Ah, the very first words of a story!  They are the beginning!  They hold so much promise!

What should they be, though?  Which words would be best right at the top, right at the start?

Other parts of the story are dancing around in your head and you don’t want to delay getting to those!

Yet, the first words often make us pause.  Then, in this moment of uncertainty, we sometimes take a turn away from the story and head instead down Worry Lane.  Yet, this detour can be avoided with four fearless words:

“Once upon a time…”

“Once upon a time” sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  It catches our ear no matter how many times we have heard it before.  For this reason, it has started so many stories—it is a beginning that has served storytellers for centuries!

The old Story Elf Shrub often calls out to writer elves from his morning glory hammock, “Don’t sit too long fretting over a beginning!  ‘Once upon a time’ will always be there when you need it!”

New idea:  “Once upon a time” is a wise story-starting idea.  It gives us a solid beginning and it encourages us to move forward with the story and DIVE IN!

Once the story is well underway, we can always come back and change the beginning to something else, if we prefer!