Sometimes it’s hard to know how to start a story, and that’s why I pulled together these opening scene examples. I’m going to talk a little more about first scenes than first lines, though I’ll mention some first lines, too.
These are only some of the many good ways to start a novel. I know it can be hard to figure out how to start writing, but I think one of the best things you can do with your first five or ten pages is get the readers to care about what happens to your main character (or one of them). You’ll see how these opening scene examples do just that.
You need to ask yourself what happens in the story to jog your character out of her usual rut and take her in a different direction. (It could even be an action the character decides to take!) A lot of people refer to that thing, that event that changes everything, as the “inciting incident.”
It’s possible to have the inciting incident on the first few pages, or even in the first sentence. That’s really up to you. But you don’t want to go too long before that first big thing happens.
As my friend Trish tells her improv students, Start on the Day Everything Changes.
Okay, so how do you do that? There are a lot of articles out there about how NOT to start a story. One of them is called something like “100 Ways Not to Start a Novel,” and I didn’t read it because I thought it would frustrate me. What would be left? Haha.
Common ways people warn against beginning a novel, besides a prologue or too much backstory, include:
A description of the landscape or the weather.
Lots of good novels open this way, though. Personally as a reader, it doesn’t bother me at all, unless it goes on for too long.
“My name is…”
To be fair, this is basically the opening of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick — “Call me Ishmael.” It’s also how Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro begins. Oh, and Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. And Gateway, the scifi classic by Frederik Pohl. Clearly all of these writers are hacks. 😉
A dream.
Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, a fantastic and entertaining novel that won the Pulitzer, begins in this way: “While I was still in Amsterdam, I dreamed about my mother for the first time in years.” Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca opens like this: “”Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” I think it helps in these cases that you know it’s a dream. The authors aren’t jerking you around.
An alarm clock buzzing/waking up.
Okay, I’ll admit it—this may be one of the worst ways to start a story. But hey, maybe you could make it work!
Personally, I find possibilities more inspiring than restrictions. Here are 30 ideas for how to begin writing a novel or a short story… maybe one of them will inspire yours. Pin this if you think you might need it later!
1.The arrival of a letter, email, or package. (The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield.)
To me, this is one of the best ways to start a story. This could be momentous. However, it could simply tell the reader about the character’s everyday life, such as a distasteful private message on a dating site.
2. A main character in a frustrating situation.
This can also give the reader a feel for her everyday life, while making them empathize with her right away. Maybe her car has broken down, or her cat is puking.
3. A main character in an awkward or embarrassing situation.
Maybe her cat is puking on the lap of a visitor she was trying to impress.
4. The discovery of a dead body. (Thief of Shadows, Elizabeth Hoyt. Also about a million mysteries.)
5. The death of somebody in the family or the community. (All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy; The Known World, Edward P. Jones.)
This is a popular one, and understandably so, because an ending is a new beginning.
6. The beginning or the middle of a disaster. (All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, kind of.)
It could be a bombing, a plane crash, or a tornado.
7. The aftermath of a disaster. (Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston.)
8. A kiss.
9. A performance, or the conclusion of one. (Bel Canto, Ann Patchett. This also has a kiss in it!)
10. A main character in the hospital. (Kindred, Octavia Butler.)
11. A main character declaring that he is in big trouble. (The Martian, Andy Weir.)
In the first line of The Martian, the main character declares that he is doomed. (He uses somewhat stronger language than that.) But your character’s situation could be somewhat less dire: “I had no chance of doing well on the SAT that morning.”
12. A main character who’s clearly in big trouble. (What Is the What, Dave Eggers.)
She might be getting mugged or running from Nazi soldiers. Readers will start caring about her immediately.
13. The arrival of a plane, ship, or train. (The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas.)
The character might be on board, or she might be watching it come in.
14. A scene at a party, a bar, or a nightclub. (War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy; The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss.)
15. A fight. (The Warrior, Zoë Archer.)
The character may be part of the fight, or just witnessing it.
16. A character moving in to a new place.
It could be a neighborhood or a dorm room.
