Story openings are a key part for the success of your story.
The opening of your story is where you should ‘hook’ your reader to carry on reading. Your opening should be strong, and your reader should want to read on. The following are different ways in which you can start your story:
- Action – Start your story in the middle of an action. Think about a fight, or a person running away from something scary, or someone jumping from a boat.
- Character / Setting – Begin your story by using descriptive words to describe a character or the setting.
- Dialogue – Open your story with dialogue, by starting a conversation between two characters. Don’t carry this dialogue on for too long. It’s stronger to use only one sentence of dialogue.
- Exclamation – Start your story with an exclamation such as “He was furious!”
- Feeling – Share emotions your characters have on a topic, or emotions they are going through at that moment.
- Flashbacks – Start your story with a flashback, remembering something that had happened.
- Internal monologue – The first line of your story contains a thought of your main character.
- Opposites – Start by stating opposites, for instance telling your reader it’s a beautiful day but something appalling is happening.
- Personal Experience – Begin by telling the reader about a personal experience you had, relating to the topic you are writing about.
- Quote – Use a quote at the beginning of your writing.
- Question – Open your writing by asking the reader a question.
- Riddle / Humor – Begin with a joke or something funny that happened, or a riddle.
- Sound – Open with an onomatopoeia (a sound word such as “meow”, “bang” or “grrrr”.)
- Statement / Fact – Surprise your reader with a bold statement or fact and take your story from there.
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