Word for making up a story

150+ Story Starters: Creative Sentences To Start A Story

June 26, 2022

The most important thing about writing is finding a good idea. You have to have a great idea to write a story. You have to be able to see the whole picture before you can start to write it. Sometimes, you might need help with that. Story starters are a great way to get the story rolling. You can use them to kick off a story, start a character in a story or even start a scene in a story.

When you start writing a story, you need to have a hook. A hook can be a character or a plot device. It can also be a setting, something like “A young man came into a bar with a horse.” or a setting like “It was the summer of 1969, and there were no cell phones.” The first sentence of a story is often the hook. It can also be a premise or a situation, such as, “A strange old man in a black cloak was sitting on the train platform.”

Story starters are a way to quickly get the story going. They give the reader a place to start reading your story. Some story starters are obvious, and some are not. The best story starters are the ones that give the reader a glimpse into the story. They can be a part of a story or a part of a scene. They can be a way to show the reader the mood of a story. If you want to start a story, you can use a simple sentence. You can also use a question or an inspirational quote. In this post, we have listed over 150 story starters to get your story started with a bang! A great way to use these story starters is at the start of the Finish The Story game.

For more ideas on how to start your story, check out these first-line writing prompts. Did you find this list of creative story starters useful? Let us know in the comments below!

Telling stories is typical in any language as we normally share about our past activities or experiences and what we observe. Since it is almost always part of conversations, storytelling is a skill that any person should get better at to communicate effectively and connect with other people. Learning how to tell your story in an organized and easy to understand way will help you to make your listener visualize what happened through your words. To guide you on how to effectively tell your story, follow the tips provided below.

1. Use beginning phrases to start a story

Although you may hear in some movies and books that telling stories are started with “once upon a time” this is not commonly used  in real life. Beginning your story in this manner, makes your story sound fictional. In typical conversations, storytelling begins after being asked with a question “what happened?” Start by having an introduction to your story so your conversation partner will have an idea of what you are going to talk about. Use beginning phrases to cue your listeners that a story is about to be opened. 

Beginning phrases that you can use are: 

“It all started when…”

“To begin…”

“It all began when…”

2. Provide a background to set the scene of your story

Introduce to your listeners the setting of your story. By providing them a clear background, they will be able to imagine the scene of the story and feel as if they’re there. You can include details about who is involved, where it took place, and what you were doing at that time.

3. Talk about real events and challenges

One way of making your story relatable is by telling real events. Many are tempted to look good in their narrative and portray to be perfect, however, this can make your story less interesting. Some may find it boring, unrelatable, and even sound boasting. Don’t strive to be perfect-looking in your stories but be honest and real. If you are going to talk about success or victories, refrain from omitting the challenges you faced along the way. People are interested in what’s relatable, and mentioning about struggles and how you overcome them is something that many can relate with. A story with a perfect life will sound unreal, and fictional. Hence when sharing real stories of real people or your personal story, do not try to invent a “perfect” character or plot nor create a story that you think your listener would prefer to hear.

4. Choose relevant content 

Include details that are important to be mentioned in the story and omit the ones that aren’t needed. Overly detailed stories are hard to follow thus can create a rambling feel. You can share relevant content by involving details in your experience that you think are relatable to your listeners.

5. Use sequencing words

Continue giving details in the story in an organized way by including proper sequencing of events. As they hear the events occurred step by step, they can easily follow, link the details and visualize events chronologically. Smoothly transition your story from event to event by using sequencing words.

Sequencing words that you can use to continue or connect your story are:

 “First of all…”

“Previously..”

“Next…”

“After that…”

“Finally…”

“In the end…”

6. Use interruption words to create suspense

While you are telling your story, you may want to add some elements to avoid the same flow in the story or make it even more interesting. To hint your listeners that something surprising or important is about to happen, use words that introduce interruptions. This will make your listener tune in and listen to you a bit more closely.

Interrupting phrases to add new elements in the story include:

Suddenly

Unexpectedly

7. Use linking words

Throughout your storytelling, you might need to give reasons for actions, mention contrasting information, or share about a result. Instead of presenting these details in a straightforward manner, weave them together by using linking words. Connecting the details well until you reach the end of the narrative will make it more story-like. Presenting events separately will make any narrative sound choppy thus break the listener’s experience in the story. Keep your story flow logical, to keep your listener engaged and interested. 

