How Do You Start Off Your Stories?

[Sanokura]

do whatever comes to your mind first.

[Krystal]

well...i guess heres a quick example from one of my stories. i dont like it, but it took me awhile to think up how t do it too.

It was a crystal clear night in the town of Vale, the moonlight glinted of the small pond next to Isaac's house. Across from the pond was a barn with twelve Venus djinn sleeping peacefully within it. The town was deathly quiet, except for the silent flow of the river. Everyone was asleep, except for Isaac. Looking through his window, he could see in the distance, the faint iridescent light of the Venus Lighthouse beacon. He could sense something wasn't right, he had sensed it ever since the day Vale had been seized by the earth. But Vale has been rebuilt, he thought, the lighthouses have been lit and Weyard is no longer on the brink of destruction, but Isaac knew that he was just kidding himself, he knew something was wrong.

yeah i think its the sappiest thing ever. but im just giving an example.

[sessgrlice]

I find it easier to play some type of anime music...Then I actually sit in front of my word document which is blank and just let the music guide me. I began by posting something. Just write what comes to your mind and then later read it when you are done writing and change what you want. Well I can give an example. Sometimes I start off like I do in my rpgs...It helps me out when it comes to fanfics and sometimes to posts when I dont' know what to post...Here is something that I would use in a fanfic. Let's do it like an rpg post...

Falip sat at a bar in the middle of Mai City. It was an old dusty town and he happened to stroll in drunk one night and ended up staying there for three months. Falip hated the town so far, there was nothing to do there. But he stayed anyways because of the liqour and woman that swarmed the city like flies to a dead carcass. Falip sipped his drink with certainty that this was going to be his last one, but he only lied to himself. He would end up have six more before he even decided to leave.

Falip sighed, he was a bounty hunter who hasn't had any work for three months now. Ever since he came to this run down of a mill town. He needed to get on his game again, he was getting rusty and turning into an alcoholic. He turned and faced the bartender and signaled for another drink. He knew he needed to stop but he couldn't. The bartender shook his head and poured Falip another drink. Falip sat there till the bar was closed drinking drowning out his sorrows, and dreams.

See I am listening to anime music right now. Make sure it's in Japanese, because it seems to help my inspirational side go wild. Just sit and let your fingers type what your brain is saying. I type like 65 to 69 words a minute so it's easy for me to type what's on my mind. Since I switch subjects and think quickly. I have to be quick before I loose an idea. Lol..But just take it slow and once you get over that hump of starting off the post/fanfic..Everything from there flows like water and comes naturaly...Good luck and hope this helps...-Sessy

[SilentSoul92]

I usually start with a thought, or something that was going to happen. For example:

Legends are born, and some die. The legend I will tell you now is neither happy, nor joyful. It tells of a night when the moon cried, and the stars collided. When hell rose up to meet heaven, and chaos came forth. And I led my comrades-my friends-into this unknowing doom. We can never rewind time to fix our mistakes, and we regret it everyday. Having said this, will you still hear my tale? Here it is...

Then the story starts.

[dolphinprincess]

Um, it depends on the story for me. Usually it starts out with a character talking, or a something like that.
_________________
It took me about ten minutes to defeat Giga Bowser, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo from Super Smash Brothers Melee using Peach.
How long did it take my brother to defeat those characters using Yoshi? Two minutes.
I like to obsess over stuff. Here are all the things I'm obsessing over:
Song: Seize the Day by Default
Anime: D.Gray Man
Anime character(s): Kanda
Video Game: Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Video Game character: Wolf O-Donnell from Star Fox Assault
OC: Ray Eclrida, copyright of me (duh!)
OC Quote: "No, he just keeps getting beaten in the head with his own stupidity."-Ray Eclrida

[SilentSoul92]

here's another, this one is a character thinking

I've always been told, been teached since I was born, what was good and what was evil. Everything was either black, or white. There was no gray or in-between. At least, that's what I grew up learning. But, I discovered my shade of gray, and held it inside me.

[JINTEIthe76thKAISER]

Tragic, really tragic. Like, end-of-the-world tragic. I usually do the story in pictures, like some sort of comic.
_________________
--Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas. But of a humble heart, the Lord wil not scorn, and from its abundance the mouth speaks.

--People don't mean to kill each other. It happens because they are poor or desperate or really thirsty or in need of a vacation or something.

[Elbreth]

Depends. I would reccomend making the time and place known (unless the mystery factor is important to the story) as well as having an action. Sometimes it's good to invert your story - have the action in the first paragraph, then go on to show how the events came to be.

Again, it just depends... I don't think a good short story is as formulaic as this topic suggests.

[falconwing]

If Im writing a prologue I start off describing the setting, if I start with a chapter then I show what my character is doing

[MedalMask]

Well, I start off most of my stories with a small story first. Or maybe a mystical description, either one of those two.
_________________
Wyat Fucking Earp!

[Veilius]

--

[celestina67]

well i usually start it with a dialouge..a single sentence tt makes pple wanna read on...

[AnimationWickedRaven]

me? Well . . . hmm. I start off when smeone's basically in the middle of doing some thing. It's kinda hard to explain. Here's a example:
It seemed to never cease. It dragged on and on with no point. Did it have a point? It might have, but (blank) was too busy running from some . . . thing to even notice if it did. She wasnt exactly sure what the thing was, but she knew that if she stopped running, it would NOT be pretty. She looked back at it and it growled fiercely at her through the shadows. Then, something in the outline of an S glowed in red for a split second, then faded away. A certain familiarity ran through her as she saw that S, but she soon forgot about it as the tendrils of the shadow spun around her body. She sped up and waved the filaments away with her hand.

Yeah. That was my first story posted on another site. Or another one would be:
(Slap) "You've been sleeping all day, it's time to wake up."
He touched his face where she had slapped him, waking up instantly. "You slapped me! YOU SLAPPED ME! What the hell!"
ok. those arethe basic starting-points for me.

[celestina67]

or sometimes i start it a song.

[AnimationWickedRaven]

me too