17. A broad statement about one’s life. (One For the Money, Janet Evanovich.)
One For the Money begins, “There are some men who enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me — not forever, but periodically.” That’s a great hook.
18. A dramatic moment in the middle or end of the story. (The Secret History, Donna Tartt.)
You can begin here and then backtrack to explain how they got there. For instance, the prologue of The Secret History begins, “The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”
19. A trial in a courtroom. (Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson; also an example of #18.)
A milder version of this: your character faces a judge or judges in the form of a parent, a manager, or a peers.
20. A job interview.
This is one of my favorite opening scene examples because you could get a lot of information across about your character naturally. She might be giving appropriate answers while her internal monologue tells you the rest of the story. Also, an applicant at a job interview is in a vulnerable position, which I think would create empathy for your heroine right away.
21. A main character meets someone new. (Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë)
A stray cat? A future lover? Someone important, probably.
22. A street scene. (Perdido Street Station, China Miéville.)
Your character could be getting an errand done or going to visit somebody. For a novel that takes place in an historical, futuristic, or fantasy setting, this can be a good way to establish a sense of place as well as establish your character’s normal life and priorities.
23. A main character in a triumphant situation.
Set her up before you knock her down. 🙂 She could be giving a speech, winning a race, or accepting an award. It could also be a smaller personal triumph, such as successfully fixing a car or turning in her term paper on time.
24. A character or characters getting dressed, shaving, putting makeup on, or doing their hair. (The Makioka Sisters, Junichiro Tanizaki.)
25. A big, happy occasion such as a wedding or a graduation.
Of course, it might or might not be happy for your main character, who may be a participant or someone in the audience.
26. One character teaching another how to do something.
This is another way to establish your main character’s personality and his everyday life. If he’s a father, he could be teaching his son to hunt or to cook rice properly. If he’s an insurance salesperson, he could be giving the new guy some tips.
27. A visitor showing up at the door. (The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler.)
The main character might be the visitor or the person answering the door.
28. A main character coming across a significant object.
It could be a photograph of a lover she intended to forget, or strange relic that turns out to be magical.
29. A character committing a crime.
She might be the main character, or she might be the antagonist.
30. A character or characters completing a task. (Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens.)
As I talked about in my post about combining action with dialogue, I think most of us struggle with getting our characters to do things, but this kind of action is one option for how to begin a novel. This could be an unusual or startling job, or a more ordinary one with emotional significance.
How do you start a story? If you have comments or suggestions, please share them in the comments section—we’d love to hear!
If you’d like a guide to planning, writing, and editing a novel, you might want to check out my book Blank Page to Final Draft. You can do one step a week for a year (or much faster, if you prefer) to have a ready-to-publish manuscript.
Do you have any other ideas for starting a novel? Does one of these first chapter examples particularly appeal to you? Let us know in the comments! Thanks for reading, and happy writing!
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Mine could be considered a prologue, but I’m OK with that – they are fairly common in the Historical romances I read.
I’m going to open mine with the main male character being dumped. Just minutes before they are to speak their vows.
?
Aww poor guy! Everyone will be rooting for him. 🙂
Hopefully they love/hate him. He is, after all, Beast. ?
I didn’t realize that most of my stories begin with a character reacting to something rather than making a decision. I LOVE the idea of a character taking destiny into their own hands and coping with the consequences afterwards. Man, if I hadn’t already planned out my own story, I’d be brainstorming a new one with that idea.
I didn’t realize this until recently about my own stories! We shouldn’t feel too bad, though — most stories are about protagonists reacting to something. But yeah, I love the idea of having a character kick things into motion herself. 🙂
I love this post. Great ideas. As I was reading your Ideas, I mentally scanned the openings of my 3 book series. Interesting!! I am currently quite divided as to whether I should keep my prologue scene. I personally don’t mind reading prologues. I don’t know any ‘readers’ who hate them. All I know are writers/editors/publishers who hate them. I think it’s humorous really. Who are we writing the book for? That’s a more complicated question than it should be lol. I also love the idea of the character actually making a life changing decision, that’s a great idea. I sort of have that going on for the character in the 2nd book of my series. As for my prologue, it’s a courtroom setting, in a different POV, and it’s definitely gripping. All that goes toward the pro of keeping it. Still, very undecided.