Good Transitional words you can use are:

 “Because….”

“As a result..”

“Although…”

8. Use time words

Time words will enable your listener to know when the events took place. It will also allow them to better imagine the situation and determine how recent or old it was. Time words can be placed at the beginning or end of a sentence.

Examples of time words

yesterday 

today 

this morning 

last night

9. Describe emotions

Make your stories compelling by communicating the emotions that you experienced. Interesting stories don’t just present details of when, where and what happened, but also include what triggered action and how you felt. By describing your emotions, your listeners can understand what you felt at that time. It also creates a sense of immersion as they go through an emotional experience while listening to your story. If they felt the same way, then you have established a connection. To do this, use words that can create and describe strong emotions

Example: 

“The news was so shocking.”

“I was speechless.”

“It was devastating.”

10. Use sensory words

Make your story come alive by using words that talk about your senses. Including as many senses as possible will guide your listener to connect and picture what you are describing. Use words that tell about sound, taste, texture, smell, and look.

 11. Use appropriate adjectives

When writing your story don’t just show but tell. Use different adjectives to draw a picture while telling your story. Adjectives help create better mental images and make your story more colorful and dramatic. Use interesting words to make your story more interesting. Also, if you’re going to tell about something related to change, tell both the observable and inner changes instead of just saying the word “change.” Moreover, make your adjectives appropriate according to the kind of story you are telling. If you are sharing a sad story, use sad adjectives, if it’s a happy story then use happy-sounding adjectives.

12. Tell your story in English to reach more people

While it is good to share your story in your vernacular language, there are also a lot of advantages in sharing your story in English. If you are communicating with people who speak in a different language, they can understand your story if you shared it in English. Meanwhile, if you are writing your story in English, you will also be able to reach more people including the ones living in other countries.

13. Use colloquial and casual words

People like to listen to stories to be amused, entertained, and be inspired. Storytelling often happens during a casual conversation when people want to slow down or destress. In their relaxed state, people would want to listen to a story that is easy to understand. If the story is too complex, they will eventually lose their interest in listening to it. Hence, when telling a story avoid using jargon and technical words. Use casual words or layman’s terms instead. By using everyday words that you and your listener use, they will be able to be more connected to your story. Moreover, you sound more natural and genuine hence relatable.

14. Use the word “said”

Part of telling stories is quoting what other people said that may have resulted in triggering some events or actions in the story. To talk about the speech of other people, use the past tense of “say” which is “said”. 

Example:

“Peter said…”

“My friend said…”

“He said…”

15. Use correct tenses

When telling stories, you can use a variety of tenses to give a hint of when the action took place. Mostly, you will be using past tense to tell events that happened in the past. Meanwhile when talking about the things that do not change, use the present tense.

16. End your story well

When you are about to wrap up your narrative, prepare your listener to disengage from your story. Abruptly ending a story will make them feel left hanging. End your narrative well by telling what finally happened in your story. Use a key phrase or word as well to hint that your story is about to end. 

Some ending phrases and words you can use are: 

“Finally…”

“In the end…”

“Lastly…”

Conclusion

People often listen to stories as part of engaging in a relaxing conversation or out of curiosity. Make sure to connect with your listeners and include details that are relevant to them. The content, the words that you use in your story, and how you deliver it will determine how it will impact others.

Improve your skill in telling a story by learning more useful expressions. LingualBox offers courses that will help you to take your conversation skills to the next level. Try our 2 free trial classes today!

More Related Articles:

11 Easy Conversation Starters

5 Common Email Expressions

How to Give Opinions in an English Conversation

9 Useful Tips to Learn English Quickly

International Volunteering – How to Interact With Others

• Intermediate
• presentation

It happens to the best of us: you open a new word document, you’re faced with the many possibilities that a story can take, and then you realize you don’t know how to start a story. Or you do know, but you’re not sure how to start this story. Or you know exactly what this story is supposed to be, but you can’t seem to find the first words.

