Feb15

how do you begin?

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how interesting to see how different cultures/languages might start their books. the last one is pure fun.

how do stories start in your culture/language?

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 how some have responded:

Hungarian tales mix a lot of them, but my favourite is like: “Once upon a time, where it wasn’t, far beyond the glass mountain, where the short-tailed piglet roams, there lived a(n)….”

My mother used to say “When Donkeys wore high hats and Hyde Park was a flower pot “

Romanian : “There was once, as if never, because if it weren’t, the story wouldn’t be told”

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“we are the storytelling animal. “

-salman rushdie

 

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source credits: StoreyBook reviews, erma bombeck writers workshop

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88 responses »

  4. I think the Romanian one is my favourite and I might just print that out to remember when I start on a new story …. “because if it weren’t the story wouldn’t be told” …. so I need to tell the story :)

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  6. I once had a story book that started “Over the hill and far away, where the sky was green and the grass was blue, there lived a little boy…”. I can’t recall the title, as it was a VERY long time ago. But I always remembered the opening line.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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  11. The beginning sentence of a story can really draw one in. I read stories to my very young ones. I remember asking, “What shall we read tonight?” The kids might not know the name of the little book, but would answer, “Read the one that starts,” XXX”. :)

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  13. What fun! I shall read all comments later…. We start with: Es isch email vor langer Zyt gsii
    Same as in English: A long time ago, there was….
    Wonder what I‘m gonna find later on when I‘m back.

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  16. Once upon a time is a classic. But alongside that, there were those popular Caribbean Anansi stories that started without preamble: Anansi looked around and there was the piglet…
    Anansi always started the story: immersed right away.

    And then the ending of those had funny morals.

    Sometimes the ending was (in vein with the “once upon a time” beginning) …and if the pin neva (never) bend, the story neva end.
    😂
    🙏

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  22. This is terrific! I have noticed a big trend in storytelling where something very dramatic and big leads off in the first paragraph, and the chapter results in a cliffhanger that then sends us back to a “two weeks ago” type chapter 2…I would start a story with this opening sentence: “I will remember to tell the cops that when I opened the door he was already dead.”

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  41. My partner is Norwegian and, while I don’t know exactly how their fairytales start, I do know they often end with ‘snipp, snapp, snute.’ It’s kind of the equivalent of ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ Except it’s clearly not that and I really couldn’t give you a direct translation. It think the words are really fun, though.

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