A Peek Behind the Curtain: How a Story Begins Its Life

Every story starts with a question. Not a polite, hand-raising question. It’s more of a whisper that won’t leave you alone. “What if…?”

Often, that first spark is just the beginning of a long trail of questions that leads me deeper and deeper into the world I’m about to build.

For me, writing a story begins not with knowing, but with wondering. Curiosity, as any storyteller knows, is a dangerous thing. I’ll hear a scrap of folklore, or find a half-forgotten symbol in a museum display, and something stirs. Why did people believe this? Who would protect it? What if someone suddenly proved that belief true—or horribly wrong?

These “what if” questions are the seeds of imagination. They don’t knock politely, they sneak in sideways when you’re reading, walking, or even eating your cereal.

One question leads to another, and before you know it, you’re knee deep in a story that didn’t exist yesterday.

But that’s not enough. To turn an idea into a living, breathing story, I need to ask better questions, and then chase the answers through research. It sounds boring, but it’s the opposite. It’s falling down rabbit holes and landing in entirely unexpected places. I’ve researched all sorts of things like climate change, the London Underground, ancient runes, Norse gods, wormholes, quantum mechanics, and yes—even the dietary possibilities of bioluminescent fungi. (Extremely useful when your main character needs food inside a cave).

Some research is direct: how long would it take to travel in real life from A to B?

Other research is more atmospheric, involving a walk through fog-drenched woods or listening to dialects. But it’s all necessary to bring texture and truth to imagined worlds.

It’s not just the world-building that’s guided by questions, it’s the characters too.

• What does the protagonist want more than anything?

• What are they most afraid of?

Real characters make mistakes, take risks. Sometimes they even surprise me, going completely off-script. That’s when you know the story’s alive.

The truth is, I never know everything at the start. I don’t want to. Where’s the fun in that? It’s like reading the last page of a murder mystery before you’ve even read the first.

A story never arrives fully formed for me. Most of the time, I’m feeling my way forward in the dark, guided by flickers of insight, gut instincts, and more questions.

Research fills in some of the blanks. Imagination fills in the rest.

In the end… for every magical world, every heart-pounding plot twist, every beloved character, there’s a quiet beginning. A notebook scribbled with questions. A search bar filled with strange, late-night queries. A dog-eared library book on Viking runes.

That’s where the magic starts. Not with answers, but with curiosity.

Happy writing, readers!

Love,

Yonnie x