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Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a 24-hour^[7]central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides local Thameslink services from North to South London, and limited Southeastern commuter services to South East London and Kent. Its platforms span the River Thames, the only one in London to do so, along the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge, a short distance downstream from Blackfriars Bridge. There are two station entrances either side of the Thames, along with a connection to the London Underground District and Circle lines.

The main line station was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway with the name St. Paul's in 1886, as a replacement for the earlier Blackfriars Bridge station (now the present station's southern entrance) and the earlier Blackfriars railway bridge. This increased capacity of rail traffic through the Snow Hill Tunnel to the rest of the rail network. The Underground station opened in 1870 with the arrival of the Metropolitan District Railway. The station was renamed Blackfriars in 1937 to avoid confusion with St Paul's tube station. It was rebuilt in the 1970s, which included the addition of office space above the station and the closure of the original railway bridge, which was demolished in 1985.

In 2009, the station underwent major refurbishments to improve capacity, which included the extension of the platforms across the railway bridge and a new station entrance on the South Bank. The underground station was rebuilt at the same time, and work was completed in 2012.

• 2History

Location[edit]

Blackfriars station^[a] serves Thameslink rail services that connect suburbs with central London. It straddles the River Thames, running across the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge parallel to the A201Blackfriars Bridge.^[9] For this reason, it is geographically based partly in the City of London and partly in the London Borough of Southwark. The north bank entrance is on the south side of Queen Victoria Street and the south bank entrance, opened in 2011, is adjacent to Blackfriars Road.^[10]

The station falls within fare zone 1. The station is run by Thameslink, with Transport for London handling the underground platforms.^[11] A Thameslink driver depot is in the station building.^[12]London Buses routes 40, 63, 388 and night routes N63 and N89 serve the station.^[13] The adjacent Blackfriars Millennium Pier provides river services to Putney and Canary Wharf.^[14]

History[edit]

London, Chatham and Dover Railway[edit]

The station was proposed by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR), who had been given parliamentary power to build a line into the City of London. The company wanted to compete with rivals, the South Eastern Railway, and provide the best service into Central London. The line was complete as far as the Thames by 1864; the LC&DR opened a station called Blackfriars Bridge on 1 June, which sat on the south bank adjacent to Blackfriars Road.^[15] An underground station at Blackfriars was opened by the Metropolitan District Railway in 1870, before any mainline stations.^[16]

The railway bridge across the Thames was delayed because the City's controlling government, the Corporation of London, were unsure as to what it should look like and how many arches there should be. The station was designed by Joseph Cubitt and had a long roof with walls that stretched up to the riverbank. Cubitt subsequently designed the original bridge, which carried four tracks on a 933 feet (284 m) lattice girder bridge, supported by sets of stone piers supporting iron columns. Services began across the bridge on 21 December 1864.^[17] Upon completion, trains ended at a temporary terminal, replaced by Ludgate Hill on 1 June 1865.^[17] A further station, Holborn Viaduct, opened on 2 March 1874 and the LC&DR line ran via the Snow Hill tunnel to a connection to the Metropolitan Railway near Farringdon, then on to King's Cross and St Pancras stations.^[18]

The mainline Blackfriars station was opened by the LC&DR as St. Paul's railway station on 10 May 1886 when the company opened the St. Paul's Railway Bridge across the Thames. The bridge was constructed parallel to the 1864 Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying seven tracks across five arched spans between 175 feet (53 m) and 185 feet (56 m) high. It widened past the bridge to the terminus on the south side of Queen Victoria Street. The original station was a small and cheaply designed pink-red brick building, as the LD&CR had financial difficulties throughout its lifetime attempting to drive a railway through Central London.^[19] The station's frontage backed onto the District Railway, making a cab access and forecourt impossible owing to lack of space. It did, however, allow St Paul's a direct interchange with the rest of the underground, unlike all the other LC&DR stations. On 13 November 1886, a direct connection was made between the mainline and underground stations.^[16]

