Story starters: opening line generator
Six first lines at a time, each built to raise a question. Save the ones you like, or send one to the generator and let it write the rest.
Opening lines
Generating lines…
What a strong opening line does
- Raises a question. Why were the clocks striking thirteen? The reader has to keep going.
- Establishes voice. "Call me Ishmael" tells you who is talking and how.
- Starts in motion. Something has changed, or is about to. That is why flash writers so often begin in medias res.
- Is specific. "A jar of teeth" beats "a strange object" every time.
In flash fiction the first line carries even more weight: in a 300-word story it is a tenth of the setup. If a generated line is close but not quite right, change one noun and see how the story it promises shifts.
Famous first lines
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)Call me Ishmael.
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1878)As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915)The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937)Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.
Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942)
Questions writers ask
What is a story starter?
A ready-made first line or opening situation that gets you writing. The best ones raise a question the reader needs answered.
How many opening lines can the generator make?
It combines 30 sentence patterns with lists of people, places, objects, times and actions, which gives many thousands of distinct lines. It runs entirely in your browser.
What makes a good first line?
Specificity and a hint of tension: something is wrong, strange or about to change. Orwell's clocks "striking thirteen" does both in one detail.
Can I use these lines in my own stories?
Yes. They are generated from simple patterns and are free to use. The famous first lines are quoted for study; do not reuse them as your own.