how do you start a story?

“Hell” said the Duchess. It’s one of the great openings, So is, “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but…”

For fantasy , pick something mildly fantastic for the first sentence or at least the first page. “I was brushing my cat when he asked for green tree oil instead of his usual.”

For mystery, you can start with something negative about the victim–a scene showing him/her to be worthy of being killed. You could choose a descriptive paragraph or two to set the scene. This is more the way your teacher has said.

Make an outline, and begin with a sentence or two that will really catch the reader’s attention such as ( for example) ” On the weekend, Laurie often spent hour or two in the cemetery, cleaning up long forgotten graves. One day in June was to be her last, however. For after a rotting hand reached up to plunge her deep into the putrid darkness, she was never seen again. Or was she? ” This came off the top of my head, so I know you can do it!

Something with a hook is needed to grab your readers attention. Start by placing the character in a situation that you have in your head and know you will resolve later in the story.

OR start with a place.

Is he at work? At home? Crashed his car in a ditch? Riding his motorcycle across the desert…through the mountains…when he starts thinking….Or he wakes up in a strange place and wonders about how he got there…what happened to him in the last 24 hours?

But, write an outline first. This will give you a basis for what, who and where your character will encounter things.

Write a couple of introduction lines and see which one sounds more appealing to you. It could be a question, description, dialouge, monolouge or something.

Once upon a time….

It was a dark and stormy night………..