Good beginnings

[SimonDoom]

On another thread someone emphasized the importance of starting your story well, and I chimed in, and it got me thinking it might be useful to start a thread on the subject. How important is a good beginning to you? What makes a beginning good? Can you give some examples, either from your own work or that of others?

I'll get started:

A good beginning is extremely important. Unless my attention is grabbed quickly, I probably will not finish the story. I probably read no more than one fourth the stories I click on, because the beginning doesn't interest me.

What makes a beginning good? There's no one thing, but here are some things that appeal to me:

1. A great opening sentence.
2. Good prose style.
3. Jumping right into a conflict or adventure that I want to see resolved.
4. Introducing me right away to a character that interests me, so I immediately want to know what's going to happen to the character.
5. A clever conversation or piece of dialogue.
6. Getting into the main character's motivation quickly.
7. Short to medium paragraphs, or at least a mix of paragraph lengths, so I'm not confronted right away with huge blocks of text.

Things I tend NOT to like at the beginning:

1. Too much backstory.
2. Measurements. I don't care for the "Let me tell you about my wife. She's 38DD with a 22 inch waist and Barbie-blond hair" type of opening.
3. Too much scene setting. Sometimes it's important, but it can go on too long.
4. Confusion. Clarity is CRUCIAL. If people are doing things and it all seems kind of random and pointless, you're likely to lose me.

I'll come up with some examples from Literotica stories soon.

 

[RowanWrites]

I find that pretty comprehensive! I’m not sure what I would add, but I really appreciate the topic, and your thorough introduction.

 

[Carnevil9]

I like using the in medias res type opening - starting off in the middle of the action. It might be sex action, or some other type of action, but it must be immediately interesting. Not only does this avoid a dull descriptive opening, but it opens up questions in the reader's mind that are more likely to hook him into continuing with the read.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Good list. Something important for Lit readers is, make clear what sex your narrator is, within the first couple paragraphs. Unless there's a reason not to.

I often find myself writing a whole story, then cutting the introduction in half. It's as if I need the scaffold to get myself into the story, but then once I know exactly what the route is, I can make it much shorter for the readers. Tbh I should probably do that more often.

 

[yowser]

Great topic. I agree with all your positive specifics, and absolutely all your negatives (often helps to know what doesn't work as much as what does.)

I was contemplating starting a thread on your No. 1, 'opening sentences,' and may still do so shortly, but I think your ideas about the whole beginning business is of vast importance in writing anything, especially fiction.

If I had to reduce the 'beginnings' issue down to one metaphor, it would be along the idea of opening a door to a strange house.

You can open it all the way, just a crack, slowly, quickly - none of that matters unless you can get the visitor to want to see more. You want your visitor to start with questions, even just one question, but one that multiplies, maybe teasingly, perhaps in a linear fashion, but in a way that your visitor's inquisitiveness is provoked: what's inside? who lives here? why does it look like this? what are the other rooms like? what's that noise coming from the attic?

If I am repelled by the owner or the nature of the house (or worst of all I find it all looks boring) then it is way too easy to shut the door and move on. But once in the foyer, I want to be anxious to see the rest of the place, even if just the next room.

 

[SimonDoom]

If I had to reduce the 'beginnings' issue down to one metaphor, it would be along the idea of opening a door to a strange house.

I love this metaphor. It's just right. The house can look like anything. So can the door. The door can open quickly or slowly. But the key is you have to make the reader want to open it. It doesn't matter how you do it.

 

[Privates1stClass]

If the opening doesn't grab my attention, there are thousands of other stories I can read. There's no sense in wasting my time wading through backstory, measurements, or a bland mishmash of prose that leaves me wondering what the story is about.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yes, I agree the idea of starting right within an action, a strong scene to set the mood and pace for the rest of the story. Here's the opening to last year's Mickey Spillane story:

The click click of heels on the wooden floor outside announced a dame. I'd pay attention when I was good and ready.

