I might have a story to tell, but I don’t know how it should begin.

How do I start? — and is it strange that I’m asking you that? Maybe it is. Still, I’d rather we be on equal footing. Just because I’m the one telling the story doesn’t mean I know any more about it than you do. Meaning isn’t something I get to assign and seal shut. If there is meaning at all, it moves. It wanders between us. Mutates. You might think you recognize its shape for a moment, and then it’s already become something else.

So what exactly are we doing here?

What’s the point of telling a story if the meaning is unknowable? If it can’t be pinned down, does it even matter? Maybe a story doesn’t need to communicate anything at all. Maybe it only needs to hold your attention for a little while. You enjoy being entertained, don’t you?

Let’s aim for something modest: a story that is at least a little entertaining, and possibly meaningful, though neither of us can say how.

Still — that first problem remains.

How do I begin?

Writers usually introduce a character. Or a place. A bit of dialogue. Something solid to stand on. The light in a kitchen. Two people talking. A door opening.

I’m sitting at my desk with a cold cup of coffee, staring at a blank page, trying to think of anything that feels worthy of being first.

Nothing does.

It’s hard not to admire writers who can open cleanly like that, confidently, as if the beginning had always been waiting for them. I don’t trust myself to do it. If I try to force something beautiful or cinematic, it will collapse immediately. I’ll watch it fall apart and feel embarrassed for having tried.

So maybe I should skip the beginning entirely.

Not skip it as in you turning pages, but simply refuse to provide one. We just start here, mid-thought, already moving. No ceremony. No carefully arranged first impression. We pretend this is acceptable and carry on.

It would spare me the awkward, overworked paragraphs. It might spare you too.

Besides, nothing truly begins where we say it does. Everything is already in progress.

Don’t worry — there won’t be much action. No chases, no narrow escapes. Entertainment doesn’t always require action. Sometimes it’s quieter than that. Sometimes it’s just the feeling that something is about to reveal itself, even if it never quite does.

So maybe this is the beginning after all.

Or maybe we’re already somewhere in the middle.

Either way, we might as well continue.