Bookplanet: Philip Pullman-how to start a story

'I thought I’d talk a little today about stories, and about my approach to one particular aspect of storytelling. We all have such an appetite for narrative, for knowing what happens next, and there’s an enormous amount we can say about it. Christopher Booker has just brought out a book called The Seven Basic Plots of Literature, which is so heavy I dare not drop it on my foot. But I’m not an expert of that sort. I’m no literary critic. All I do is write stories, but in the course of doing it for nearly forty years I’ve thought a great deal about it, and learned a few things, too. I thought that today I’d tell you a little about one small aspect of this business, this craft, this art. And perhaps it’s the one that people who are interested in telling stories are most concerned about, because it has to do with the fear of the blank page that I know many would-be writers feel. It’s the question of how you begin a story. Where do you start? What’s the first sentence?' Start here.