Ways to Start a Story

I know I’m guilty of overthinking the beginning of a story to the point of full writer’s block. Your starting lines or first chapter is your way of welcoming the reader to the story, and hopefully selling them on it in far too brief a moment. 

Luckily, there are tried and true methods for starting a story that have been used in a number of famous narratives and yet still remain malleable enough that they can be reworked time and time again. When starting your next story, consider experimenting with one or multiple of these to see if they can help you create a hook so good that anyone who gives your first page a glance has to keep reading. 

Starting Lines 

Before we dig into starting methods that cover an entire chapter, let’s take a look at some single starting line methods that will help give your story the shortest possible hook, without sacrificing any of the punch needed to get a reader’s attention. 

Use an Absurdist Line 

You’d be surprised by how much good will one solid line can buy you. If your line is specific and/or weird enough, then you can breathe a little after it as you write a more traditional opening chapter. 

One method is to make your first line so unusual or outrageous that a reader can’t help but want to know more. 

Example: Altered Carbon 

“Coming back from the dead can be rough.” 

Example: The Crow Road 

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.” 

These lines don’t follow traditional logic and are wild on the surface, but what really makes them great is that somehow they seem to make sense at the same time. You can tell that within the context of the story, they will make sense. It makes the reader want to go further so they can see how these lines will possibly be recontextualized into something logical.

Ask a Question 

An absurdist line is creating questions in the reader’s head. An arguably simpler way to get to a similar place is to just cut out the middle man and ask a question. It can be integrally tied to a character or the world, or maybe it’s a genuine thematic quandary that you want a reader to wrestle with as they read the story. 

Example: Poor George 

“Who listens?” 

Example: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

“What about a teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me?” 

These examples, one succinct and one expansive, both directly ask the reader their question. It’s unclear who is asking and why. Is this the author, a character, a narrator? The use of a question mark completely changes the intent of a first line and demands immediate action from the reader. 

Tell us About Your Main Character 

In a first-person narrative, or in a story with a key figure driving the plot, the first line can often just introduce us to him or her in a creative or simplistic way. 

Example: The Lovely Bones 

“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.” 

We don’t only get the hook of the murder and the fact that we are being talked to by a ghost, but we get this tiny little piece of information from the Salmon line. We know Susie maybe tenders to add too many details, burying the lead, or that maybe she’s had to make this comparison before. 

But what if there isn’t something as unique as being, you know, dead? Then we can explore what makes them unique in the slightest of ways too. What do they love or hate? How do they feel about something we all have a frame of reference for?

Made Up Example: “I’ve always hated summer. I never understood why it made this town so happy. I would never admit it, but some part of me was happy that everyone’s summer was ruined that year.” 

Just a fast example of how sharing the character’s opinion can also work double for dropping in a sense of story mystery. 

What about something we don’t have the frame of reference for, but now we want it. 

Made Up Example: “I never thought I’d have to arm-wrestle Chuck “The Stuff” Biffly, but there was a lot of weird stuff going on that day.” 

We don’t know who Chuck “The Stuff” Biffly is. That doesn’t matter, because whoever this character is apparently does. Once again we got an opinion and plot hook. This time the hook being some arm-wrestling match shared through the lens that this character is apparently having a weird day. The hook becomes both “who is that?” as well as “wait, what else had to happen alongside this moment to call the whole day weird?” 

Story Openings 

Let’s look at some methodologies for crafting an efficient first chapter when you want to avoid opening with an information dump or describing your protagonist. 

Sell Your Setting 

While solely describing the setting in detail to start your story is ill-advised, there are ways to go about it without falling into the trap of doing a lengthy exposition drop. If you feel like your setting is what makes your story special, or it is just vital to understanding the start of the plot, then it might be okay to devote your opening to it. 

It will need to be extremely important or grabbing. It should tell us something, or maybe even warn us. If you go this route, smaller/vaguer can often be better. If your story takes place in a cyberpunk world or alternate history, try starting with the description of one building in detail. Hit the stranger features first. This will offer a much easier “in” than a big sweeping opening that attempts to catch us all the way up to speed on the state of affairs in a brand new universe. 

Example: 1984 

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

This could probably also fall under my absurd first lines section. The imagery that clocks are different here immediately creates a sense of something being off, while offering a direct view into a detail of the world. 

Set Up a Much Later Payoff 

It seems illogical to not start your story with your main character, or a piece of your central plot, but an easy way to instantly create a layer mystery is to open with a chapter about, well, anything else. 

Consider a chapter about your villain, a side character, a setting, an important object, or truly anything that won’t play a part until much later in the story. It could be a quick glimpse at how things are run in a city, a display of a person’s abilities or artifact’s power, or just an innocuous slice of life. 

The hook is that the chapter is short and the second chapter functions as a second beginning, starting the story in a more traditional way. Hopefully, the opening chapter sticks in your reader’s head, making them question why it was important without dwelling on it so hard they’re distracted. Plus, at any point that you feel your story needs a jolt of energy, you can pay off the stuff from your opening. 

Start in the Middle 

One of the most common story starts is to open in somewhere in the middle of the story. Highlight a piece of action or dramatic story beat. A fight, a death, a trap, or an emotional turmoil that is to come. Something that the reader dreads but needs to see come to fruition. Anything like this allows you to basically cheat and start your story with an exciting sequence when you normally would need to build towards it. 

Plus, you can easily speak vaguely or leave out character names so that it doesn’t spoil anything major. Let the reader know that someone is going to be buried alive, but then leave them guessing who it could be as you slowly lead them all the way back to that moment. 

Do a “Cold Open” 

More often in film, or maybe best known as the technique used for comedy television shows like The Office or Brooklyn 99, a cold open is a semi self-contained story that serves almost as an example of what the reader can expect from the story if they decide to stick with it.

When you craft a cold open, you want to make it feel finished and comprehensible, even though it likely references characters or even story beats that the reader hasn’t gotten to yet. It’s different from the start in the middle tip, as the cold open doesn’t seek to set up anything for later in the story. 

Instead, the cold open should be as close as possible to a condensed down version of the whole story’s vibe or energy. It can include the main cast of characters doing something plain, or wrapping up a side adventure or plot, or maybe it’s a scene that takes place in the gaps of the story that’s about to be told. 

It should be funny or interesting, and offer a speedrun look at who these characters are and how they will interact in the main story. Bonus points if the reader can go back to this open after reading further in and enjoy it even more now that they have the required context. 

While none of these tips are the “right” way to start your story, thinking about what you would do if using them is great practice, as it will only strengthen your knowledge of your narrative and highlight what pieces of it are most important to you. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that while you could use one of these, none of these, or mix them all, as long as you are starting your story, you’re on the right track.

Love spending time browsing cool art, characters, and other original creations? Check out Unvale! Over 150,000 creatives have chosen Unvale as their home for character creation, worldbuilding, and fun art activities. It's free to join, anti-AI, and one of the warmest, kindest communities on the internet!