"Kick the door shut behind you. Damn thing, it sticks." I waved my hand vaguely towards the door, catching a flash of a red dress coming through it.

I turned to the back page of the newspaper to check the horses. The fifth at Rosedale might make a buck, and I made a mental note to see Lenny.

I heard the drag of the visitor's chair pulled across the floor and the soft swish of stockings as she sat, crossing her legs. I heard the snap of a lighter and smelled the tang of cigarette smoke. Lucky Strikes, menthol. Pushing the ashtray across the desk, I looked up.

To find myself looked over. The dame was a beauty, her lips scarlet, her eyes dark under the tilted brim of a pill-box hat. She dragged on her cigarette.

"You takin' visitors, or just takin' your time?"

 

[tenyari]

Start with some hook, something to catch a reader and strap them into the chair.

"It was a dark and stormy night" is a silly phrase we all mention that, I think was actually used by some ancient novel, because at the time it was first noted it was original and catchy - even though it failed to lead in to the action.

It's been a very long time but if memory serves me right, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings both break this rule and open with long dry tell and not show about 'the day to day life' of being a hobbit. If that's true, then you CAN get past a bad opening, but just because that author pulled it off doesn't mean anyone can.

I believe the phrase 'Wall of Text' might actually come from how the Star Wars movies all start. It's pretty much a meme opening. They also all go right into the action after the wall of text - making those movies good examples of BOTH what NOT to do, and to do, in a weird sort of way that only works due to movie timing.

German Reggae singer 'Gentleman' opens one of his older hits, 'See Dem Coming' with the words 'Meanwhile dem a plan' which instantly tells you the song you're about to hear takes place in the context of a larger story, something is going on, and he's here to address it. I've linked that song in this thread: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/what-are-you-listening-to-now-7-0.1543017/post-95537736

The risk in starting in the action is one of clarity. Have something going on, but not chaos. Be driving in a specific direction in scene one.

Quite a few movies will open with a non-sequitur moment of action / drama that you won't get context for until the third, fourth, or final act of the movie. I suspect this trick doesn't work as well in writing. You can certainly finish completing the relation of your open in the final act, but you should probably be peeling it back all along the way, or at least starting early.

 

[MelissaBaby]

It's funny, but I think the beginning of my very first story is still the best I've done.

Would it have been better if the sky were blue and the trees were green and the wild flowers blossomed along the roadside? Or would the end of so much color in my life have made it harder to bear? -My Fall and Rise Chapter 1

But that's in part because I was really proud of how I tied it to the very last line of the series, 13 chapter later.

I sat for a long time and watched, as the sun sparkled through the trees and then rose to illuminate the houses and the cars, the lawns and the flowerbeds, and the world filled with color.

Although I have always been fond of this opening

"I think you made that up," Mary said, 'I think it's something you tell the tourists to mess with their heads."

"I did not make it up."

"I'm sorry," she responded, shaking her head, "But I don't believe porcupines fall out of trees." -Mary and Alvin Chapter 11

 

[Agiel]

A good beginning is extremely important. Unless my attention is grabbed quickly, I probably will not finish the story. I probably read no more than one fourth the stories I click on, because the beginning doesn't interest me.

What makes a beginning good? There's no one thing, but here are some things that appeal to me:

1. A great opening sentence.
2. Good prose style.
3. Jumping right into a conflict or adventure that I want to see resolved.
4. Introducing me right away to a character that interests me, so I immediately want to know what's going to happen to the character.
5. A clever conversation or piece of dialogue.
6. Getting into the main character's motivation quickly.
7. Short to medium paragraphs, or at least a mix of paragraph lengths, so I'm not confronted right away with huge blocks of text.

I agree with all 7 of the points you raise.

In addition one of the main things which makes me not even bother starting to read a series is when chapter one has a title, for example, “Jack moves to the city for a new life” and I see that every chapter has that same information rather than give the reader an idea of what’s happening in that particular chapter.