I think most readers don’t mind them! More often than not, I skip prologues as a reader… I am impatient with them. But I think that’s unusual! Either way, the courtroom does sound like a great place for a story to start. 🙂
This is awesome!
Hey thanks!
Thanks, Bryn, for offering “possibilities instead of restrictions!” In my shorter fiction, I sometimes use an Epilogue to jump to a future moment to show how the happily ever after (HEA) is still going strong, but haven’t used a prologue, even if chapter one happens ten years before chapter two. For fiction, I might read a prologue, but I usually hate all the forwards, introductions, and other goop at the beginning of non-fiction: the title and table of contents pages are more than enough; get on with it, already, and show me why the book’s worthwhile.
Aww, I like epilogues, especially in romance. In nonfiction I usually skip the introductions and prefaces, too. I think anyone doing a nonfiction book sort of feels obligated to have them, though.
Reblogged this on TheKingsKidChronicles and commented:
More much needed, helpful information. Thank you so much for helping writers.
Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for sharing!
Number 23, I think is one of my favorites. In Titus Andronicus (one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays), it opens with a kind of…bittersweet triumphant return which really sets the mood for the entire play. There’s a movie adaptation staring Anthony Hopkins that really pulls the opening off great.
I have read, I think, maybe two thirds of Shakespeare’s plays and never Titus Andronicus. All I know is that it’s rather bloody? Maybe just at the end? Now I really want to read it (and the movie too!) Thanks!
I highly recommend it! I mean…it isn’t the best, but it’s certainly the goriest.
Excellent advice – as usual -and so clearly put. Keep it coming. 🙂
Thank you so much, Anne!
I always like to start a story “in the middle” of something. Almost a “Character’s good day goes bad/bad day gets worse in the first sentence” sort of thing. So, for example, if a character’s waking up on Page 1, it’s because Something Bad happened. Or, they wake up with a gun in their face. 🙂
I LOVE THAT TOO. I only recently learned the term for it, which I’m sure everyone else has known for years: in media res. In the first sentence of the novel I wrote that’s going to be the first in a trilogy, my heroine comes home at night and gets grabbed by a stranger waiting there. (It’s the hero… there’s been kind of a misunderstanding.)
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Another great post by Bryn ??
What a great post, with examples and everything. The golden advice I’m going to be especially mindful of now when writing openings (for me, the most challenging part of writing a novel) is: get the reader to care about your character.
Aw thanks Eve! Glad you liked it 🙂
All Good advice.
As for prologues, I think most publishers hate them because a lot are poorly done (mainly infodumps). I think a prologue should be short (1-2 pages) and purposely there to intrigue the reader forward. That being said, I’ve never used one and would only do so if I thought it served a strong literary purpose.
Yeah, I think that’s right. That’s the kind of prologue I don’t like — all backstory!
Reblogged this on The Fog of Ward and commented:
Friend Bryn Donovan offers up thirty tips on how to start that new novel you’re sitting down to write, calling upon examples from classic literature and recent titles to show you how it can be done. Bookmark this one.
I’m bookmarking this page for certain.
Ahh thanks, glad it seems useful! 🙂
While you’re right, we shouldn’t restrict ourselves, and I have never found a rule I didn’t find a reason to break, we should always remember the rules (usually) developed out of good reasons. For instance, too much backstory. Inevitably when I go back and find too much back story in my own work, I also find dead prose I need to cut. So when someone suggests there might be a better way into your novel, at least consider it. You may hit on something brilliant. If not, consider whether something about the way you wrote the opening interfered with their reading pleasure or they were just being pedantic blowhards. If you feel they had a hard time getting into the novel, it needs something. If they were simply quoting the rules, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Yeah, I agree — there’s usually a reason why rules and conventions come about! Some people will insist on rules just for rules’ sake, but sometimes there really is a better way you haven’t tried yet.
thank you for sharing have reblogged this on firefl465
sorry firefly465
Thanks for sharing!
Reblogged this on firefly465.
