This study looks at the openings of works of fiction with the aim of understanding, from the writer’s viewpoint, what are the techniques and the challenges in beginning to tell a story. It brings together theory and practice, through a review of the history of openings in literature and critical writings on the subject, with a collection of short stories that experiment with the learning from the theory. The study looks first at the history and philosophy of incipits from the earliest writings on these subjects, and traces the way in which writers through the ages have signalled a connection with the past. Key approaches to the critical analysis of prose fiction, in the context of beginnings, are considered from the point of view of a writer looking to make choices on how to begin. The writer’s concern is how and when to introduce the reader to the story to be told, with the objective of delivering up the narrative within a context that is coherent as a whole and rich in meaning. Critical analysis is not designed to give guidance on how to achieve this. However it has proved possible to use a way of analysing beginnings, initially proposed by Andrea del Lungo and subsequently developed by Achim Hescher, as the basis for a framework which identifies the decisions a writer faces. This framework is built on the critical work but is translated into a practical tool which can be applied to texts in the initial creation or editing phases. It is a way of making and then testing the choices made at the beginning, against the overall objectives for a piece of prose fiction. The creative element of the thesis is a collection of short stories. The short story form was chosen because this offers the opportunity to experiment and to work creatively with the ideas and the framework in the critical element of the thesis. In addition, the beginning is more critical to the success of the whole work in the case of short fiction. The study demonstrates this through analysis of examples taken from the works of selected twentieth century short story writers, writing in English. The commentary on the short story collection completes the link between the two parts of the study, the creative and the critical.
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