Whatever the case, there are many good ways to start a story, but simply starting somewhere can prove challenging. How do other writers do it?

This article tackles the tricky concept of how to start a story. We’ll take a look at different strategies, examples, and ideas you can use to improve your own work. And, we’ll look at what not to do as you start a new draft of your story.

In order to understand how to start a story, we should first examine what your story’s beginning must accomplish.

What Should the Start of a Story Accomplish?

No matter where your story begins, it needs to accomplish a few things for the reader. There are many ways to start a story, but without a certain amount of context and intrigue, the reader will fail to understand what the story is about or where the story is headed.

Most stories, regardless of length, will establish the following items early on:

Characters

Who are the main characters of your story? Of course, many more characters may be introduced as the story progresses, but we should know early on who our protagonist is, as well as some relevant relationships that make the story unfold.

Try to give the reader a peek into your protagonist’s psyche right away. Learn more about this at our article on Character Development.

Try to give the reader a peek into your protagonist’s psyche right away.

Setting

Where is your story taking place? Often, the story begins somewhere safe, where the protagonist hasn’t yet been forced from their home. Or, if your protagonist doesn’t go on a physical journey, they still go on an emotional one—a journey in which their home begins to feel a lot less like home.

Establishing the protagonist’s relationship to their setting helps define where the story exists and where the story will go. Learn more at our article on Five Functions of Setting in Literature.

Establishing the protagonist’s relationship to their setting helps define where the story exists and where the story will go.

Point of View

Who is telling the story, and from what vantage point? Is it the protagonist themselves, or a close friend of the protagonist, or some distant third party observer?

A story’s points of view can shift over time, but we should know right away “who’s holding the camera” as the story unfolds before us. Our article on Narrative Point of View explains this in detail.

We should know right away “who’s holding the camera” as the story unfolds before us.

Mood

The mood of a story refers to the general emotional atmosphere conveyed by the work itself. It is both the feelings expressed in the work and the feelings that the writer wishes to evoke from the reader.

Stories are often defined by specific moods, and although the mood of a story is complex and shifts over time, it should be established right away through the author’s style and word choice. Here’s a succinct write-up on how literature establishes mood.

Although the mood of a story is complex and shifts over time, it should be established right away through the author’s style and word choice.

Conflict

Your story starts where the conflict starts. No, many stories don’t have an inciting incident within the first paragraph. But, your story must establish early on the cause for the story’s existence: the conflicts, disagreements, and contradictions that the story will develop and (maybe) resolve.

Your story starts where the conflict starts.

As we examine “how to start a story” examples, take note of how each story start establishes character, setting, mood, conflict, and point of view. Other elements in story writing, like plot, style, and themes, are developed over time, as are these initial 5 elements. You can learn more about working with the elements of fiction at our article The Art of Storytelling.

How to Start a Story: Examples from Literature

Every story requires its own unique beginning. The ideas we list below can help you decide where you jumpstart your story, but pay careful consideration to the intent of your opening lines. Are you trying to surprise the reader? To situate them in the story’s setting? Or, perhaps, to baffle the reader while also generating intrigue?

Here’s 12 ways to start a story, with examples from published works of literature.

1. How to Start a Story: Dialogue

Readers are nosy: they like being involved in the social lives of the story’s characters. Dropping the reader in the middle of a conversation will certainly pique the reader’s interest, especially if that conversation itself is interesting.

One such story that drops the reader in the middle of dialogue is “Never a Gentle Master” by Brittany N. Williams.

By starting with dialogue, this story drops us in the middle of the tension: meddling, death magic, and workroom gossip. Dialogue writing has its own challenges; learn how to start a story with proper dialogue at our article How to Write Dialogue in a Story.

Note: some writers and publishers don’t like this method of starting a story, because we don’t know anything about the character before hearing them speak. If you open your story with dialogue, that dialogue should intrigue the reader, introduce conflict,  and offer some characterization. Show us through the character’s word choice who the character is.

2. How to Start a Story: Conflict

Conflict is the lifeblood of a story. Without conflict—man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. self, etc.—there is little else propelling the story from beginning to end.

