Openings in stories.

So... Something I really, really hate is trying to open a story.

Now, I know allot of people will argue something like "it's easy! Just just do ____________!" or maybe "just jump straight to description!" but I find that doesn't work for decent writing. Personally, I find the find the start of the story the most important part as it is meant to hook the reader, to get them to want to understand the world you are writing. If you mess up the start, I am likely to simply stop reading as I will just ignore everything afterwards - the crucial part of the opening (to hook the reader) has not been achieved, and because of that it's hard to get "into" the story.

So, how do you start a story? Well, there a variety of decent ways to do it. The first and simplest ways to do it is through giving the reader something to question immediately. If the reader is actively thinking about your story more, they are more likely to care about the world your creating and are much more likely to continue to read on. Other openings that are particularly good includes the "Telling a story" opening that Fallout: Equestria used (yes, there are probably others but I personally like FoE so i'm using it as the example.). The idea of having a character start by telling you a story/making the entire story seem like a character is telling it too you is something really unique and effective, though for it to take maximum effect it is necessary to check it multiple times to ensure it flows naturally and coherently. The final method of starting a story, and my personal favorite, is much more difficult to pull off but also the most rewarding to get right. The idea is simply that the beginning in some way relates to the end and gives the entire story a sense of structure and deeper meaning. This is also really good if you want a reader to go through your story multiple times. This technique is prevalent in allot of fiction, with the one standing out to me being Romeo and Juliet's prologue. This prologue, while ruining the ending, does provide a decent opening with both the techniques of telling a story through a character (in this case the narrator) and relates to the end (some would argue a little too much).

So, what do I avoid when starting a story?

To answer this, let me show you a few bad openings (all written by me) and walk you through why they don't work well:

The sun shone brightly onto ponyville as Pinkie Pie jumped towards sugar cube corner. Happy ponies filled her with cheer as she bounced over to the door with some more cake ingredients.

This intro is supposed to do one thing - set the scene. This, however, is not the only thing a good introduction is supposed to do. The writing here is mainly ex-positional, probably with the intent to then jump straight into the story once the setting was out the way but frankly, having exposition before your story kills any sense of character you could hope to convey. This introduction technique usually ends up feeling lifeless and can turn people away. No-one wants to read through a super-detailed paragraph of exactly how bright the sun was while pinkie was bouncing to get to the actual story. Detail can come later and sparingly - just enough so the reader knows roughly where the characters are but also leaving enough room to let the reader fill in some gaps on their own.

"Hey Twilight!" chirped Pinkie Pie "So I was thinking it might be super fun if you could come give me some advice on writing a little letter to cheese sandwich later on."

Nope. Nope. All the nope. This is frequently used as an opening for stories and while I can see why (introduces character(s)) it almost never works. The main reason being that it is very hard to create mystery or intrigue out of dialogue outside of something along the lines of "Any luck on tracking down the suspect?" (which in turn is so overdone that it is uninteresting). This opening is very overused and basically thrusts the reader straight into the main story with no context or build-up, leaving a confused and ultimately bored reaction.

If i'm going tell you my story, why I am here with these ponies and why I am about to do what many would consider madness I should first tell you about the Flim Flam brother's baked-bean emporium.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the way this opener is set out. In-fact, it is a rather good opener. It grabs attention, it introduces key concepts and lets the reader know what type of story they should expect. It also relates to nearly all of the things that I mentioned earlier as "good" ways to start a story. So, what is wrong with it? Simple: it is copied almost word-for-word from another fanfiction. Copying other author's work is one of the worst things you can do to start a story. Copying an authors work means that you a) might potentially annoy fans of the guy you took the opener from; b) won't learn how to make decent openers on your own; c) will end up making a worse piece as you will not have the same ideas that the original author had and thus will not be able to use the opener effectively.

So, yeah, that's my two cents into how you should open stories. Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below, as I would love to hear how other people think you should start a story.

Tl;Dr: Don't **** up story openings.