How a Story Starts

The simple explanation to something is generally the best one – isn’t that what Ockham’s Razor says? It may be true in real life, but when it comes to stories, it may not necessarily be true.

Most stories for me start when I reject the simple explanation in real life situations and get curious about what would happen if that simple explanation weren’t true.

Let me give an example. Let’s say, there is a corporate meeting going on.

During an important slide being presented, someone enters the room, and suddenly the lights go off and the projector goes blank. The presentation has to stop. Everyone searches for the cause. That’s the simple event.

The most likely explanation, in real life, is that this person, while entering, probably turned off the power switch by mistake. But there is no story there.

A nuanced story could be that this person did not want the contents of the slide to be discussed and deliberately switched off the power. One would wonder why and there’s a start to a story.

Or if I go one layer deeper, what if the presenter actually didn’t want this slide to come out in front of the person who entered, and had signaled to someone outside the room to turn the power off when this person enters? Again, it takes a different direction but there’s a story there.

Or if I go down another different path, what if the reason the power went off was because the office building was under siege, and captors had turned off the main power to prevent anyone from escaping? And this person who entered the room was a hidden plant from the captors?

Or if I take it even further down another bizarre path. What if the power went off because there was a city-wide shutdown caused due to an impending strike by an alien force? And this person who entered the room was actually one of them who had arrived early for preparations?

There are many potential explanations to a real life mundane looking event if I question the simple one, and not all of them are simple. But all of them could be potentially true, if expanded well.

Some could be the starting point for a short story; some could incubate an idea that extends into a novella.

The question is which one of these is true? Over the years, I found that the key to a story is to hold on to one explanation as the premise, and make it appear true. Not in a manipulative way, but in a way that is believable, to myself and to readers.

A curious explanation well told and made believable then makes a good story.

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