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How should a story start

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Fiona69m
Word Wizard
Ok. so what is the best start to a story, I prefer to introduce characters but i was wondering are some stories better when it jumps right into the action with no build up...

what is the general view on this and how is the story to get anything other than scratching the surface without that base?
Unknown User
What are you writing? A "stroke story" that is mostly about the sex pretty much requires you to get to the action asap. "Erotic Romance" or similar does require you to build the characters but that does not mean you can't start with action. An explicit sex scene with lots of dialogue or inner reflection by the characters as they have sex can still introduce the characters well. So I think you need to look at the story and see what you want out of it. I tend to start with a scenario, including who is having sex and why, then build the story. Sometimes that means the sex kicks things off but more often, I tend to write some story first to set up the sex.

Look at Holly Was Naked, my latest full-length story. Much of it is building the characters and their motivation for getting it on. That sets the stage for the hot sex in the latter half of the story. But I could have started with them in bed, then used the aftermath to develop the characters and scenario. I just prefer build-up myself.
Fiona69m
Word Wizard
Hello seeker, I am currently writing a couple of stories but i was not referencing them, I wanted to get a better idea of the lush community and the general preference. I do know and agree not all stories should be alike.. thanks
techgoddess
Sassy Red-haired Beach Kat/Dune Goddess
Hi Fiona,

I think it all depends on what type of story one is planning to write and how long the story will be. Sometimes, if the story is short, I like to cut to the chase and then go back and fill in, so to speak. Other, longer stories need character development in my opinion. But as Scott said, characters can be introduced as part of the action. My advice to you is to read a few stories to get a sense of what people enjoy reading here. The story picks list is a good place to start if you're looking for stories that have been well received recently. Hope that helps!

Kat
CarltonStJames
Trust people to be themselves...
There is no 'one size fits all,' but generally, introducing characters first works better in my opinion. Think of how you like your films to be presented to you, and that may provide some insight.

My last published story: Ho For The Holidays
Liz
Scarlet Seductress
I think the best way to start a story is to punch your reader right between the eyes.

Go big. Go bold.

Hook them right from the very first sentence.

I'll give you a couple of examples:

Frank knew he'd made a mistake the second he saw the little gold swastikas dangling from the girl's nipple piercings.


So there I was with barbeque sauce smeared all over my titties.


The panic began to set in when Charles saw his wife's car pull into the driveway. If she found the babysitter's thong before he did all hell would break loose.
sprite
Her Royal Spriteness
Quote by Liz
I think the best way to start a story is to punch your reader right between the eyes.

Go big. Go bold.

Hook them right from the very first sentence.

I'll give you a couple of examples:







one of my fav. starts to one of mine. smile


Beside us raced the hurricane. 140 mph of sheer twisted speed, barely able to keep up with the rented Corvette we’d picked up in Toledo, let alone my amphetamine fueled brain. Under the dashboard was enough acid and ecstasy to turn an entire nation of jihad spouting Islamists into black-eyed love monkeys. Wrapped up in tinfoil and enough duct tape to open our own OSH to keep those drug sniffing bastard Nazis commonly known as german shepherds at bay. Not even my sharp nosed companion could spot the scent over the stink of dog sweat and urine that permeated the vinyl seats of the rental car, neither as strong as the stench of desolation that had driven spikes into our brains via our nostrils.

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
sprite
Her Royal Spriteness
Quote by Fiona69m
Ok. so what is the best start to a story, I prefer to introduce characters but i was wondering are some stories better when it jumps right into the action with no build up...

what is the general view on this and how is the story to get anything other than scratching the surface without that base?



never ever EVER do the laundry list. That's key. This is what i mean -

Jane was 5 foot 4 and weighed 120 pounds with black hair and green eyes and a set of DD tits. it's a trope in erotica but it should be banned. It's the best way to make me NOT read a story and despise the author for all of eternity.

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Unknown User
Quote by sprite


never ever EVER do the laundry list. That's key. This is what i mean -

Jane was 5 foot 4 and weighed 120 pounds with black hair and green eyes and a set of DD tits. it's a trope in erotica but it should be banned. It's the best way to make me NOT read a story and despise the author for all of eternity.


Amen. Introduce whatever physical details are needed through the reactions of other characters or even the character's own reaction to seeing themselves in a mirror or something. And you could do a descriptive passage later, but never, ever make it the start of the story and avoid the laundry list format. Focus on how they look in their bikini or whatever, not just rattling off their attributes.
CarltonStJames
Trust people to be themselves...
Quote by sprite


never ever EVER do the laundry list. That's key. This is what i mean -

Jane was 5 foot 4 and weighed 120 pounds with black hair and green eyes and a set of DD tits. it's a trope in erotica but it should be banned. It's the best way to make me NOT read a story and despise the author for all of eternity.


