The trickiest part of a story is the beginning. That’s where you hook in your readers and keep them wanting more. It’s important to write a beginning that will interest your readers and have them asking questions about the characters or the plot. Readers don’t have the patience to read a story that has a boring beginning. Either way, make sure your beginning gets off to a good start and hooks your readers into your story.
Instructions
1. Begin in the middle. This might sound strange (why begin after the story has already started?), but every great short story always begins in medias res, or in the middle of the action. What does this mean exactly? Begin the story at the point when the conflict is starting to bubble. For instance, if you’re writing a story about a marriage that is headed toward divorce, begin the story just as both characters have given up on the relationship. They might not admit to it to one another or to themselves, but it is apparent --- through the character’s dialogue or actions --- that the marriage is doomed. You can use flashbacks to show how the characters have arrived at this point or what their marriage was like in the beginning, but an effective short story will always begin just as the stakes have been risen.
2. Create a hook. A hook in a short story works in the same way a hook in a song captures the listener’s attention. It is a way to captivate the readers. This has to happen early in the story. If the story starts off in a boring or uninteresting way, then the reader will feel no need to keep reading. A hook can be a great first sentence or an intriguing idea. For instance, in Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” he begins: “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” This sentence really captures the reader’s attention and makes him want to find out more. Another hook is to create a beginning that will have your readers asking questions. Another example would be: “Jennifer sat in her party dress, waiting for her husband to come home.” This sentence begs the questions: why is Jennifer in a party dress and why is she waiting for her husband? These questions will intrigue your reader enough to keep reading.
3. Set up or foreshadow the story’s conflict immediately. It doesn’t have to be in the first sentence or first paragraph, but do let your readers know what the essential conflict of your story will be. You can foreshadow this conflict, for instance, through the character’s wants or personality. In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the conflict between the narrator and the blind man who comes to visit him and his wife, is set up almost immediately in the first paragraph: “He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me.” The conflict is foreshadowed here based on the narrator’s own biases. The reader gets a sense of what is headed in the story once the blind man arrives.
4. Build on the first sentence. Take it to the next level. You’ve hooked the reader, now maintain his interest with each sentence. You can do this by answering your readers’ initial questions or you can create an air of mystery that stays throughout much of the story. Kafka doesn’t explain how Gregor Samsa becomes a bug, but does maintain the absurdity of the situation by addressing the very real complications Samsa’s new situation has on himself and his family. This makes the readers wonder what will happen to Samsa and how he will cope with being an insect.
5. Create intriguing characters and introduce them in intriguing ways. Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is one good example of this. In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” she describes her character Connie like this: “She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other people’s face to make sure she was all right.” This is only the second sentence in the story and already Oates has set up an interesting character that makes readers want to know more about her.
