes I think it does. Certain stories need a beginning to match their cultural or regional origin, to be true to the source. Stories from the Australian aboriginal ‘dreamtime’ for example would not begin with ‘Once upon a time.” Some stories that are more what I like to call ‘atmospheric’, require a beginning that hints at what is to come. ‘In a dark, dark, wood there was …’ is surely going to follow with something a little more suspenseful. Of course ‘Once upon a time …” immediately says to me, here comes a fairytale.
There is an article by storyteller Rudolf Roos called ‘139 Folktale and Fairy Tale Beginnings by Storytellers’, where he lists a collection of starters from all over the world. You can find it at: internationalstoryteller.com There are some familiar ones and some that I am eager to find just the right story to follow. ‘In a land that never was in a time that could never be …’ is high on my list.
I’d love to know if you have a favourite story beginning that is not mentioned above. Think back to your stories from childhood and see what sparks your imagination again. Let me know in the comments below.
I’ll leave you with a thought from the ancient philosopher Seneca:
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
Snip! Snap! Send! Story end!