Yeah, I'm sure I did a lot of this in the past, but realize now this is so unnecessary. Light descriptions of a few standout attributes is fine, once you don't wait until say chapter 7 to say someone is short for example. Then you have the issue of readers imagining a 6 footer for 6 chapters and that could turn into a rather pissy event.

My last published story: Ho For The Holidays
Ensorceled
Easily amused
What Liz said. Start fast, or start with dialogue, then go back and pick up any loose thread the reader will need to know to navigate the story.

Personally, I've always found what the characters look like is one of the least interesting parts of the story. And if a character is improbably sexy or beautiful, I tend to stop right there.

Throw me headfirst into what's happening, pick up the pieces later.

Tintinnabulation - first place (Free Spirit)
Comet Q - second place (Quick and Risqué Sex)
Amnesia - third place (Le Noir Erotique)
utterchaos
Resident Otaku
Quote by Ensorceled
What Liz said. Start fast, or start with dialogue, then go back and pick up any loose thread the reader will need to know to navigate the story.

Personally, I've always found what the characters look like is one of the least interesting parts of the story. And if a character is improbably sexy or beautiful, I tend to stop right there.

Throw me headfirst into what's happening, pick up the pieces later.


Jumping directly into what is happening in the scene is a sure fire way to grab someone's attention. Those first couple of sentences are what show up when a story is published on here, and they are a deciding factor on whether someone will click on your story or not.

Description of character appearance, if you're going to do it, should be through the eyes of the person you're telling the story through I feel, if you're doing first person. I never describe characters my main has little interest in. When I do, I pick out features he finds attractive in the person, or items he has a sexual interest in such as shoes.
Liz
Scarlet Seductress
Quote by sprite
one of my fav. starts to one of mine. smile

Beside us raced the hurricane. 140 mph of sheer twisted speed, barely able to keep up with the rented Corvette we’d picked up in Toledo, let alone my amphetamine fueled brain. Under the dashboard was enough acid and ecstasy to turn an entire nation of jihad spouting Islamists into black-eyed love monkeys. Wrapped up in tinfoil and enough duct tape to open our own OSH to keep those drug sniffing bastard Nazis commonly known as german shepherds at bay. Not even my sharp nosed companion could spot the scent over the stink of dog sweat and urine that permeated the vinyl seats of the rental car, neither as strong as the stench of desolation that had driven spikes into our brains via our nostrils.


I think you were channelling Hunter S. Thompson, lol.
GrushaVashnadze
Active Ink Slinger
Good to intrigue the reader from the outset. This is one attempt I made to do so:

“Fucking or Non-Fucking?” asked the lady behind the ticket counter.
“Fucking, please,” replied Alison confidently.
“First Class or Shit Class?”
“First, please.”
“Two-berth, four-berth, or seat?”
“Uh… what’s the difference?”
“Well, it’s a long journey, so frankly, if you’re planning on doing any fucking, I would avoid the seat carriages. You can just about give a blowjob, but there’s barely room to spread your legs. Are you travelling alone?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d go for a four-berth fucker. More fun that way: you might get a nice little orgy going.”

GrushaVashnadze's best stories:

Alison Goes to London (RR) - "love this... fun, and funny, and sexy" (sprite)

The Cursed Cunt (RR) - "holyyyyy sheeeiiit.... Your writing is fucking fantastic" (CarltonStJames)

A Worthless Filthy Fucking Smoking Trash Cunt Whore (RR) - "Brilliantly done. Of course." (naughtyannie)

Snow White and the Seven Dildos (RR) - "Fuck. It's perfect.... honestly genius and so fucking well executed." (VioletVixen)

Metamorphoses (RR) - "so imaginative and entertaining" (saucymh)

And There Came Two Angels to Sodom - "What a deliciously worded story! So juicy, so raunchy" (el_henke)

Fuck-Talk (with VioletVixen) - "Jeez. I feel rendered wordless by how much clever fucking fun this is" (Jaymal)
Twisted_Skald
Chatterbox Blonde- Rumps Mystical Bartender
I may have misread something but I find sentences are a good way to start.
Boom boom. Umm. Will get my coat.

Whatever was posted is always meant in love and respect never to offend.
I'm also highly likely to have posted this from a phone so there may be typos or odd word changes, auto correct can be a pain.

I've been listening to my kinky pencil here's my current work
LikeToWrite
Active Ink Slinger
You have received some very good advice. One thing you might do, and that is to stop for a moment and think about what type of opening grabs your attention. That will tell the style you are most fond of, which will then mean you will do a better job of writing the story since it will be more personal to you and you'll feel more comfortable with it.

Even though what Liz wrote and this forum is not a story, the first line of her reply shocked me as I never expected such a forceful answer to a question. Her powerful words of, "...punch your reader right between the eyes", made me keep reading. You only have a minute or less to capture the reader's attention and she sure did that.

