So, what about the first part of a story, the beginning? What job does it do? Can’t we just jump right into the big problem and go from there? Should Voldemort just knock on the door right away?

Or better, why don’t stories do that? Why do they often have some kind of warm-up, before the big problem arises?

In Mulan, we could have started with the royal decree that war was coming, and that Mulan’s father would have to go and fight.

In Green Gables, we could have started with Anne already having arrived.

In Fish in a Tree, we could have started with the main character already getting diagnosed with dyslexia.

But in each case, we didn’t. Why not?

What do we gain by having a first part, the part that comes before the big problem appears?

I think we get at least three things from having a beginning (and the rest of this post will just be about the first thing).

First, the reader gets a sense of the kind of person this character is. Are they shy? Brave? Stupid as a goat? Sneaky?

Getting a sense of who the main character is, of what a normal day looks like for that person, gives the reader more information about how such a person will handle problems when they arise.

For Mulan, the beginning part gives us a sense of her as smart, headstrong, not always able to be the kind of person people want her to be or expect her to be.

In Brave, Merida is something similar.

Moana is also like that.

In Frozen, Elsa is terrified of herself.

And so on.

For each of these, the beginning part gives us a sense of who they are and how they might tend to deal with things.

This is also true of our friends. When a situation comes up at school, you probably have a sense of how your closest friends will react to it, because you have lots of background information on how they tend to react to things.

You might not have a sense of how the new kid will react. And when the new kid does react, you don’t have a sense of whether that is normal for them, or out of character. You just don’t have enough information.

So the first thing we get is a background picture of who this character is.

I’ll tell you the second thing in the next post.

Happy writing, young writer.