Beginning, middle, end. That's what a story is "supposed" to have, right? I think just a middle and maybe an end would be fine. Jump right in. Don't check the depth of the water. Go head first and find out if the main character is anyone worth existing or should die in a bloody mess at the bottom of what turns out to be a nearly-dry wash. Many times I have tried to start a story with the beginning, it just seems to fall flat on its face having tripped over itself by the second paragraph. So my characters' horrible death is to be forgotten on a page full of scribbles and scratches with the odd doodle in the margins drawn when I get bored of trying to come up with the next word. Fine. Beginning, middle and end.

Once upon a beginning... I stopped writing. I quit this page of words and start over again.

It was a dark and frustrating beginning when I was suddenly hit with the idea that maybe writing for a living shouldn't be my dream. This is getting scary, I thought while ripping the imaginary sheet of paper from the imaginary antique type writer which... oh eff it.

One more go-

The page never existed. It never was a beginning so it could never have a middle or end to follow. It was a story that was to remain entirely unwritten and therefore would never amount to anything. A word on the screen was too much to ask for, so instead a single punctuation written at the 8^th minute would have to sum up the plot of it: ?