Back to your point. This is the opening of my only story using this username which I think fits the criteria you’ve mentioned.
*****
Her hand went up and down, without sympathy, threatening to pull his cock out by the roots.

"Come on, baby, get it up for Mommy, that's a good fuck toy."

There was a plaintive wail from the lips of the guy lying next to her. "I can't do it. I've delivered five times since we came back to your house. I don't have anything left."

Five times? She hadn't been counting but that sounded about right. Plus the one she taken up the ass in the storeroom at the club, before they went upstairs to the restaurant for a meal. Paid for by this young fucker, of course. How old did he say he was? Twenty-five? Twenty-six? His name was Rick. Or was it Nick? Something like that. Who gives a fuck? Certainly not her.
*****

 

[TheRedChamber]

Start with some hook, something to catch a reader and strap them into the chair.

"It was a dark and stormy night" is a silly phrase we all mention that, I think was actually used by some ancient novel, because at the time it was first noted it was original and catchy - even though it failed to lead in to the action.

I was interested in this so I did a little bit of googling. The dark and stormy night comes from 'Paul Clifford' by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1830. Here's the first few paragraphs.

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. Through one of the obscurest quarters of London, and among haunts little loved by the gentlemen of the police, a man, evidently of the lowest orders, was wending his solitary way. He stopped twice or thrice at different shops and houses of a description correspondent with the appearance of the quartier in which they were situated, and tended inquiry for some article or another which did not seem easily to be met with. All the answers he received were couched in the negative; and as he turned from each door he muttered to himself, in no very elegant phraseology, his disappointment and discontent. At length, at one house, the landlord, a sturdy butcher, after rendering the same reply the inquirer had hitherto received, added, “But if this vill do as vell, Dummie, it is quite at your sarvice!” Pausing reflectively for a moment, Dummie responded that he thought the thing proffered might do as well; and thrusting it into his ample pocket, he strode away with as rapid a motion as the wind and the rain would allow. He soon came to a nest of low and dingy buildings, at the entrance to which, in half-effaced characters, was written “Thames Court.” Halting at the most conspicuous of these buildings, an inn or alehouse, through the half-closed windows of which blazed out in ruddy comfort the beams of the hospitable hearth, he knocked hastily at the door. He was admitted by a lady of a certain age, and endowed with a comely rotundity of face and person.

“Hast got it, Dummie?” said she, quickly, as she closed the door on the guest.

“Noa, noa! not exactly; but I thinks as 'ow—”

“Pish, you fool!” cried the woman, interrupting him peevishly. “Vy, it is no use desaving me. You knows you has only stepped from my boosing-ken to another, and you has not been arter the book at all. So there's the poor cretur a raving and a dying, and you—”

“Let I speak!” interrupted Dummie in his turn. “I tells you I vent first to Mother Bussblone's, who, I knows, chops the whiners morning and evening to the young ladies, and I axes there for a Bible; and she says, says she, 'I' as only a “Companion to the Halter,” but you'll get a Bible, I think, at Master Talkins', the cobbler as preaches.' So I goes to Master Talkins, and he says, says he, 'I 'as no call for the Bible,—'cause vy? I 'as a call vithout; but mayhap you'll be a getting it at the butcher's hover the vay,—'cause vy? The butcher 'll be damned!' So I goes hover the vay, and the butcher says, says he, 'I 'as not a Bible, but I 'as a book of plays bound for all the vorld just like 'un, and mayhap the poor cretur may n't see the difference.' So I takes the plays, Mrs. Margery, and here they be surely! And how's poor Judy?”

“Fearsome! she'll not be over the night, I'm a thinking.”

I have quite a few issues with the writing - not least the rendering of the dialect which is painful and the general prose style. It's weird in a way that 'It was a dark and stormy night' has become famous when 'All the answers he received were couched in the negative; and as he turned from each door he muttered to himself, in no very elegant phraseology, his disappointment and discontent' is a far worse sentence and probably turgid even by 19th century standards. But the basic idea of the introduction is solid - we get to the idea 'Judy is dying' in such a way as to give us a character sketch of the people and environment around her and I already feel more sorry for her than if we just started with a 'Judy lay in bed coughing up her lungs while her family was really worried' style opening.