After the opening of St. Paul's station, the earlier Blackfriars Bridge station was closed to passengers but remained as a goods station until 1965.^[20][b] Most mainline trains called at St Paul's, including those stopping at Holborn Viaduct. Local commuters continued to use Ludgate Hill where possible, as it was closer to where they were going, but it did not have sufficient capacity.^[16]

Southern Railway and Southern Region[edit]

St. Paul's station was renamed by the Southern Railway as Blackfriars on 1 February 1937. This was partly done to avoid confusion after the London Passenger Transport Board renamed Post Office tube station on the Central line to St Paul's, and partly so that the mainline and underground stations would have the same name.^[19] It suffered significant bomb damage during World War II.^[22] Overnight on 16–17 April 1941, the signalbox on the south side of the bridge was destroyed, along with a bridge over Southwark Street.^[23] The signals were not fully restored until 11 August 1946, after the war.^[24]

After the creation of British Railways in 1948, the station was managed by British Railways (Southern Region).^[25] Gradually, the structure of the original Blackfriars Railway Bridge deteriorated until it was unsound. In 1961, two tracks were removed from the bridge to ease its load. The station had little investment and still supported some of the original architecture and design up to the 1960s. By this time, services were reduced to a handful of commuter services.^[26] The bridge was closed to trains on 27 June 1971 and the deck was removed in 1985, and only the piers in the river and the orange bridge abutments remain.^[25][27]

The station began to be rebuilt along with the Underground station in 1971, which included an additional 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²) of office space. Reconstruction was problematic, as the original station building had sat on top of a cold store, which had frozen the ground below it. The District Line tunnel had to be removed and replaced with a new supporting structure that could accommodate the redesigned station building. The work was formally reopened on 30 November 1977 by the Lord Mayor of London, Peter Vanneck (though the station had never actually closed). A part of the stonework elevation from the 1886 LC&DR station has been preserved at platform level in the main line station indicating many destinations in the south-east of England and in Europe.^[28]

Station rebuild[edit]

Blackfriars station was significantly renovated between 2009 and 2012 in a £500m redevelopment programme to modernise the station and increase capacity.^[29] The terminal platforms at the station were closed on 20 March 2009 in order for work to begin.^[22] The original concept for the project was designed by Pascall+Watson architects, with execution by Jacobs and Tony Gee and Partners; it was built by Balfour Beatty.^[30] The office building above the station was demolished and replaced as part of the Thameslink programme. The new station is the same height and has a combined National Rail and London Underground ticket hall and ventilation shaft together with escalators and lifts between a mezzanine level for main line railway services and the sub-surface level for London Underground services.^[25] The Underground station also received major enhancements, with a new roof of glazed north lights and partial-height glazed side panels installed along the entire length of the bridge.^[31][32]

On the south bank of the river a new station entrance was built at Bankside, containing a second ticket hall.^[33] The through platforms were moved to the east side and extended along Blackfriars Railway Bridge to accommodate 12-carriage trains (in place of the previous eight). The layout has been altered by building new bay platforms on the west side, avoiding the need for through trains between City Thameslink and London Bridge crossing the paths of terminating ones.^[29]

The works exploited the disused piers west of the existing railway bridge which once supported the former West Blackfriars and St. Paul's Railway Bridge. The easternmost row of disused piers was strengthened, tied into the existing bridge and clad in stone.^[34] The longer platforms allow longer trains on the Thameslink route to pass through London.^[35] Thameslink services began using the newly constructed platforms in early 2011. The station's new entrance and ticket hall on the south side of the river opened on 5 December.^[10] The tube station reopened on 20 February 2012. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited the works on the same day, saying 'the rebirth of this central London station will improve the journeys of thousands of passengers every single day'. The reconstruction work provided jobs for around 13,000 people, with a maximum of 2000 per day at the busiest times.^[35] The Thameslink redevelopment work at Blackfriars has been well received.^[34] In January 2014 the Blackfriars Railway Bridge became the world's largest solar-powered bridge having been covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels providing up to half of the energy for the station.^[36] In 2017, the station won a Major Station of the Year award at the National Rail Awards.^[34]

