How do you start your stories?

[Candy_Kane54]

Once upon a time ...

 

[ElectricBlue]

This remains one of my favourite story starts:

It was the movement that first caught my eye.

That automatic sequence of movements done by muscle memory, repeatedly and without thinking, dexterous and complete - the red nail fingertips of her right hand, several silver rings on her fingers, flipping open the top of the box. One finger aligned the flipped up lid so the angle was right, then two fingers grasped the filter and pulled a cigarette out.

They could have been touching her clitoris, the movements so precise, the purpose so similarly exquisite.

I was three tables away with a direct line of sight.

Garter Belts and Cigarettes

 

[NotWise]

Once upon a time ...

When wishes still came true . . .

 

[THBGato]

Personally, I feel the most frisky when I wake up, so maybe that’s why I find comfort in AM settings.

https://www.literotica.com/s/aftermath-16
This is one of my favourite stories that begins with someone waking up...

 

[StillStunned]

I like to start my sword & sorcery stories with an establishing shot. It sets the mood and creates a backdrop for the story, so once you've described it you don't need to keep going back and giving more detail. These are the opening paragraphs of the WIP I'm working on tonight:

The black mere lay as still as a mirror under the night sky. Ghosts of fog drifted across its surface, merging, separating, disappearing. Where the water was exposed, it reflected the starlight from above and the low hills that surrounded it like the gateway to the Hells.

Closer to the shore, clumps of marsh grass spiked up like the spears of tiny warriors, standing back to back for a last stand. Around them the water was frozen and covered with a finger’s thickness of snow.

The silence was broken by the cry of a nightbird, as harsh as the frozen air, and the steady thump-thump as it flapped great wings and took flight. Another cry, a few beats on the air, then it settled down again a score of paces away.

The sound of its wings seemed to echo, though, and sink into the ground. A close observer might have seen the slightest tremor ripple across the water, and then another, escaping from the earth.

The tremors grew greater, and the night was broken again. This time it was a scream, of fear and pain and frustration, all cutting off sharply in a choked gurgle a stone’s throw from the shores of the mere.

Suddenly a man came hurtling down the slope, sending the bird flapping into the sky once more. A sheathed sword was clutched in his white-knuckled hand, his breath hissed between his teeth to cloud in the cold air. Despite the chill, beads of sweat clung to his skin, on bare arms and a scalp marked with swirling tattoos.

He halted abruptly, feet already sinking into the black mud. He was tall, heavily muscled, dressed in a sleeveless vest and leather breeches. His feet took half a step back, while he muttered under his breath, before he froze as a second scream pierced the near-silence.

“Dugoro and Venna both gone then.” It was little more than a whisper.

 

[BeechLeaf]

I've been stuck for months on a WIP where the opening paragraph is prefixed with '[dull]'. Earlier in this thread I examined how my published stories began. This moribund one is somewhere in between the two types. Today I tried to shift it towards the more clearly scene-setting type. Now the opening tag reads '[less dull with fragrance? scene setting like my others?]', so I'm wondering whether mentioning his friend's faint fragrance in the first paragraph made it a bit more . . . a bit more what? Gripping? No, I don't go for gripping. Click out and read someone else's. What then? Integrated? Not just a short sequence of actions, but a setting where there is comfort, interrupted, and a friend's fragrance, and somehow these combine to give the reader a feel for where we are, two people together, friendly, exact nature of relations not yet revealed . . .

tl;dr: I haven't the remotest idea what I'm doing.

 

[MK_Whimsy]

Usually a bit of dialogue, and/or a description of the setting.

Scale Servicing begins with, "A feeling of fear lingered in the pit of my stomach," which in hindsight seems a little redundant, lol.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I usually try and establish some background first, but my stories start sort of all over the place. It just varies depending on what the narrative needs to get going.

 

[Trionyx]

Example #1: in the first few lines of the story, there are many potential conflicts laid out. From: Our Fantasy Fucks

“Jimmmyyy!"

I heard Silka's (pronounced with a Z) voice long before I saw her weaving through the crowd at the receiving hall of our local airport. She ran full speed toward my wife and me and jumped up into my arms and gave me a big kiss right on the lips. Maybe there was a hint of tongue, but I was so startled that I couldn't be sure. She slid down and turned to my wife and gave her a big girl-hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Example #2: this one draws the reader in and makes them want to know what happened. From: Santa’s Elf.

"What the fuck! Asshole!"

Her yelling drowned out the moans from the man who was under her on the city sidewalk. She flailed her arms, pulled herself up and stood next to him.

"I should kick you for grabbing me like that. Why'd you do it, Asswipe?"

Example #3: the first lines hint at incest, conflict between siblings and conflict between lovers. From: Ashley’s Sister

"You want to fuck my sister, don't you?"

The question hit me like a ton of bricks as my girlfriend Ashley rode me, grinding her clit on my pubic bone. I was holding her around her hips and helping her plunge up and down on me.

"Go. Ahead. Admit. It. You. Want. To. Fuck. My. Sister!" she panted each word with a thrust of her pelvis.

"Uh, Ash, really, how can you ask me that right now?"

"'Cause it's true and I want your dick to get even harder thinking about her," she groaned as she continued to plunge on me getting closer and closer to her orgasm.

I ignored her response because, first, I wanted Ashley to come and second, it was actually true. I did want to fuck her sister.

Example #4: the question of what she could never have again seems to draw the reader deeper into the story. From: Widow’s Fire.

"Aunt Gigi, are you gonna ask Santa for a present?" asked Mindy.

"Yeah," added Trevor, "Ask him."

Giselle, known to her young twin niblings as 'Gigi,' had gathered them in her arms after they came down the ramp from his chair at Santa's Village. Even though it was getting rather late and there were no other children in line for the 'old' man, she didn't feel it was appropriate for a full-grown woman to sit on his lap and ask for a gift.

Besides, the only thing she wanted she could never have again.

I don’t pretend to be a great writer, but I have been pleased with the beginnings of these stories.