It's been a very long time but if memory serves me right, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings both break this rule and open with long dry tell and not show about 'the day to day life' of being a hobbit. If that's true, then you CAN get past a bad opening, but just because that author pulled it off doesn't mean anyone can.

They do - but I'd argue that the Hobbit is a great opening. Sure it ignores the 'start in action' rule, but it starts the contradiction of 'living in a hole' and 'living in great comfort'. It plays with the reader by introducing the question of what is a hobbit and makes the reader wait for the answer by describing the lodgings first. Then there's a whole bit about how hobbits never go on adventures, which the reader will know to be false due the picture of the dragon on the front. Eventually it gets to the opening dialogue in which Bilbo has his greeting of 'Good Morning' over-analyzed by an annoying wizard.

The thing with it though is at the time having a wholely new fantasy race was a novelty and the introduction and Hobbits generally are quite charming. A fantasy author info dumping his Klingon/orc hybrid race and a thousand years of their history in the first paragraph probably less so.

The best I can say about the Lord of the Rings prologue on the other hand is that Tolkein makes it clear you can skip it.

I believe the phrase 'Wall of Text' might actually come from how the Star Wars movies all start. It's pretty much a meme opening. They also all go right into the action after the wall of text - making those movies good examples of BOTH what NOT to do, and to do, in a weird sort of way that only works due to movie timing.

I'd be happy to do a third geek-out on the Star Wars opening, but yeah, it only really works in films and it helps to have a John Williams soundtrack while you're doing it.

 

[XerXesXu]

If I find myself, rewriting as I read, I probably won’t read beyond a couple of hundred words. Prose style is important.

There are specific kill-switch words – high-school, college, office, IT – which advertise ‘pedestrian tropes ahead’. Advertise only, what makes my story different, in the opening.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a WIP called ‘The Corby Deposition’. It’s now unlikely to be completed because 1) the Cosby case still continues, and 2) I’ve been unable to master the arcane complexity of the U.S. legal system, so, no harm in showing my opening.


“The pursuit of truth is futile. You can never pick the bones of truth out of the fat carcass of lies. Everyone lies under oath, the Complainant, the Defendant, the police, the witnesses … Everyone! Your job as DA is to use those lies to construct a transcendent civic benefit … that’s why you were elected.”

“Judge Myers, that’s over-egging the cynicism even for an old shyster like you,” said the high-minded, young DA, freshly elected on the merit of his practice with the Ethical Law Project - and with the Judge’s patronage.

“Mark, do you think we get top-table seats here, at the Pennsylvania Democrat Gala, because we pursue futility? … No … We’re here because we have a party platform, a lofty and liberal party agenda. We were nominated as candidates because we stood on that platform; we promised our electors we would implement it. We will. Don’t let futile pursuits sidetrack you … not if you want to follow in my footsteps.”


165 words, but you should know what the story is about.

 

[Zootonius]

I like using the in medias res type opening - starting off in the middle of the action. It might be sex action, or some other type of action, but it must be immediately interesting. Not only does this avoid a dull descriptive opening, but it opens up questions in the reader's mind that are more likely to hook him into continuing with the read.

I did something like this in my second series. Woman opens door to find her part-time lesbian lover (and the story's protagonist), who proceeds to passionately kiss her. After some passionate sex, the protagonist's story begins.

And I don't like "exact" descriptions of characters. Just general enough for the plot, and reader to use their imagination for the details.

 

[NotWise]

165 words, but you should know what the story is about.

You introduced two men, so it's probably a gay male story.

 

[Thefireflies]

This is a good topic. I think any writer would suggest nailing the hook with the purpose of getting the reader to read past the first paragraph or page. But in general, what’s going to hook people is probably something harder to gauge.

