Who says a children’s story has to begin “once upon a time…?” This beginning is so popular that even one of the most recognized sci-fi movies begins with a similar and widely known phrase. I’m thinking space samurai, blasters, evil emperors, and Frank Oz and James Earl Jones (the series can not be the same without them).
The point is that, while this beginning is a classic, it doesn’t mean that we have to reuse it till it gets old and worn out. Let’s have some creativity, people.
Please, don’t misunderstand me. I believe that if we stop using clichés their meaning will become lost. Part of the reason some of these clichés have been used so much is because they are/were rich with meaning. I simply think that we must use the clichés in moderation to avoid them losing their meaning due to overuse.
The question is: how do we come up with this more interesting beginning? I am still reading, learning, and experimenting with that concept, hoping I won’t have to remind myself why people say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
In the case of “Boys will be Boys”, I simply opted for jumping right in and getting to the point. “This is my main character, this is what he is like, and this is why I am writing the story about him.” When I wrote this opening, I hoped it would be a good hook. I wanted the reader to know why they should even care about John.
If the goal of the opening page/pages is to get your reader to turn to the next page, I didn’t want to equivocate.
There is also the option of creating suspense where you give your reader questions that they want answered and make them have to keep reading to get those answers. This can be tricky. The problem is trying to present the questions quickly without answering them. As a reader, if the author takes too long to build my interest, I will give up. If they answer all my questions too soon, I wonder what the point is in continuing to read since I already know the whys and wherefores.
You can begin the story almost at the end. In this method, you show the reader where the character landed just before the climax. Then you guide them through how the character got there, and move on through to the finale. While I am testing this method in one of my novel WIPs, and think that it is worth learning for the sake of novels, I do not consider it the best to use in a children’s book format. That could be only my opinion, but my reasoning is as follows.
First is the problem of fitting the emotional content of starting at the end, into the smaller scale. We must also consider what our purpose is for using this method. Are we striving for more emotional punch? Understand that a great many stories that use this method are in the drama, action, adventure, etc. genres, usually with more adult themes and full on disaster. Plus, changing time from future to the past in order to walk the characters through the story to pass themselves in the future, which is now the present, is a concept that might lose younger readers. In other words, consider your audience.
Whatever the method, those of us who work well within domain of the long-form story must continue to explore how to make the Long Story Short, and no matter how we choose to begin a story, remember to begin by enjoying the wonder.
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