17 ways to start a story

[mount_oregano]

At the Capricon science fiction convention earlier this month, I led a writing workshop.

“It’s A Start: A Workshop On Your First Paragraph — A good opening paragraph for a story or novel will carry the work to success. In this workshop, we will consider seventeen different ways to start a work of fiction, explore how each one will affect the reader, and evaluate the promise it sets for the story.”

Opening paragraphs are hard to write because so much rides on them. They should evoke the tone, voice, setting, genre, characters, stakes, conflict, trajectory, intrigue, point of view, grab attention, make readers feel they’re in skillful hands, and be interesting for the reader — or some of this, at least. Different kinds of opening paragraphs let you focus on the elements that matter to the story you want to tell.

Seventeen is a somewhat arbitrary number, but these openings offer a clue to the breadth of possibilities available. You could start with something unexpected, an image, action, simplicity, questions, curiosity, quotes, a frame, dialogue, emotion, captivation, philosophy, change, the protagonist, setting, a prologue, or flash-forward.

You can download a PDF here that explains each one and offers a couple of examples. Happy writing!