| The Narrative (“Action”) Beginning
“People Power reacted with courage ...”
This beginning could be called theaction beginning or thebig play beginningbecause it shows something happening. This beginning is related to the descriptive beginning because the writer still describes a scene to the reader, but in this beginning, there is motion, movement, action.
And this beginning can be simple or complex, according to the writer and to the event.
Here is the beginning of Bryan Johnson’s (1987) bookThe Four Days of Courage: The Untold Story of the People Who Brought Marcos Down. Nothing could have more impact than his beginning. Notice, too, how he places himself in the action subtly, with the four words “the Filipinos around me.” This action technique is just as effective for any other subject, for any other writing project, as it is in Johnson’s book.
THEY RANTOWARDS THE DANGER. When the crunch came, when that first column of Marine tanks smashed through a concrete wall and churned across a vacant field, the Filipinos around me hesitated for just a moment. “Jesus Christ!” yelled a kid in a blue T-shirt, heading instinctively for the machines, “they’re trying to get around us!” The anonymous young man vaulted the six-foot wall and disappeared. Within second, two dozen others had followed. By the time all nine tanks had formed up for the attack, they were engulfed in a human sea.
People Power reacted with co
