The need for particularity is equally true in storytelling. The great writers start out by giving the reader, immediately, the ontology of the protagonist; or, to put it in the form of a literary rule, a writer should immediately tell the reader four things:
1. Who the story is about.
2. What he is doing.
3. Where he is doing it.
4. When he is doing it.
The reader must be placed in action, space, and time. In a good story we find out very quickly about the hero the things we want to know about ourselves.