MONTY: Every Story Must Have a Beginning, but how do you Find it?

Stories with a timeline

Stories like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke have some pretty wild concepts for a story. Humans in constant conflict with nature and each other, but unknown to most humans, nature and its beasts are quite intelligent creatures, capable of communicating and some also happen to be sacred deities. They both possess some strong character writing, even making you feel some sympathy for characters you might end up hating. While watching these movies, I realized one thing these two had in common- the worlds they tell about feel so lived in. So I began thinking to myself- how do we make our stories feel lived in? What aspect of their worldbuilding makes it feel like there’s a long lineage of events that transpired before we as readers delved into this new world?

Where to begin, When to begin…

Of course worldbuilding is essential when creating fictional pieces of writing. Everything from the geolocation to the characters themselves take enormous effort to carefully craft. But before we can delve into the timeline of your story, I have one particular question for you to think about- why did you decide to start your story when it does? What I mean by that is- you, as the creator of this fictional world, have to choose when your story begins. If there are historical events in your story’s worldbuilding that occur before the first paragraph begins, how do you go about deciding why it starts there?

AI Generated Image

Let’s Set Up a Scene

Let’s run through a quick thought experiment. Say you’re creating a medieval fantasy world-

It takes place in a city-state with a large castle. The largest tower looming over the city happens to be the oldest- dating back to over 500 years ago. The stone and mortar that gives it a degraded grey color still stands as strong as the new towers and sections of the castle. It is home to a royal family that has prospered over it’s people for many generations. Our story, however, starts following the perspective of a young man in a lower middle class household within the walls of the city. The boy is in his older teenage years with 6 siblings living with him and his parents. The family come from a lineage of freemasons that have earned their living working on projects for the royal family. Why, one of their ancestors actually had the privilege of working on the construction of the tallest tower of the castle. The boy finally gets his first taste of hard labor, being taught and guided by his older brothers and father. However, the projects they’ve been set to work on pay very little. Unlike their ancestors, their family has lost their favor with the royal family for several generations now.

History’s in the past, but the story is ‘now’

In this small story idea, there’s 500 years or more of history within the confines of this city-state. However, we don’t start our story 500 years ago when the first settlers decided to make something of that land, do we? No, we start by following this young man and the grueling lifestyle he has to endure in order to help his father make ends meet for him and his family. The history that had occurred before the actual events of the story are definitely important, however, the events that are yet to unravel as the story goes on are more prominent than what happens before that. As a storywriter, you have to make that decision and have a reason as to why it is more important.

How did the Legendary Miyazaki do it?

Introductory Credits to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1985)

Let’s take a live example like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. This movie’s introductory credits are a historical montage of the events that transpired before we start Nausicaa’s adventure. It explains how a toxic jungle has begun engulfing the surface of the planet for thousands of years now, having ended the reign of modern human civilization. The tapestry in the introduction also allude how advanced these humans were prior to meeting their demise, having created flying ships and giant bionic creatures. These giants were used for war or conquest it seems, which may have left Earth as a completely radiated wasteland. It seems it was at this time that the toxic jungle suddenly appeared, killing anyone within its vicinity.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1985) Movie Introduction- Main Character

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Later on in the story, we learn that the toxic jungle is only toxic due to the pollution and possibly radiation within the surface of the land it grows upon. What seems to be the function of this jungle is to consume the pollution within the soil and purifying it while the plant matter fossilizes into healthy soil. We do see petrified ancient giants covered in spores emerging from the terrain Nausicaa flies over...

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