When I first started writing here I don’t think I gave the hook much attention, but I think when I wrote a few stories that received comments with words to the effect, “You had me hooked from the beginning…”, especially on my longer stories, and readership also increased, it was only then I properly realised how important the hook was. But now I’m becoming aware to not try and over do the hook, like contriving some inciting incident straight up. I figure I might lose the plot if concentrating on what’s going to keep people turning the page.

Still, in this day and age it’s probably more important than ever to get your hook right, because there are so many other stories on LitE a reader can choose from if they skip your story, or there’s plenty more activities competing for our attention.

This is common to many forms of entertainment, such as music and film. I watched a video by music youtuber Rick Beato who I think was discussing how since the introduction of streaming services like Spotify, musicians are writing more similar songs rather than experiment with different styles, especially at the song’s opening chords. I think his rationale was that streaming services have made music increasingly accessible, however, people are less likely to buy an album and more likely to skip a song after a few seconds if they’re not hooked, moving to something different, and so the industry is adapting to keep people listening past the song's intro. Of course it's always been this way with tried and tested formulas, but more so now than ever. I do know I'm more likely to skip a song if the intro is unnecessarily long, but some songs like that are great if you can get past the intro. But perhaps people are less likely to experiment these days, especially when it's their form of income?

I think it’s the same when writing a story. Once upon a time people would own more books, and probably read them past the first few pages regardless if it didn’t immediately hook them. I know I used to try and read a book through once I’d started, even if it was trash. Now days I have many books still with book marks stuck at the pages where I gave up and moved on to whatever I was doing next (writing on litE maybe).

A few posts back tenyari mentioned Tolkien’s Hobbit and LotR, and how those stories ramble on and tell, and yet are very successful. But try reading the first chapter of the Hobbit to children these days and you lose their attention very quickly. The whole thing with Gandalf and the Dwarves rocking up to Bilbo’s in explicit detail…I don’t think it would fly with most modern kids who are used to netflix 24/7, but I loved it when I was a kid and the words still produce the same wonderful scenes in my head that they did when I first read it. LotR on the other hand, boring…

 

[KeithD]

I think #3 of your "what to do" and #4 of your "what not to do" are contradictory. If you jump right into the action (which I usually do) you are starting in confusion, not clarity. I think it's some form of nonclarity that engages the reader to continue reading and working on achieving clarity. Which means I think it's best to dole the clarity out in bits and pieces from that point.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think #3 of your "what to do" and #4 of your "what not to do" are contradictory. If you jump right into the action (which I usually do) you are starting in confusion, not clarity. I think it's some form of nonclarity that engages the reader to continue reading and working on achieving clarity. Which means I think it's best to dole the clarity out in bits and pieces from that point.

Fair point. I agree. There's nothing wrong with throwing your reader right into the action, even if it's confusing . . . if you do it deliberately and you know what you are doing and there's a point to it.

An example: Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity. It starts with the main character, Bourne, being rescued at sea, and he has no idea who he is or why he is where he is, and the mystery of his identity drives the plot of the story right from the beginning. It's calculated. It's confusing in a way, but it's crystal clear early on that the mystery of his identity is the key to the story. Ludlum is very good at making the reader want to keep reading from the first page.

That's very different from a story where characters do things at the beginning and you have no idea why and the author hasn't taken care to make you want to know why.

 

[FifthEstate]

This is a great topic. I didn’t realize I’d done it until later, but I opened three of my four multi-chaptered stories with one of my protagonists waking to an unfamiliar environment—one following sex, two not. Luckily, the circumstances were dramatically different in each case and I’d like to think I did a good job of hooking my readers in spite of the similarities. But I think it’s safe to say when I finally write a fifth story, it won’t start that way…haha.

I agree a good hook is necessary for authors I’m not familiar with, but for those I know and like, it’s not required. That said, I believe good writers should assume he or she is communicating to every reader for the first time. I don’t even like to assume my readers have read all the previous parts to my multi-chaptered stories. For that reason, without boring the devout followers, I try to do a little backgrounding in each chapter.

