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Dan Brotzel’s debut short story collection, Hotel du Jack, was published in 2020. He won the Riptide Journal short story competition in 2018, and was highly commended in the Manchester Writing School competition. He is also co-author of Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound, forthcoming), a comic novel-in-emails about an eccentric writers group.

Many story openings cut forward to later events or recall much earlier ones than the main time-frame of the story. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's brilliant opening sentence to his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is a good example of how to create a novel with a beginning scenario that plays with place and time:

Starting a fiction story is no small task. It's often said that the beginning is the most important part of any tale. Yet crafting that perfect opening paragraph or sentence can sometimes feel elusive, even to the most seasoned writers. It's a delicate balance, introducing a new world and its inhabitants in a way that is both engaging for readers and true to the narrative that follows. To ...

Every once in a while there comes an opening line that seems to have an entire story folded up inside it. But it’s just the label on the envelope. And I challenge you to withstand the urge to open it up and read the message. 15. Poetic “We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.” — Louise Erdrich, Tracks

The best opening paragraphs of all time - fantastic starts to some of the greatest novels. ... this is how you begin a story. By Marc ... we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received ...

Opening lines don’t have to be loud, subtlety is just as effective. Opening Lines To Novels / Short Stories: Examples. So much for the preamble. Now for the sentences. (No authors are named because very few of the sentences I had had named authors on the page.) Example #1

I know how challenging it can be to come up with that perfect hook, so I’ve gathered 85 opening line prompts to help you start strong and spark creative ideas for unforgettable stories. Opening Line/First Line Writing Prompts. I woke up to find a stranger wearing my face, calmly making coffee in my kitchen.

Here are over 60 one-line opening sentences to help you write your next big story: “Er… I hate this song. Why is it always playing on the radio?” Every story has a hero, and I’m the hero of this one. Thunder rattled outside, as Emily tossed and turned trying to sleep. Life wasn’t great at all for Mr Pea. It wasn’t even mildly good.

Literature's Greatest Opening Paragraphs A collection of great opening paragraphs from ShortList including the opening from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, "It was a pleasure to burn." Seven Types of Short Story Openings This article from io9 describes seven different types of short story openings and give examples. Stephen King Opening Sentences

Start a story with a character sitting under a tree, then end it with the character seeing that tree many years later. Title your story with a question, then make the last line of the story work as both a logical last line, plus the answer to the question. Make the last line of your story the same as the first, but with the complete opposite ...

Read 5 examples of effective short story openings and what they teach us: 1. Learn how to start a short story from Faulkner: Create intrigue. Neil Gaiman wrote: 'Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.'

Beginning your story with a question sets up intrigue in the reader’s mind. You have provided them with a question that needs to be answered and they must commit to the whole story to discover the answer. I have provided just a few tips on how to write a dynamic opening for a short story in a way that will capture your reader’s imagination ...

A great short story opening immediately captures your reader’s imagination and pulls them in. It’s a hook, sure, but it’s more than that. Very often it sets up a lot of fundamental aspects of the story – the characters, the tone, the setting, the conflict/plot, it often even hints at the theme to come.

Starting a short story can feel like standing at the edge of a diving board—exciting, a bit scary, and you really hope you don’t belly-flop! Remember, the key to a successful beginning lies in grabbing your reader’s attention with a hook, setting up the scene quickly, and introducing your character in a way that makes them want to dive ...

Those are subtle ‘how questions’ that lure us into the story. Opening Sentences Top pick. The top pick has to be the opening line in Douglas Adams’ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ‘The story so far: in the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.’

A great opening line is a promise, and the best ones keep us turning pages to see if the rest of the story delivers. Iconic Opening Lines: Best Book Opening Lines in History. Some opening lines are more than just words on a page; they become part of our cultural lexicon, seared into our memories and instantly recognizable.

Asking the reader, especially in short stories, to wait for the actual characters to show up later than the story’s opening lines means, almost always, that the writer is misusing the trust of the reader. Literary Credit Score. There is a credit of trust between the reader and the writer.

Most common nouns in opening lines of 100 NYT bestsellers. The word 'year' is the largest (indicating the highest use count) for good reason. Many opening lines refer to the specific year or time of year, giving setting context for the story (for example, opening number 7 below where Sarah Blake personifies the seasons).

Story Hook Examples. Story hooks drop you right in the middle of a scene, typically with a little bit of tension and curiosity. If done right, it can be like the first line of a great novel, making the reader curious to see what comes next. I was halfway through my presentation when the projector shut off, and the fire alarm went off.