Story Starters

Traditional 'story starter' websites will give you a randomly-generated event as a starting point. The idea is that this will make your story interesting enough to keep readers going. This doesn't work very well for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it's insulting. You as a writer are intelligent and capable enough to not need mechanical aid in your writing. Secondly, randomly generated results tend not to make for organic, comfortable writing.

For very young writers, who need a lot of structure and guidance, random generation can be an OK experience. The rest of us, though, can come up with far better ways to start stories. Let's have a look at what makes up a good beginning for your work.

Flexibility
One key strength when starting stories is flexibility. Many times, you will work through the first draft of a story, only to find that the beginning you've given it doesn't work. Careful re-working and consideration will lead you to move, alter or excise the opening considerably. This can be a challenge, because we often put a lot of thought into the beginnings of stories. I know I agonize more over my first few sentences than any other part of the story!

Accept that the beginning you write may not be the beginning you finish with. When I've been writing, lots of my stories have begun at one place, only for a later edit to let me realize that they should have stated earlier, later, or from another perspective. Your opening scene might become the start to a later chapter. Your story might start a week or a year later. Maybe you can re-work your scene into a prologue or a flashback. You might need to let it go entirely. If you do, that's OK. It's served it's purpose, and the rest of your story's better for it having been there.

You can start in the past, or you can refer to it. Your work on establishing character's histories doesn't have to be abandoned. While the opening event happens, your characters can hint at, reminisce about or even openly discuss what was the normal, before your opening event or crisis took place.

Key points
Start well. This is pivotal. Your opening doesn't need to be punchy, alarming, or dramatic. It does need to be well-written. Revise, edit, proof-read, get comments, try a few different versions even if you know you're on to a good thing.

Start elegantly. Work every sentence carefully. Nowhere is re-writing and word selection more important. Read your story starter aloud. Get someone else to read it. Listen for cadence and rhythm.

Start quickly. Get things happening. Wandering descriptive passages can wait. You don't have to start with action. You do have to start with something. Generate some excitement. For some ideas on how to begin with a strong event, read this article.

Begin with a crisis. By watching character's reactions to the unfolding events, you can develop our understanding of what the 'normal' situation was. Characters act normally in normal settings. Boring. We all know how people shop, go to school, raise their children. The less time we spend here, the better. Get into the thick of the action. Is the action dizzying? That's OK. There's plenty of time for us to draw breath a few pages in.

Provide information and hints. Don't tell us anything. This is good writing for any part of your work, but the hints and showings are great at the start of your story. Leaving pure information for later lets you shape your world subtly and focus on getting us hooked into the story. Concentrate on the event that hooks us in. Avoid extraneous detail.

Summary
We've looked at the elements that make successful story starters. Now take some time to look at your writing and critically consider your previous openers. Are they all the same? Are they too slow? Are they well positioned? Could they be improved by changing the time and place that your story starts?

This article has looked at very top-level approaches to story starters. For some direct prompts on dramatic, interesting ways to begin your stories, the article on direct prompts for story starters will be helpful to you.

Go write!