Writing Beginnings, Middles, and Endings – A Lesson from Grimms' Fairy Tales

Ever wondered why some stories feel so satisfying? One secret is a well-crafted, simple story-telling structure: beginning, middle, and end. And who better to learn from than the Brothers Grimm?

A Simple Secret to Storytelling: Beginning, Middle, and End

There are many ways to take apart (and build) a story. Every well-structured story—whether a fairy tale, novel, or screenplay—follows the classic pattern of a beginning, middle, and ending.

Each section contains distinct elements such that if you read a sample text, you would be able to determine if it was a beginning, a middle, or an ending. You could do this instinctively, will very little examination because you’ve read so many stories you’ve internalized the structure.

Beginnings introduce the world, characters, and conflict.
Middles develop the stakes, obstacles, and rising tension.
Endings resolve conflicts and deliver the emotional payoff.

A Fun Challenge: Can You Put This Fairy Tale Back in Order?

Writers often struggle with structure, but fairy tales are a great way to practice. Below, you’ll find a scrambled fairy tale. Can you put it back in order? This exercise helps train your instincts to recognize key storytelling elements.

This mixed up fairy tale from Grimm’s fairy tale collection. They have three stories about elves. This is the second story, with the order scrambled (translated from German by Margaret Hunt and in the public domain).

How would you order the following paragraphs to tell the story in logical story order?

Blue section:

Then three elves came and conducted her to a hollow mountain, where the little folks lived. Everything there was small, but more elegant and beautiful than can be described. The baby's mother lay in a bed of black ebony ornamented with pearls, the coverlids were embroidered with gold, the cradle was of ivory, the bath of gold. The girl stood as godmother, and then wanted to go home again, but the little elves urgently entreated her to stay three days with them. So she stayed, and passed the time in pleasure and gaiety, and the little folks did all they could to make her happy. At last she set out on her way home. Then first they filled her pockets quite full of money, and after that they led her out of the mountain again. 

Purple section:

When she got home, she wanted to begin her work, and took the broom, which was still standing in the corner, in her hand and began to sweep. Then some strangers came out of the house, who asked her who she was, and what business she had there? And she had not, as she thought, been three days with the little men in the mountains, but seven years, and in the meantime her former masters had died.

Orange section:

There was once a poor servant-girl, who was industrious and cleanly, and swept the house every day, and emptied her sweepings on the great heap in front of the door. One morning when she was just going back to her work, she found a letter on this heap, and as she could not read, she put her broom in the corner, and took the letter to her master and mistress, and behold it was an invitation from the elves, who asked the girl to hold a child for them at its christening. The girl did not know what to do, but at length, after much persuasion, and as they told her that it was not right to refuse an invitation of this kind, she consented. 

What order did you end up with? 

If you said orange, blue, purple, your configuration matches up with the Grimms’ tale.

This type of exercise is useful because it forces you to recognize logical flow. If your own story feels out of order, try rearranging key scenes to see where the strongest emotional and logical impact occurs.

How Traditional Fairy Tales Teach Story Logic

Traditional fairy tales often have key markers that help with the structure of the story. Let's examine this concept using our sample story above.

Beginning:
Once upon a time or a similar opener like the one here: “There was once a…” are the most obvious indicators of beginning a story. Also note the "One morning when..." sentence construction in our sample fairy tale. The protagonist was also given an "invitation" and encouraged to accept it.

Middle:
The middle is the thick of the story. The protagonist has accepted the invitation and is now fully emersed in whatever new setting or conflict she's involved in. There should be challenge after challenge, or at least change after change.

I almost broke this middle section at "At last she set out..." to cue the ending, but decided to leave it in the middle, as it's the start of her journey home, and often there is still some obstacle to overcome on the journey home.

Ending: 
"When she got home" clearly cues the ending here, signaling to the reader the full-circle moment when the character is about to learn a lesson, reflect on the journey she just had. And in many fairy tales, a shocking ending heightens the emotional payoff. Here, we have the protagonist learning that she had been gone for years instead of only three days like she thought.

Writing Prompts That Strengthen Your Storytelling Skills

Writing students can practice working on story logic by using prompts taken from beginning, middle or the end of a story. 

Beginning prompts are presented in the usual way. An opening prompt cues the writer to establish setting, characters, and get the plot off to an interesting start.

A middle prompt gives the solution to that dreaded middle. The place where many writers get stuck. Starting from here, they can work backward to the beginning and then forward to the ending.

Ending prompts reveal the final destination of the story and writers are forced to work backward to figure out how to end up there.

Changing up the prompts work different story-telling muscles and offer a unique way to test a writer’s skills and shake up the linear way of working out a story. 

Many writers get glimpses of scenes in their minds that are out of order. Part of their storytelling process is to find the order in their inspiration.

Want More Story Challenges? Check Out Writing Prompts from Grimm

If you like this exercise, you might like the book Writing Prompts from Grimm. 

Writing Prompts from Grimm is packed with 100 creative prompts to help you craft fairy tale-inspired stories. Available as a paperback (from your favorite bookstore) or PDF (direct from the author). The version for younger students contains 50 prompts, and there is overlap between the two versions.

After you’ve written your version of the story, you can flip to the back of the book to find out which fairy tale the prompt came from and compare your creation to the classic.

Grab your copy today and start writing!