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“What we need is a story that starts with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax.” - Sam Goldwyn

 The Appetizer^©

               A crocodile’s gender is not determined during the baby’s conception. Researchers discovered that the gender of a baby crocodile depends on the incubating temperature.  Not much difference with storytelling, is there?

One important advice for would-be storyteller on how to start – start outright! Don’t start a story by explaining it. And don’t start the story with too much detail; details hamper the story development. As Voltaire aptly said, “The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.”

                Start a story by establishing outright its conflict. Conflict is the bait that whets the audience appetite for the story. It is the dilemma and the rest of the story deals with the struggles for its resolution and the outcomes of such struggle.

The conflict of the story will hold the audience for another 20 seconds, another minute or another hour. A good storyteller captivates his audience - he has them in a grip right at the start. In the Arabian Nights, the maiden Scheherazade held the sultan’s verdict and her life for one more day by telling the beginning of a story and asking for a break. The sultan, enchanted by the story’s beginning, agreed to hold the maiden’s execution for another day. This went on night after night till the sultan’s heart softened and instead of executing Scheherazade he married her.

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