The Waterloo & City line, a deep-level tube line which runs non-stop between Waterloo and Bank, runs almost directly under Blackfriars station and there have been suggestions to construct an interchange station for the line at Blackfriars. The Department for Transport considers this to have 'no significant transport benefit'.^[37]

Accidents[edit]

• On 19 May 1938, a SECR B1 class locomotive was derailed, causing several hours disruption at the station.^[38]
• On 2 January 2014, a train's pantograph struck the roof of the station due to a technical fault.^[39] The accident^[40] involving a First Capital Connect service from St Albans City to Sevenoaks did not result in any injuries but caused delays of around 45 minutes.^[41]

Services[edit]

Blackfriars main-line station is served by through services on the Thameslink route operated by Thameslink and Southeastern. This includes trains from Bedford, St Albans City and Luton to the north, and Brighton, Sutton and Sevenoaks to the south. Southbound trains run via London Bridge or Elephant & Castle; northbound trains next call at City Thameslink. Before March 2009 some services from the south terminated at three bay platforms, which were then removed during renovation works. Two new bay platforms opened in May 2012 and are used during peak hours and at weekends.^[42] Southeastern provides direct services to Kent during peak hours Monday to Friday.

The new Thameslink timetable was introduced in May 2018. The current off peak service is as follows:

• 4 tph to Brighton via Gatwick Airport (Thameslink)
• 2 tph to Horsham via Gatwick Airport (Thameslink)
• 2 tph to Gatwick Airport via Redhill (Thameslink)
• 2 tph to Rainham via Greenwich, Charlton, Abbey Wood, Dartford, Gravesend and Gillingham (Thameslink)
• 2 tph to Orpington
• 4 tph to Sutton, 2 tph via Wimbledon and 2 tph via Mitcham Junction.
• 4 tph to Bedford via St Pancras International, St Albans City, Luton Airport and Luton Town. (operated by Thameslink)
• 2 tph to Luton Town via St Pancras International, St Albans City and Luton Airport
• 4 tph to St Albans City via St Pancras International
• 2 tph to Kentish Town via St Pancras International
• 2 tph to Cambridge via St Pancras International, Stevenage and Hitchin (Thameslink)
• 2 tph to Peterborough via St Pancras International, Stevenage and Hitchin (Thameslink)

Although many services are Thameslink through trains, Blackfriars is considered a central London terminus and is a valid destination for a ticket marked 'London Terminals'.^[43]

Underground station[edit]

Blackfriars Underground station is served by the Circle and District lines and is between Temple and Mansion House stations.^[44] The underground station pre-dates the mainline one and was opened on 30 May 1870 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR) as the railway's new eastern terminus when the line was extended from Westminster.^[16] The MDR had been created as a new company to complete the Circle Line, which would split the budget from the District and Metropolitan Railways.^[45] The construction of the new section of the MDR was planned in conjunction with the building of the Victoria Embankment and was achieved by the cut and cover method of roofing over a shallow trench.^[46] On 3 July 1871 the MDR was extended eastwards to a new terminus at Mansion House.^[47] The Circle Line ran over the same route, but its completion was delayed following arguments between the District and Metropolitan Railways and did not open until 6 October 1884.^[48]

Story Structure Architect Pdf

The underground station was closed on 2 March 2009 for major renovation work and reopened on 20 February 2012.^[49] This involved demolishing the national rail building and merging its ticket hall with the underground's.^[25]

References[edit]

Notes

1. ^The station is formally called 'London Blackfriars' in official railway documentation.^[8]
2. ^The station has since been demolished but the entrance driveway remains. Further down Blackfriars Road is the entrance to an earlier station called Blackfriars Road station, which operated from 1864 to 1868 as part of the competing South Eastern Railway, which was ultimately replaced by Waterloo East railway station.^[21]