Quote by Liz
I think the best way to start a story is to punch your reader right between the eyes.
Go big. Go bold.
Hook them right from the very first sentence.
I'll give you a couple of examples:

Quote:
Frank knew he'd made a mistake the second he saw the little gold swastikas dangling from the girl's nipple piercings.

Quote:
So there I was with barbeque sauce smeared all over my titties.

Quote:
The panic began to set in when Charles saw his wife's car pull into the driveway. If she found the babysitter's thong before he did all hell would break loose.


They're all good examples, but my favourite would be the third one. WOW! That first sentence makes me wonder why he was experiencing panic just seeing his wife arrive home? If anything, he should be excited, or at the very least, happy to see her return safely. The second sentence explains the reason, but now leaves me dying to know who will find that thong first and what will happen if she is the one that does. Would I put this story down? Not a chance of that happening. The author has grabbed and is holding my attention so tight there is no way I could stop reading now. Great examples, Liz.
If you're feeling bored during this Covid-19 epidemic I’d like to suggest
you take a peek at a story I collaborated with SueBrasil, a brilliant author.
It's about a mistake in judgment a lady makes concerning a friend, based
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and we’d love any votes or hearing whatever comments you may wish
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www.lushstories.com/stories/first-time/apologize.aspx
kiteares
"the Great God (snicker)" - James 'Bear' Llewellyn
Looking through mine, I was surprised how many open with dialogue, even just a couple of words.

A couple of my personal favourites that aren't dialogue (maybe because they are favoured stories)

I guess it all started at our parents’ funeral


I swallowed hard as we walked up to the door we were looking for. Lisa was clutching my hand tightly; she had grabbed it as soon as she could after we got out of the car and her grip had got tighter with every step.


As for attributes (as it's been brought up) - if it's a stroke story, how much do you need? I'm even toying with an idea of trying to write a short story where there's nothing mentioned, not even gender.
For longer stories I tend to drip feed pertinent info and unless I think it's valuable to the story I try to avoid specific measurements. When reading if I come across a laundry list, I tend not to skip over them.

Kite's Kinky Tales

My latest offering -

Once more in Love Poems - My Forever Beauty

My 2 previous submissions:

Both Love Poems

Pearls

As The New Year Dawns

Please read and enjoy. If you really enjoyed a story someone has written; how about clicking on 'Like' and/or 'Favorite'.
Why not leave a comment too?
Unblemished
Active Ink Slinger
I've played around with this in the stories I've written here, and so far have gotten the most success from getting right to the point. Something sexual and interesting in the first sentence. Don't bury the lede. Of course I've only written rather simple, low-plot stroke stories so far, so longer, more measured or complex tales might work differently.
ChumbaPoxwally
Active Ink Slinger
Put the conflict as close to the top as humanly possible. If you can’t point to it and underline it, then it ain’t there.

Also true at the same time, nobody cares about the car crash until they know who’s in the car.

That paradox is what makes writing such a hot, sexy dance.

Just_A_Guy_You_Know
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
To be contrarian, if the action happens in the first few paragraphs, I find it hard to be interested. I don't care enough about these characters or their situation to care about them fucking. For me, the real skill is to build and sustain erotic tension to a well deserve climax. Stories that just jump right in are like a weak dribbling premature orgasm.

Don't believe everything that you read.
LakeShoreLimited
Active Ink Slinger
Somewhere near the beginning, I usually like to give a bit about the setting, where and when this is happening. I don't go into a John Updike level of detail, but I think the location does have an impact on what the characters are thinking about and makes the story seem more real, more plausible.

Assume it's a real location or a perhaps a slightly fictionalized version of one. So readers my ask: I've never been there, I don't know what it looks like. Well, go online. Use Google Maps or Bing Maps street view. Even places that are now gone usually leave photographic images behind. I often use the City College of New York as a setting. I've found every building that ever existed there (I mention them by name in the stories), plus many photos of the campus as it used to appear going back to the 1860's - it's all online.

Of course, if it's in ancient Rome or a fantasy setting, then you're probably on your own!
SirSpewalot
Active Ink Slinger
One semi-serious piece of writing advice I've read is write your story, then omit the first paragraph. Some stories I've simply gone on to delete every paragraph after the first as well.

Seriously though...The question for me is what is necessary to introduce the characters; if I write first-person perspective, as I usually do, that means more specifically, what do I need to start with to introduce the other character(s) they'll have sex with (since that's the main point here)? Some stories start with location: "Strolling in as smooth as sin, I looked around the room before heading to the bar."

Sometimes it starts with seeing the other character: "I looked up as she slipped off her jacket and sat down several tables away, and while she was looking away I quickly scanned her face and figure unobtrusively before returning to my book."

