How can I come up with good starts to a short story?
To come up with good starts for a short story, you can start by brainstorming different emotions you want to convey. If you want to convey excitement, you could start like this: 'The moment the race began, the crowd erupted into a frenzy of cheers.' If it's a sad story, perhaps 'The day she left, the rain seemed to cry along with him.' Another approach is to think about the end first and then create a start that leads to it. For example, if the end is about a character finding a long - lost treasure, you could start with 'He had always felt that there was something special hidden in his grandfather's old attic.' Also, read a lot of short stories. Notice how other authors start their stories and get inspired. For instance, some start with a dream sequence, like 'He found himself in a strange land, where the trees were made of glass and the sky was purple.'
Think about interesting characters first. What if you start with 'The detective with a limp and a twinkle in his eye entered the crime scene'? You can also draw inspiration from your own experiences. For example, if you had a strange encounter, you could write 'I saw a man on the street who seemed to be talking to an invisible friend.' Another way is to look at pictures or listen to music. A picture of a desolate landscape might inspire 'The desert stretched out endlessly before him, a lonely figure in a sea of sand.'