Story Structure Architect

Citations

1. ^'Step free Tube Guide'(PDF). Transport for London. March 2019. Archived(PDF) from the original on 1 June 2019.
2. ^'London and South East'(PDF). National Rail. September 2006. Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 March 2009.
3. ^[1]
4. ^'Out of Station Interchanges'(XLS). Transport for London. May 2011. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012.
5. ^ ^abcde'Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures'(XLSX). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. January 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
6. ^ ^abcdefghij'Station usage estimates'. Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
7. ^Thameslink Bedford-London timetable 2018
8. ^'London Blackfriars'. Southern. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
9. ^'Blackfriars station'. Thameslink Programme. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
10. ^ ^ab'A better Blackfriars!'. First Capital Connect. 5 December 2011. Archived from the original on 27 February 2012.
11. ^'Station facilities for London Blackfriars'. National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
12. ^'Train operating company drivers' depots on the Traindriver.org website'. September 2017.
13. ^'Buses nearby Blackfriars'. Transport for London. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
14. ^'London River Services'(PDF). Transport for London. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
15. ^Jackson 1984, p. 191.
16. ^ ^abcdJackson 1984, p. 198.
17. ^ ^abJackson 1984, p. 192.
18. ^Jackson 1984, pp. 191–192,197.
19. ^ ^abJackson 1984, p. 197.
20. ^Jackson 1984, pp. 197,205.
21. ^'Glas Architects To Design New Cafe At London's Southwark Station'. Design Curial. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
22. ^ ^abMcCarthy & McCarthy 2009, p. 69.
23. ^Jackson 1984, p. 203.
24. ^Jackson 1984, p. 206.
25. ^ ^abcdChristopher 2015, p. 129.
26. ^Jackson 1984, p. 205.
27. ^Jackson 1984, p. 360.
28. ^Jackson 1984, p. 359.
29. ^ ^ab'London's latest landmark: Blackfriars station'. London Evening Standard. 13 June 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
30. ^'Two new platforms and 700 extra trains for Blackfriars'. Thameslink. 18 May 2012. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
31. ^Christopher 2015, pp. 129–130.
32. ^'Thameslink – 2006 Transport and Works Act Decision Letter'. Department for Transport. 18 October 2006. paragraph 35. Archived from the original on 8 November 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2006.
33. ^'Blackfriars Station's Bankside Ticket Hall Opens'. Londonist. December 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
34. ^ ^abc'National Rail Awards 2017: Blackfriars wins Major Station of the Year'. Rail Magazine. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
35. ^ ^abWoodman, Peter (20 February 2012). 'Rebuilt Blackfriars Tube station reopens'. The Independent. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
36. ^'World's largest solar-powered bridge opens in London'. The Guardian. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
37. ^'Thameslink 2000 Inspector's Report 2006, section 17.2.7'. Department for Transport. 18 October 2006. Archived from the original on August 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2007.
38. ^Earnshaw, Alan (1989). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 5. Penryn: Atlantic Books. p. 27. ISBN0-906899-35-4.
39. ^'JC Days RSI Technical log – Unit 319369: 'Pan Up/Down EP Valve' failed in the Up position'. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
40. ^'Railway Group Safety Performance Monitoring – Definitions and Guidance – Section B 8.5 Train accidents'(pdf). RSSB. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
41. ^'Thameslink train hits roof at London's Blackfriars station'. BBC News. 2 January 2014.
42. ^'London Blackfriars is almost there!'. First Capital Connect. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
43. ^'Travelling to, from and via London'. National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
44. ^'Standard Tube Map'(PDF). Transport For London. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
45. ^Day & Reed 2010, p. 20.
46. ^Day & Reed 2010, p. 24.
47. ^Demuth 2004, p. 6.
48. ^Day & Reed 2010, p. 28.
49. ^'Blackfriars Tube station reopens after three years'. BBC News. 20 February 2012.

Sources

• Christopher, John (2015). London's Historic Railway Stations Through Time. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN978-1-4456-5111-8.
• Day, John; Reed, John (2010) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (11th ed.). Capital Transport. ISBN978-1-85414-341-9.
• Demuth, Tim (2004). The Spread of London's Underground. Capital Transport. ISBN1-85414-277-1.
• Jackson, Alan (1984) [1969]. London's Termini (New Revised ed.). London: David & Charles. ISBN0-330-02747-6.
• McCarthy, Colin; McCarthy, David (2009). Railways of Britain – London North of the Thames. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN978-0-7110-3346-7.

