Storyteller

How do you start telling a story? This question is asked around for thousands of years, yet one would argue that in modern times it is more important than ever. Your average reader (or listener) has a very short attention span, we all know that. Your story is not just battling with other narratives around- formats, concepts, and platforms bring so much diversity into the picture.

Telling a story is almost like sending the first text message to your crush. Should you start with a joke? Should you cut to the chase? Should you introduce yourself (or the characters) properly?

There are several base scenarios you can lean on when you start telling a story. A good old “Once upon a time...” narrative, when you begin by explaining preceding events & locations as a narrator. “In a Galaxy far far away...", is a perfect example of how you can set a mood for your story and catch attention.

Another option that you have as a storyteller is to jump straight to the aftermath of the events. You are showing a full picture of what happened, by giving out a promise to bring your audience to this point. Think "Pulp Fiction" or "Fight Club". It’s a journey after all; you offer readers/viewers/listeners to join you on a ride. They are hooked, but the downside is that you set very high expectations for a surprise. 

But here is the catch - when you meet a new person in your life, you don’t start with the “once upon” stuff, and for sure you are not jumping ahead of yourself explaining some events in your life which brought you there. You just start right when you met them, you cut through and snap the exact moment in the timeline.

Below is a brilliant example from Gary Shteyngart’s novel called “Lake Success”. These are literally the first sentences of the book: 

“BARRY COHEN, a man with 2.4 billion dollars of assets under management, staggered into the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He was visibly drunk and bleeding. There was a clean slice above his left brow where the nanny’s fingernail had gouged him and, from his wife, a teardrop scratch below his eye. It was 3:20 A.M.”

 There are 55 words packed in 4 sentences, 2 of which are really short. 

Gary starts quite bold with a name dropping: Barry Cohen. 

 2.4 billion dollars assets under management, gives you pretty much an idea on which street in New York City Barry works exactly. And that he must be doing quite good for himself.

 Staggered - and you can almost sense that something is off here. Why a person with 2.4. billion dollars of asset management is “staggered”? Why isn't he entering the frame steadily and with his chin up high and swag in his walk? Here is the part where it gets really really weird - Port Authority Bus Terminal. I must admit, this is something that the majority of Gary Shteyngart's international audience might miss, but the lucky ones who have been to NYC could immediately understand how absurd the situation is. What the heck a hedge fund manager does at Port Authority?? 

He was visibly drunk and bleeding - OK, we totally get the drunk part. It is easy to tie back to the “staggered” bit, but bleeding takes us to an entirely new spin. This is is new information, and your brain is rushing for an answer. Was he shot? Stabbed? Did someone try to rob him because of the Rolex Daytona on this wrist? 

 There was a clean slice above his left brow - he was robbed for sure, you think - where the nanny’s fingernail had gouged him and, from his wife, a teardrop scratch below his eye."

Ok, wait a minute. Nanny is in the picture - we know that is doing ok financially, not surprising. But why would nanny assault him? I mean, not that his wife attacking him is OK, but more or less...understandable. Who knows, maybe he was drunk way before heading home and that's what upset his wife. But wife & nanny at the same time, tough call.

 It was 3:20 A.M. - yeah, Barry is screwed. It's a fact by now.

It would probably take you around twenty seconds to read the beginning of Chapter 1 of this book. Twenty seconds in, you already have all the required “hook-ups” to dive into the story. You pretty much know, who Barry is. You want to know what happened. You are in Barry’s life. At this point, you have at least half a dozen theories about what exactly happened to him.

 And this is exactly how you start telling a story.