I do think it’s safe to assume that a fair number of Literotica readers may read the most recently released chapter because it pops up in front of them (regardless if they’ve read the previous ones). If they like it, or even the way it starts, they’ll likely go back and start from the beginning.

I think you’ve all done a good job of highlighting a number of other important aspects to capturing the reader’s interests via great openings.

As for those that lose me, typo’s and/or poor grammar in the early stages, or worse yet, in the title or description will have me clicking elsewhere immediately.

 

[AlinaX]

Authors keep getting advised to jump into the action, so they open with, "The simple beauty of my mother's face, her mouth stretched wide by the thick cock thrusting between her lips, was made somehow more exquisite by the knowledge that it was my cock she was sucking," only to irritate the hell out of me by saying, "But let me start at the beginning."

Nonlinearity in storytelling is fine, but cheap tricks are still cheap.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have had challenges with the opening for several of my stories due to them being part of a “universe”. Providing an opening that is not redundant to readers of previous stories yet is still true to the “cliff-hanger” ending of the previous story has to also capture new readers who might be coming into the universe for the first time.

For example, the ending of Change reads:

"I..." JR began. The ringing of a cellphone caught his attention.

"Is that your phone or mine?" Rockie asked.

JR moved to rise from the couch, "Mine. You left yours on vibrate. Hang on."

JR reached the cellphone and unplugged it from the charger on the third ring. He checked the display to see who was calling as he walked back to the couch.

"Hi Katie-kins," he answered, and then activated the speaker so that Rockie could hear. "Are you calling to wish us a happy anniversary?"

"Oh JR, I forgot that you were a day ahead. "I'm sorry. Happy belated anniversary."

JR and Rockie could hear faint traffic noises in the background, so they assumed that Katie was driving and using the hands-free Bluetooth connection in her car.

Katie tried harder than anyone else in the family to keep in contact with JR, Rockie and the twins. She never failed to call at least once a week, and always made a point of speaking to each of them individually to get a personal update from each. The curious thing was that Katie had just spoken with all of them three days ago.

"No worries," Rockie said. "I'm usually a day early for birthdays and stuff. How is everything?"

"Not too good right now," Katie told them. "I just shot a man."

The opening of the next story, Searching is:

She noticed him immediately. She had been taught.

His appearance made her pause in her stroll back to the mall. She remained approximately three feet inside the hallway that led to the restrooms near the food court at Shoreline Mall. She could watch him, but he would have a difficult time seeing her. She had been taught.

Other patrons of the mall lingered at tables in the food court, or stood in lines at one of the food vendors' counters, but if anyone else had noticed the man wearing a Kevlar vest and carrying the duffle bag they hadn't reacted as she had. She had been taught.

She continued watching from the hallway as the man stopped just inside the doors leading to the west parking lot of the mall. He wasn't leaving as she had hoped. He was positioning himself between the people in the food court and their quickest exit. This could all be staged. Some sort of drill or test of security response to an active shooter, but her instincts told her otherwise. Her right hand reached inside her purse as the man slowly lowered the duffle bag to the tile floor, squatted with his back to the food court and began to unzip it. She kept the man in her peripheral vision as she glanced over to the food court and looked up, taking in the whole environment. She had been taught.

Through the glass half-wall that provided a barrier for the Mezzanine level of the mall, she could clearly see more than a dozen shoppers strolling slowly across her field of vision, most distracted by their cell phones or focused upon their next purchasing objective. She returned her attention back to the man and saw him just rising after retrieving several items from the bag. While she had hoped that the intentions of the man were not as she had suspected, she saw that he had donned a balaclava over his face before standing. This, coupled with the sight of the automatic rifle with a thirty-round magazine and the pump-action shotgun dispelled any doubts. She used her left hand to lower her sunglasses from the top of her head and put them on. She then removed her right hand from her purse and held it at her side. Patience. She had been taught.