Of course, conflict doesn’t have to be an all-out war. Yes, dueling wizards and angry gods counts as conflict. But, it can also be something far more everyday.

In “A Duck Walks into a Bar” by Joshua Bohnsack, for example, the conflict is a child’s struggle to understand jokes—and his parent’s struggle to teach him about the world.

By starting with conflict, the author wastes no time getting to the heart of what they’re writing about.

3. How to Start a Story: Setting and Mood

Stories transport us to faraway places—places we’ve never visited, times long past, and settings we can only dream about. Every character has a relationship to their setting, and that relationship often lends itself to the mood of the story: the overall feeling, aesthetic, and emotional landscape of the work.

Starting the story with its setting can pull the reader in and establish a compelling mood. In “Fjord of Killary” by Kevin Barry, the author does just that.

By giving the reader details about the place, its people, and its bleakness, the author sets the mood of the entire story. Learn more about developing settings at our article What is the Setting of a Story?

4. How to Start a Story: Backstory

Backstory refers to events that have happened prior to the story’s present-day action. While backstory isn’t necessary to follow the story’s plot, it is essential for understanding specific pieces of information.

Backstory offers context, and sometimes, the author wants to get that context out of the way first. In “The Missing Limousine” by Sanjena Sathian, the story explains why the protagonist gets hooked on The Bachelor, and why this is unusual for her, before getting into the story’s actual conflict.

Watching the bachelor was supposed to make life easier. I started getting into it a year or so after I began working at my brother’s salon. I had a regular stable of clients, but none was particularly in love with me. The problem was not my skill—I am talented at hair removal and competent at mani-pedis. The problem was our Yelp reviews, which said things like “Good eyebrow threading but that one girl makes you keep your eyes open for a whole minute before she starts and the way she stares makes you think she’s trying to suck your soul out.” Which I thought was dramatic.

By establishing basic facts, the author uses backstory to characterize her protagonist and propel the story into its central conflict. Do note: don’t write too much backstory, just give us enough to contextualize the conflict before moving the story forward.

5. How to Start a Story: Everyday Life

Your story’s conflict might dramatically alter your protagonist’s life. They might go on a journey, a quest, or even be forced into a life they didn’t ask for. Something that will highlight this dramatic shift of events is showing the reader what the protagonist’s everyday life was like.

“The Tunnel Under the World” by Frederik Pohl does just this.

Guy Burckhardt wakes up from a terrible dream and finds himself back to everyday life: a shower, a wife, and an office job. It’s only when Guy investigates the eerie normalcy of his life that he comes to find all of it is a façade.

Note: starting your story with the protagonist waking up is generally a cliché idea. But, if you read all of Frederik Pohl’s story, you’ll understand exactly why he has to do this. Whether your protagonist gets shipped to the other side of the world or the other side of the universe, consider starting your story at home.

6. How to Start a Story: Theme

A theme is a central idea that propels a story forward. Themes are often abstract concepts, like love, justice, and fate vs. free will. When the characters of a story have to reckon with certain difficult situations, their decisions become springboards for the story’s various themes.

Sometimes, the story needs to unfold before any themes emerge. Other times, the author might lead with the theme before letting the story act that theme out. Take the opening lines from two works of classic literature:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Life, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far the like present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Anna Karenina leads with the story’s dissection of happy and unhappy families, while A Tale of Two Cities leads with the bifurcated realities of the rich and the poor. Both novels, of course, have many more themes than just these, but these stories start rooted to a central idea, then unfurl to encompass a wider understanding of life.

7. How to Start a Story: Interesting Language

Charles Baudelaire once said “Always be a poet, even in prose.” Following this advice, sometimes all you need to start a story is some interesting word choice.

Take, for example, the story “Bread Week” by JoAnna Novak.

Your father calls you train wreck, as in, HEY, wake up, train wreck, bud, you’re falling asleep—beady, bootblack eyes narrowed on you from the Hemingway chair in the basement.