External links[edit]

• Train times and station information for Blackfriars station from National Rail
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive

All stories contain four elements that can determine structure: milieu, idea, character and event. While each is present in every story, there is generally one that dominates the others.

Which one dominates? The one that the author cares about most. This is why the process of discovering the structure of a story is usually a process of self-discovery. Which aspect of the story matters most to you? That is the aspect that determines your story’s structure.

Let’s take each element in turn and look at the structure that would be required if that were to be the dominant element in your story.

STRUCTURE 1: THE MILIEU STORY
The milieu is the world—the planet, the society, the weather, the family, all the elements that come up during your world-creation phase. Every story has a milieu, but when a story is structured around one, the milieu is the thing the storyteller cares about most. For instance, in Gulliver’s Travels, it mattered little to Jonathan Swift whether we came to care about Gulliver as a character. The whole point of the story was for the audience to see all the strange lands where Gulliver traveled and then compare the societies he found there with the society of England in Swift’s own day—and the societies of all the tale’s readers, in all times and places. So it would’ve been absurd to begin by writing much about Gulliver’s childhood and upbringing. The real story began the moment Gulliver got to the first of the book’s strange lands, and it ended when he came home.

Milieu stories always follow that structure. An observer who sees things the way we’d see them gets to the strange place, observes things that interest him, is transformed by what he sees, and then comes back a new person.

This structure is most common in science fiction and fantasy, but it also occurs in other types of novels. James Clavell’s Shogun, for instance, is a milieu story: It begins when the European hero is stranded in medieval Japan, and it ends when he leaves. He was transformed by his experiences in Japan, but he does not stay—he returns to his world. Other stories are told along the way—the story of the shogun, for instance—but regardless of how much we’re drawn into those events, the real closure we expect at the end of the story is the main character’s departure from Japan.

Likewise, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz doesn’t end when Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West. It ends when Dorothy leaves Oz and goes home to Kansas.

As you conceive and write your own story, if you realize that what you care about most is having a character explore and discover the world you’ve created, chances are this structure is your best choice.

When writing a milieu story, your beginning point is obvious—when the character arrives—and the ending is just as plain: when she leaves (or, in a variant, when she decides not to leave, ending the question of going home).

Such stories are typically most effective when seen through the viewpoint of the arriving character, as she’ll be surprised by and interested in the same strange and marvelous (and terrible) things that engage the readers.

STRUCTURE 2: THE IDEA STORY
Idea stories are about the process of seeking and discovering new information through the eyes of characters who are driven to make the discoveries. The structure is very simple: The idea story begins by raising a question; it ends when the question is answered.

Most mysteries follow this structure. The story begins when a crime takes place. The question we ask is, “who did it and why?” The story ends when the identity and motive of the criminal are revealed.

In speculative fiction, a similar structure is quite common. The story begins with a question: Why did this beautiful ancient civilization on a faraway planet come to an end? Why are all these people gone, when they were once so wise and their achievements so great? The answer, in Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star,” is that their sun went nova, making life impossible in their star system. And, ironically, it was the explosion of their star that the wise men saw as the sign of the birth of Christ. The story is told from the point of view of a Christian who believes that this must have been a deliberate act of God, to destroy a beautiful civilization for the sake of giving a sign to the magi.

When writing an idea story, begin as close as possible to the point where the question is first
raised, and end as soon as possible after the question is answered.

STRUCTURE 3: THE CHARACTER STORY
Character stories focus on the transformation of a character’s role in the communities that matter most to him. Sure, in one sense, stories are almost always “about” one or more characters. In most stories, though, the tale is not about the character’s character; that is, the story is not about who the character is.

Take, for example, the Indiana Jones movies. These are not character stories. The story is always about what Indiana Jones does, but never who he is. Jones faces many problems and adventures, but in the end, his role in society is exactly what it was before: part-time archaeology professor and full-time knight-errant.

By contrast, Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding is about a young girl’s longing to change her role in the only community she knows—her household, her family. She determines that she wants to belong to her brother and his new wife; “they are the we of me,” she decides. In the effort to become part of their marriage, she is thwarted—but in the process, her role in the family and in the world at large is transformed, and at the end of the story she is not who she was when she first began. The Member of the Wedding is a classic example of a character story.