Sometimes it starts with dialogue or conversation: "'Really, yoga will help with that,' I heard Belinda say. She said it a lot."

Sometimes all of the above:

The bell clanged again when the door swung back shut. “We’re about to close,” she said.
“I’m here about the job? The one…”
She smiled briefly as she looked me up and down, then stared into my eyes. “And how much experience do you have with herbalism?”

And sometimes it starts with hot and heavy sex about someone else entirely:

I thrust harder, the tight slickness gripping and squeezing me. I could see her green eyes and soft blonde hair as I plunged back and forth, the squishing around my cock filling my ears. With a final lunge, my loins pulsed, waves of relief washing through me, and thick jets of sticky whiteness shot into the handkerchief in my other hand. As I drained my lust and the pleasure passed, the image of Evelyn faded away in the same way the oil disappeared from my hand into the outside of the folded handkerchief.

Make the reader sit up and know they need to read more--that's what I aim for. Make a promise tot he reader that it's worth their time, the more extravagant a promise the better, then follow through, dammit.
LakeShoreLimited
Active Ink Slinger
I don't think I've ever started a story with a sex act. Not that it can't be done; it just never seems to fit what I want to do.

I may indeed have omitted an existing first paragraph, but off-hand I can't remember. I've definitely added them later if something occurs to me. There have been times when I have started, not quite in the middle, but some ways into it. Also, if I'm having trouble with a scene, I'll just skip it and put in a note about what is eventually going in there.
WannabeWordsmith
Writius Eroticus
I almost never begin with a line of dialogue for the simple reason that the reader has zero frame of reference. Unless the content in the first few words of speech are blindingly, 100% obvious of the situation, gender, character dynamic, etc, it makes it difficult for readers to read the line in the "voice" that's in your head when you write it.

As an author, you have the luxury of knowing the setting, the character, and everything about them. To a reader coming in cold, that's not the case.

For stories that I feel must start with dialogue, I'll often hint at the viewpoint in the tagline to give readers a heads-up on how to read that first exchange. I find that's a smoother lead-in, compared to a reader imagining, say, the character is male because the author is male, then finding that five paragraphs later the speaker of that first line was female and having to "undo" the mental image you've begun to portray.

An example:

"You've got some nerve coming back here!"

What's going on? Nobody but the author knows. Could be a gangster addressing his former employee, a husband to his cheating wife, a masseuse to her awkward client.

Even adding the dialogue tag, yelled Belinda doesn't help much because it's a) after the speech so if the reader 'guessed' wrong they still have to reread it in Belinda's voice, and b) it's a lazy writing device to introduce someone this way.

Compare it to adding this solitary line before the dialogue:

The dinner plate smashed against the wall, showering Ethan's ducking form in fragments of porcelain.

Now readers have context. It's a domestic setting. There's conflict. It's fairly likely that the plate hurler is a pissed-off woman. And there's no need to describe that the hurler is yelling, because it's obvious from the action.

Simply using those introductory words allows readers to make a more accurate guess at conjuring the dialogue in the voice the author intended, making for a smoother reading experience imo.

Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 117 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 2 poems with the following features:


* 30 Editor's Picks, 75 Recommended Reads.
* 16 competition podium places, 11 other times in the top ten.
* 22 collaborations.
* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
NicolasBelvoir
Active Ink Slinger
> As an author, you have the luxury of knowing the setting, the character, and everything about them. To a reader coming in cold, that's not the case.

Hmm, interesting you say that. I find the start of your competition story quite incomprehensible!

I rather like starting with dialogue, and [url=https://]I often do[/url].

Starting with dialogue plus tag can create immediate drama and tension and introduce the characters and situations very concisely.

"Whose panties are these?" she demanded, pulling the offending item from the laundry basket and waving it in front of her husband's face.

I think I might continue that one.

However you start, ideally you want something in the first couple of sentences that will catch the browser's eye, making your story stand out from the others, and lure them in.
WannabeWordsmith
Writius Eroticus
I didn't say I get it right all the time smile Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In the competition story, since word count was tight, I cheated and used the tagline to hint at a little bit of the setting.

And yes, as I said, if the content of the dialogue is clear then it's a perfect way to start. Your example works well for that reason. It's short, there's a high probability the content is being said by a wife, and the dialogue tag starting with 'she' (within 5 words of the start) is a dead giveaway. The example I cited above doesn't work as well because there are too many situations it could cover, and the speech alone doesn't convey which 'voice' you need to read it in.

Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 117 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 2 poems with the following features:


* 30 Editor's Picks, 75 Recommended Reads.
* 16 competition podium places, 11 other times in the top ten.
* 22 collaborations.
* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
Unknown User
Doesn’t matter how you start so long as your first sentence grabs the reader and makes them click to read more. Hook ‘em. That’s it.