Another Seven Short Story Starters
Previously I have written and posted lists of short story starters for writers. These have proven to be quite popular with readers of this blog. So today we have another seven short story starters.
Another Seven Short Story Starters:
- Alison was angry. She had worked so hard for so long. Now it seemed to have been a total waste of time.
- Ben wasted no time getting to the bank. This had to be his lucky day.
- The sudden change in wind direction caught Carol by surprise.
- Daniel gave a polite cough. It didn’t attract the attention he wanted. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and reached for the bell. It was now or never.
- As the car tyres crunched on the gravel, Eliza realised…
- “I’m going now,’ announced Frank as he opened the door. “Are you coming?”
- Gina stared at the doctor. Her mind churned in confusion. How could she…
Conditions of use:
- Feel free to use any of the story starters listed above.
- Give it your best shot.
- Edit your work carefully before sending it off to a publisher or posting it on your blog.
- Let me know in the comments section how it went.
- If you publish your story on your web site or on your blog let me know so I can make a link to it for others to read.
Related articles:
So there you go.
Good writing.
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i used ‘i was not expecting what was waiting for me as i rounded the corner’it was a kick ass story but my teacher thinks that its to complicated for a starting sentence but i like it and refuse to dumb it down
Good for you Casey. Stick to what you believe will work.
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not encouraging you to be disrespectful to your teacher.
If you firmly believe in that opening line – go for it. Give it your absolute best and prove to your teacher that you are up to the challenge. Turn that negative into a positive.
Many of my stories begin in this way. It has the advantage of getting the reader straight into the action. It sets the scene immediately without pages of background information which is boring.
Many writers urge beginner writers to ‘show – don’t tell.’ That means you show the story through action and dialogue. You don’t tell the story through long, boring descriptions.
All the best. Thanks for stopping by.
“Daniel gave a polite couch”??
That was kind of him.
Thanks Rachel.
That one crept in under the radar. I’ve now corrected it to “cough”. I also found another word with a letter missing. So much for proofreading the sentences before posting this on the internet. One cannot be too careful.
Thanks for visiting – and for correcting me – much appreciated.
Wow those are really good. Im looking for like humorous ones… hmmmm
Thanks for that Tay.
Humor – yes – I will give that some thought. Could be quite popular – and useful. Thanks for the idea.
these are great! but i have to write this 50 word story and these are mainly for longer stories. but these are really good for long stories!!!
Thank you for your positive feedback Sophie. Your comments have reminded me to add more to this very popular series of story ideas.
Hey your really good do you think you could think one up to go with my title it is called life at the bottom I just don’t know how to start it thank you x
Hi there Shannon,
Thanks for stopping by.
Your story “Life at the bottom” had me puzzled for a moment. Life at the bottom… of what? The obvious answer was… the sea. How about this?
“Sophia adjusted her goggles and snorkel until it fitted comfortably. She gave a last tug on her swim suit before striding confidently into the water. She…”
Now it’s over to you.
Have fun with it.
Hey Trevor:
Thank you for these insanely awesome story starters! I am making a collection of short stories for my parents for Christmas and these were just what I needed to stop the writers block. Again, thank you very much!
-Bella
Hi there Bella,
Thanks for visiting.
I’m pleased that you found these ideas useful. I find it encouraging to get feedback like this.
Wow. These are pretty cool and some of them really set me off thinking about what could happen next. Thank you very much!
However i have two criticisms: Some (but not many) of the previous ideas are a bit vague and have little information about person, place or activity. Also Would it be possible to collate all 37-odd ideas on one page?
Thanks again.
Thanks for your comments Green.
I accept your criticism about some of them being vague – that’s where you as the writer need to fill in all the details, adding colour, atmosphere, setting and so on. In my writing group we often start with a sentence like this, or a photo, object or even just a word. From the same point of inspiration can come many different and intriguing stories. That’s the power of something like this; we all work differently.
As for collating all of the ideas into one page, it could easily be done. In fact, I am working on increasing the number of ideas into the hundreds and making them available here on my site. Stay tuned.
Hi Trevor! Great story starters, they make me want to read more. You’re obviously good at english and using words, would you have a published book out? If you don’t you could take this as encouragement to publish one! 🙂 Hopefully I will one day. Its hard for me to get my ideas together, or any at all. But I have a set topic for a short story comp I might enter. What would you write about if I said: SILVER. I automatically thought of pirates, but, I wanted something scary…
Ooops my bad. Its me again. I hadn’t read the ‘about’ page yet. You do have published books! Congrats!
Thanks for visiting my blog May, and for leaving some comments. I have also had published quite a few short stories, poems (including prize winning poems), articles and song lyrics. I have a growing collection of picture book and children’s novel manuscripts which need to be sent out to publishers after I finish my current project. I have almost finished the final draft of a children’s novel which will be submitted as my thesis paper for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. Busy, busy, busy.
hey thanks man for the great story starters, adjusted one a bit for a school test. But do you think you could start one off for me with someone running away from 2 people, then the person being chased comes to a dead end ally way and gets cornered by the 2, then something really cool happens. please help, JJ.
lol hi trevor, me again, just wanted to tell you im a big fan of yours and i hope you can reply, you know, only because the last time you talked to someone was in april 2010, its 2011 now and i seriously hope you can help me, im in desperate need of a story starter like that. 🙂 JJ, no matter what time you reply, i will always keep on cheaking this blog every day, bye!
hi please help jj his idea sounds really good trevor! 🙂 🙂