This was real. It took only seconds, but her instincts were verified as the half-wall barrier to the Mezzanine level exploded into thousands of pea-sized particles of tempered glass when the gunshot round struck it. As glass particles rained down on startled customers in the food court, several people on the Mezzanine level screamed in pain and fell to the floor, struck either by shotgun pellets or flying glass. When the man lowered the shotgun, leaving it dangling from the strap over his shoulder and prepared to fire the automatic rifle into the stunned crowd in the food court, she reacted. She had been taught.

Bracing her left shoulder against the wall at the opening of the hallway to the food court, she took aim from twenty feet away and fired three perfectly grouped shots below his body armor, into the man's groin area. She heard the bullet casings clinking on the tile floor after each shot, but ignored them as she watched the shooter fall immediately to his knees, dropping the assault rifle to the floor. As he bent over in agonizing pain, the strap of the shotgun slid down his arm, but he ignored it. She strolled quickly over to the man and kicked the automatic rifle out of his reach. She had been taught.

Keeping her back to the food court and the security camera that she knew was there, she pulled on the strap of the shotgun until the man's arm moved enough for her to extract it completely. She slid it out of his reach as well before finally gazing into the man's eyes. She knew that all he would be able to see in the reflection of her sunglasses would be his own eyes, and the pool of blood that was spreading out beneath him. While the bullets from a P380 automatic were not as large as those from a nine-millimeter, three hollow-points in the area where she had aimed would almost certainly hit the Femoral artery. Her aim had been true, and the results were evident. She had been taught.

His eyes were losing focus as the life drained out of his body. She stepped away from the spreading pool of blood, placed her pistol back into her purse and walked quickly through the glass exit doors to the parking lot. Without hesitating at the sound of rapidly approaching sirens, she located her car, slid into the driver's seat, backed out of her spot and headed for the mall exit. She would be clear of the scene before anyone could get a description of her. She had been taught.

Stand-alone stories are easier for me to write openings for. I’m curious if others feel the same way.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Stand-alone stories are easier for me to write openings for. I’m curious if others feel the same way.

By definition, I think. The beginning of a chapter is defined by the previous chapter, and readers would expect continuity, whereas a stand-alone story can start wherever you want it to.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

By definition, I think. The beginning of a chapter is defined by the previous chapter, and readers would expect continuity, whereas a stand-alone story can start wherever you want it to.

I agree, but I was referring to stories that have different plots but share common characters within the same universe, not chapter stories.

 

[Thefireflies]

5. A clever conversation or piece of dialogue.

Having given this topic more thought, I think point 5 above is an excellent way to start a story. I rarely see books start with conversation, but do on LitE, and it can work well, where a reader can see what's going on, get to know characters etc, and maybe reaching the point they're invested in these characters stories quicker than if the story starts with standard exposition explaining the story's setting and what the characters are doing.

 

[shakna]

I'll echo the advice to start with the action... But not the action. I dislike it when sex is the very first thing that pops up. Not invested, yet. So all you're doing is calling your piece a stroker, and that's not interesting to me, yet.

To reflect that, here's the start of one I haven't finished yet:

Tina never exactly meant to burst into tears.

She'd sat down at the local bakery because she wanted a big and hot chocolate chip cookie, accompanied by a milkshake with a crazy number of mini marshmallows on top. She'd managed to place the order, but before it could arrive, her heart had given out and she dissolved into silent tears.

It's not the strongest beginning out there, but it should serve to demonstrate what I want as a reader.

It tells me something has happened, but not what. So I'll be reading, and already looking for that something else.

It tells me something of the protagonists personality. She's a comfort eater, she likes bakeries, she likes eating out. She sees giving herself a milkshake as a world class treat. Her emotional state, is probably not a regular one. There's an inner conflict, even if it's just trying not to cry.

The first couple of lines toss a lasso, to me. They need to reel you right on in, because, well, time's wasting. There's plenty of other writers if you're going to give me something boring. Especially when writing for an internet audience.