L is for Legends

The greatest stories in the world transcend the boundaries of history and culture. They live on in myth, books, movies, toys and games. Children grow up knowing them, but never really knowing where they learned about them. Adults look back on them with fond memories and delight in seeing each new generation discover them.

We all know legends that have been passed down time and time again, retold and reinvented. That's the strength of a legend. It will always adapt to meet its audience, yet its core will never change.

I have a WIP still in the planning stage, but I've had the opening decided for a while now. It's a fantasy western trilogy set in the late 1870s. The opening is something I created for a roleplaying game I ran, and which has become a key element of how I think about my writing. I'd like to share the opening here.

They say every story starts at the beginning. I say every good story starts with an ending, and ends with a beginning.

There was a time, before this, when the West was still being won. A time of death and darkness, where fear was like a storm on the horizon; dark clouds gathering, getting  closer every day. In this world, a man could choose to suffer, or choose to act. He could join the darkness, or stand as a light.

In this world, ruled by the gun and forged by the gun, a man could become a hero. A hero could become a legend. And a legend could live forever.

Let me tell you a story...