Monday 24 February 2014

Ah, you've arrived

An entry to the Global Short Story Competition today illustrated perfectly the art of beginning a story.

As I have mentioned on previous blogs, no story begins at the beginning. Stories start in the middle, sometimes at the end; lives have been lived, dramas enacted, grief experienced, joys celebrated.

What is important from the writer’s point of view is that your reader feels that they have walked in on a scene that is already unfolding. If they feel that, then they want to stick around to see how it all resolves itself.

This story did just that with the character addressing the reader as if the reader had arrived in mid-sentence. Brilliant.

John Dean







 

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