Lecture 13: In the Beginning—How to Start a Plot
unspoken “once upon a time” at the start of the sentence. As brief and to
the point as it is, that simple 10-word sentence tells us right away that
we’re in a fantasy world, inhabited by creatures called hobbits, and it
tells us something important about hobbits, that they live underground.z Another way to begin at the beginning is simply to state the premise
of the story as bluntly as possible, the way Franz Kafka does in the
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awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his
bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.” This sentence is only 19
words, but at the end of it, we know the name of the main character, that
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transformation. The rest of the story works out all the implications of a
man being transformed overnight into a giant cockroach.z Both of those openings are in the third person, but many of the most
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directly to the reader. Herman Melville’s 0RE\'LFN begins with “Call
me Ishmael,” and Mark Twain’s 7KH$GYHQWXUHVRI+XFNOHEHUU\)LQQ
begins with “You don’t know about me, without you have read a book
by the name of 7KH$GYHQWXUHVRI7RP6DZ\HU, but that ain’t no matter.”z As we’ve said, writing is about imposing order on chaos, about making
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choices. It’s also as much about what you leave out as what you leave in.
Your decision about when, where, and with whom to begin a narrative
opens one path for you even as it closes off many others.
o Just like making decisions in real life, you sometimes don’t
realize what the consequences of your choices are until much
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about the opening of your novel or short story, you can always
go back and change it or even start over.o Writing, especially plotting, is not a science; it’s an organic and
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