This brief introduction is packed with interesting language. For starters, it’s written in the second person, which is a daring way to write a story, because it situates the reader as the story’s protagonist without any other context. Additionally, the sentence is a mix of dialogue and narration, but without the use of quotation marks, making it structurally intriguing. Finally, the alliterative phrase “beady, bootblack eyes” is rich with description and characterization while also being a pleasure to read.

8. How to Start a Story: In Media Res

Under traditional storytelling models, like Freytag’s Pyramid, there’s a clear progression of events. After the exposition introduces us to the story’s characters, and settings, an inciting incident kicks off the story’s conflict. During the rising action, the conflict escalates, until a climax decides the fate of the protagonist.

When a story starts in media res (Latin: “in the middle of things”), the author chooses to start the story in the middle of the rising action, skipping over the exposition and the inciting incident.

For example, Homer’s The Iliad begins in the 9th year of the Greeks’ 10-year siege against Troy. We are introduced to major characters like Achilles, Agamemnon, and Odysseus, and also to the influence of the Gods like Hera and Zeus. Only as the story unfolds do we also gain some backstory, such as the reason for the war’s beginning and the previous lives of the story’s protagonists.

9. How to Start a Story: Frame Story

A story that starts at the end is called a frame story, which is another way to play with traditional narrative structures. Also known as a story-within-a-story, frame stories begin at the end of the conflict. Often, a character who is not part of the conflict will wander into the story; eventually, a character who was part of the conflict regales this wanderer, transporting us to the story’s beginning.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë offers a great example. In this novel, Mr. Lockwood, who is not part of the story’s conflict, becomes a new tenant of Thrushcross Grange. Thrushcross Grange is tended to by Nelly, a housekeeper who witnessed all of the story’s conflicts. Nelly tells Mr. Lockwood about the romance, violence, drama, and death that has unfolded in Thrushcross Grange’s recent history.

Thus, the story begins at the end, with Mr. Lockwood moving into a now-quiet Thrushcross Grange. Then, the story jumps to the beginning, with the cast of characters that propel the house’s strange and awful history.

10. How to Start a Story: A Hook

A hook is a simple premise for a story that, when told to the reader, instantly draws them into the story. Many of the other examples listed here can also be viewed as hooks, but a hook directly states the reason for the story’s existence and invites the reader to learn more.

For example, the story “Chouette” by Claire Oshetsky hooks the reader instantly.

There is so much happening in these first few lines. A same-sex owl romance leads to an inter-species pregnancy? Yes, please tell me more.

11. How to Start a Story: A Question

Some stories begin with a question, and the entire story responds to the conundrum that question presents. Just like a story that starts with theme, starting with a question will draw the reader into the story’s central ideas.

Of course, a story can also begin with a question that baffles the reader, hooks them in, or tries to characterize its protagonists. Take the opening line of Gilbert Sorrentino’s novel Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things:

What if this young woman, who writes such bad poems, in competition with her husband, whose poems are equally bad, should stretch her remarkably long and well-made legs out before you, so that her skirt slips up to the tops of her stockings?

12. How to Start a Story: Compelling Characterization

Readers are drawn to stories for a variety of reasons. However, very few stories would satisfy if they lacked interesting characters. Great characterization can be a byproduct of the many good ways to start a story.

In “The Killer” by Sarah Gerard, we learn so much about the story’s protagonist just by watching her observe other people.

Carol was spying on the table next to theirs, hiding behind large shades. She loved the kind of basic beachfront retiree gossip they were dishing. It was almost a pastime for her, immersing herself in the narrative miasma of coconut-vanilla, spray-tan, condo pools, and other people’s secrets. The loudest of the group was calling the story’s subject’s affliction, with faux-sarcastic air quotes, a ‘social disease.’ Carol knew such a thing was more common in their small barrier island community than one would think. A lot of tea partiers, too much money, too much time. Nothing else to do but get drunk on Tom Collinses, mouth off about liberalism, sleep with your friends’ wives. She called up her own recent sins. She noted that the fishing nets on the ceiling of the Pelican had captured a mermaid, suspended her there like bycatch. Nathan returned from washing his hands and sat at their glass deck table. It overlooked the Gulf, and the yellow umbrella shielding them from the late morning sun cast them in a certain glow.

