How do I start a story?

Inspiration is a funny thing. You never know when it will strike or what it will produce. But that’s half the fun, at least to me. I’m frequently surprised (and sometimes baffled) by the things my imagination produces. All of those ideas can be starting points for stories.

There are multiple entry points for a story. The beginning doesn’t always have to be the first thing you sort out. In fact, I often come up with the ending first, then work everything out backward. I find that to be much easier, and less intimidating. So, if you’re working on the outline of a story and keep hitting walls, I recommend putting that aside, grabbing a fresh sheet of paper, and writing out the ideal ending first.

But sometimes my stories start in other ways. For the novel I’m currently working on, the title came to me out of the blue first. Just a phrase where I thought, “Hey, that would make an excellent title.” Then I couldn’t get it out of my head, and had to turn it into a story.

Sometimes the premise comes to me first. “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” A lot of great stories have been launched by a what if. My first novel started that way. “What if starships were powered by flowers?” I built an entire world and plot around that idea. In the case of my current WIP, I had to come up with a premise based on the title, which resulted in something really cool.

Occasionally, I’ll start with the theme. “I want to tell a story that explores grief and forgiveness.” Or whatever. The novella I’m working on came about that way. Sometimes, I’ll get really reflective about death or love or whatever, and just feel like I need to speak my thoughts about a given topic into the world.

I’ve never started a story with a character. The way my brain works, it makes the most sense to build the world first, and then find characters who would inhabit such a place. I find it difficult to start with a character and then build a world around them. There are too many possibilities in that scenario, and I find myself in a ‘paradox of choice’ kind of situation. But that isn’t to say that you couldn’t start a story that way. Your brain might be able to handle that.

I say all this to impart this bit of wisdom: anything can become a story! The tiniest fragment of an idea can be built out into an epic series. Keep track of as many as you can, because you never know what will develop.