The structure of a character story is as simple as any of the others. The story begins at the moment when the main character becomes so unhappy, impatient or angry in her present role that she begins the process of change; it ends when the character either settles into a new role (happily or not) or gives up the struggle and remains in the old role (happily or not).

STRUCTURE 4: THE EVENT STORY
In the event story, something is wrong in the fabric of the universe; the world is out of order. In classic literature, this can include the appearance of a monster (Beowulf), the “unnatural” murder of a king by his brother (Hamlet) or of a guest by his host (Macbeth), the breaking of an oath (Havelock the Dane), the conquest of a Christian land by the infidel (King Horn), the birth of a child portent who some believe ought not to have been born (Dune), or the reappearance of a powerful ancient adversary who was thought to be dead (The Lord of the Rings). In all cases, a previous order—a “golden age”—has been disrupted and the world is in flux, a dangerous place.

The event story ends at the point when a new order is established or, more rarely, when the old order is restored or, rarest of all, when the world descends into chaos as the forces of order are destroyed. The story begins not at the point when the world becomes disordered, but rather at the point when the character whose actions are most crucial to establishing the new order becomes involved in the struggle. Hamlet doesn’t begin with the murder of Hamlet’s father; it begins much later, when the ghost appears to Hamlet and involves him in the struggle to remove the usurper and reestablish the proper order of the kingdom.

Almost all fantasy and much—perhaps most—science fiction uses the event story structure. Nowhere is it better handled than in J.R.R. Tolkien’s great trilogy. The Lord of the Rings begins when Frodo discovers that the ring Bilbo gave him is the key to the overthrow of Sauron, the great adversary of the world’s order; it ends not with the destruction of Sauron, but with the complete reestablishment of the new order—which includes the departure of Frodo and all other magical people from Middle-earth.

Notice that Tolkien does not begin with a prologue recounting all the history of Middle-earth up to the point where Gandalf tells Frodo what the ring is. He begins, instead, by establishing Frodo’s domestic situation and then thrusting world events on him, explaining no more of the world than Frodo needs to know right at the beginning. We learn of the rest of the foregoing events bit by bit, only as the information is revealed to Frodo.

In other words, the viewpoint character, not the narrator, is our guide into the world situation. We start with the small part of the world that he knows and understands and see only as much of the disorder of the universe as he can. It takes many days—and many pages—before Frodo stands before the council of Elrond, the whole situation having been explained to him, and says, “I will take the ring, though I do not know the way.” By the time a lengthy explanation is given, we have already seen much of the disorder of the universe for ourselves—the Black Riders, the hoodlums in Bree, the barrow wights—and have met the true king, Aragorn, in his disguise as Strider. In other words, by the time we are given the full explanation of the world, we already care about the people involved in saving it.

Too many writers of event stories, especially epic fantasies, don’t learn this lesson from Tolkien. Instead, they imagine that their poor reader won’t be able to understand what’s going on if they don’t begin with a prologue showing the “world situation.” Alas, these prologues always fail. Because we aren’t emotionally involved with any characters, because we don’t yet care, the prologues are meaningless. They are also usually confusing, as a half-dozen names are thrown at us all at once. I have learned as a book reviewer that it’s usually best to skip the prologue and begin with the story—as the author also should have done. I have never—not once—found that by skipping the prologue I missed some information I needed to have in order to read the story; and when I have read the prologue first, I have never—not once—found it interesting, helpful or even understandable.

In other words, writers of event stories, don’t write prologues. Homer didn’t need to summarize the whole Trojan War for us; he began the Iliad with the particular, the private wrath of Achilles. Learn from Homer—and Tolkien, and all the other writers who have handled the event story well. Begin small, and only gradually expand our vision to include the whole world. If you don’t let us know and care about the hero first, we won’t be around for the saving of the world. There’s plenty of time for us to learn the big picture.

Need help piecing together a Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel that publishers will buy? Consider:
How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

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