Beginning a story: setting and first event
A story beginning shows the setting, the characters and the first important event. It answers: Where are we? When is it? Who is there? What happens first? Use the past simple for the main events and the past continuous for what was happening: Farah was feeding the chickens when she heard a strange sound. Time and weather help the setting: a cool morning, a hot afternoon, a windy night. Choose a setting you know or invent one: a village, a beach, a market, a farm, a spaceship, a street. Do not use the bottle story from page 38, a donkey or a Goha tale. After you write, ask a friend: Do you see the setting? Do you want to read more?
| Part | Our beginning |
|---|---|
| Setting | a cool morning in a village by the river |
| Characters | Farah and her little brother Yehia |
| Narrator | he / she (a person outside the story) |
| First event | a strange sound in the barn |
It was a cool morning in a small village by the river. Farah was feeding the chickens when she heard a strange sound from the barn. She stopped and listened. Something was moving behind the hay! Her little brother Yehia was playing nearby, so she took his hand. ‘Be quiet,’ she whispered. Slowly, she opened the door.
| Past continuous | Past simple |
|---|---|
| was feeding | heard |
| was moving | stopped, took, whispered, opened |
| was playing |
Beginning workshop. The child writes six to eight sentences (about 60 words) for a story beginning with a setting, characters and a first event. A friend or grown-up reads it and says two things they like and one question they want answered. Then the child improves it.