How Not to Start a Story

Because people have been telling stories for at least 4,400 years, there are many ways to start a story—and many of them are cliché, unconvincing, or simply boring for the reader. Let’s briefly look at how not to start a story.

Do note: rules are made to be broken, and there is no single standard of good or bad writing. So, while we discourage people from starting stories using the following methods, there might be a reason for doing so in your story. Just be intentional: if your story starts with a dream, for example, make sure that dream is absolutely essential to the story’s conflict, and that there is no better place from which to begin the story.

Nonetheless, if you want to submit your stories to literary journals or publications, be wary of the following story beginnings:

Starting with a dream.

This story start will mostly confuse the reader. They’ll think what’s happening in the dream is happening in real life, and when that turns out not to be the case, the reader will feel tricked, as well as bored with real life. Plus, dreams are rarely a source of conflict, which your story should start with.

The protagonist wakes up.

This is perhaps the most cliché method of starting a story. It doesn’t generate conflict or tell us anything interesting about the character. Yes, some stories need to show us everyday life before it’s drastically altered. But, since all people wake up, we don’t need to know about your character waking up, we just need to know details about everyday life that will, eventually, be altered.

Starting with character summary.

Don’t introduce your characters with basic, summaristic info. In other words, don’t start your story like this: “Sean Glatch was a 20-something writer in ABC City; one day, he woke up on the other side of the world.” This kind of writing is devoid of any style or intrigue. The reader wants to connect with the story’s characters on a personal level, so these summaristic details should be embedded in the story itself, rather than stated directly to the reader.

Cliche beginnings.

Once upon a time, people started their stories with “once upon a time.” But, even if your story begins on a dark and stormy night, tell the reader something a bit more compelling.

Starting before the conflict.

If the first page of your story doesn’t have conflict, then your story hasn’t started yet. Readers will nod off very quickly if they don’t know why they’re reading this story. The conflict doesn’t have to be clear or explicitly stated, but it does need to drive the narration right away, even as we’re learning about the story’s characters and settings.

Disconnected worldbuilding.

Perhaps your story begins on Planet X, which has an icy surface, endless tundras, and snowy mountains as tall as Olympus Mons. Nonetheless, the reader wants to follow people, not planets. So, instead of introducing the reader to this snowy world devoid of human conflict, show us the protagonist fighting against the cold, baring their teeth against chilling winds and subzero hypothermia.

Further Readings on Storytelling

For more resources on story writing and development, take a look at these handy articles.

• What is the Plot of a Story?
• Character Development Definition: A Look at 40 Character Traits
• Capturing the Art of Storytelling: Techniques & Tips
• Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction
• Novel Writing Tips: The Basics of Novel Writing

Additionally, the American Book Review has a list of the 100 best first lines from novels. Perhaps one of those lines will inspire your own story’s beginning.

Learn How to Start a Story at Writers.com

Whether you’re starting a flash fiction piece, an essay, a novel, a memoir, or an epic in dactylic hexameter, learn how to start a story at Writers.com. Take a look at our upcoming schedule!

It is a story about a young woman who was a single mother of a baby daughter. The woman was a victim of circumstances: her short marriage had broken up and she had no job. At that time she lived in great poverty. Then she wrote a book and sent it to a few publishing houses, all of which didn’t accept the book for publication. It was her sheer luck that the chairman of a little publishing house gave the book to his eight-year-old daughter to read. The girl liked the book very much and so it was published. The book became a hit and later people called it a masterpiece. Its author became rich and her book affected children’s reading habits all over the world.

________

Эта история о молодой женщине, которая была одинокой матерью малышки-дочери. Женщина была жертвой обстоятельств: ее короткий брак распался, и у нее не было работы. В то время она жила в бедности. Затем она написала книгу и отправила ее в несколько издательств, которые отказались напечатать книгу. Женщине очень повезло, что глава небольшого издательства дал почитать эту книгу своей восьмилетней дочери. Девочке книга очень понравилась, таким образом книгу опубликовали. Она стала хитом продаж, и позже люди назвали ее шедевром. Автор книги разбогатела, а еще эта книга повлияла на читательские привычки детей по всему миру.