Thanks for this! I actually have been rewriting my novella because there was too much back story. I now would say that my story starts on the day that the main character learns that something else is going on, though it’s not the day everything changes. Love your perspective!
Thanks for reading Sara! I’ve had a lot of experience cutting out backstory, haha.
Lessee, I used 16, kind of a 26, 12, 7. and 3 (in Wolf At Her Door, Wolf In Her Bed, Wolf In Her Heart, Damaged Goods, and Executive Privilege, respectively). ^.^ Another excellent resource!
🙂 Thanks so much!
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Reblogged this on Author Kelly Miles and commented:
Excellent read!
Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
This is a great list!
Thanks so much Bridgett!
A good one is also leading the reader to a misconsumption. You could let your character experience pain (the reader will for sure think that she’s in a dangerous situation) and then tell your reader that the character is getting put on a corset. Something like that. And I love the ‘throw your character right into a situation’ one. It’s great. For fantasy it’s always a good idea to put somebody into the monologue who is barely even mentioned later but who is in the position of explaining some basics of the story (just like George R R Martin does it all the time)
I did not think about that “misdirect” option, and there is a lot of potential for fun there! And that is a really clever trick about the character who can explain things. Thanks for commenting!
This is really brilliant! I’m a young writer and this is helping me fly through everything in a simple, straightforward manner. Thanks!
Aww thank you, that is great to hear!
Dear Bryn,
Thank you! I have been the frustrated one for a long time. After finishing my novel I was told you can’t start with waking up, no landscapes, no quotes, and everything else you listed above, and yet every good novel I’ve read starts out with one or more of them. Seems to me that agents hand out demands and authors ignore them. It’s the story that really counts not the first line or the first page. Strong story-strong novel. Let the readers decide.
Your website is amazing, Bryn. Your 100 Likable Names for Your Contemporary Heroine article has not closed on my laptop for weeks! My modern fantasy story begins with one main character buying coffee from another main character, but they don’t meet until later.
hi Cherryblossom — I’m so glad you’re finding it helpful! I hope your story is going great!
Honestly, I haven’t started yet. This is my first book, and there are a lot of comments saying that the writers who made the comments wished they would have read your articles before they started, so I want to be ready.
Interesting list. Thanks, Bryn. It’s good food for thought. The one I’m writing now starts with the main character finding out that his dream job is actually a nightmare. When I originally started writing it, I thought that it would be a good thing to work up to, but later I realized that the “working up to it” part wasn’t gripping enough.
That sounds so good, Robert! And it sounds great that you’re starting right there. I have done that too — cut off the beginning of a draft so it starts at the gripping part. 🙂 Thanks so much for reading, and for commenting!
I really liked this post! Thanks! 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it, Johanna! Thanks!
Hello Bryn,
Wonderful information. I would like to re-post on my blog, The Write Spot, with your permission. I see many people have re-posted. I like to get permission first. Looking at several of your posts – lots of good writing information. I also post book reviews on The Write Spot. If someone would like to have their review of your book on The Write Spot, please email me. http://www.TheWriteSpot.us I’m looking for reviews that tell why you liked the book, not a summary of the book.
Hi Marlene! Thanks so much for the kind words. Feel free to re-post with attribution to me and a link! I’m very flattered. That is great to know that you are looking for book reviews!
Thanks, Bryn.
Hello Bryn,
Your guest blog piece posted today on The Write Spot Blog: http://thewritespot.us/marlenecullenblog/?p=6032
And on my FB Writing Page, which is called Writers Forum: https://www.facebook.com/MarleneCullensWritingWorkshops/
And on LinkedIn
I edited for brevity and hopefully to inspire folks to click on the link to your blog post.
Thank you so much for the blog post!
Marlene
http://www.TheWriteSpot.us
Awesome, thanks Marlene!
At 41 I’m just rediscovering my passion for writing. My silent dream is to be a published author, I know this dream may be far fetched. I have started a story that I feel has potential, I wrote a chapter off of an idea, a scene in my mind and now I’m going back to write the beginning. My gut said to write a fairly short prologue to set up the story. Now though I’m reading comments and about how publishers / editors hate prologues, should I rethink this now? Are there cases where a prologue can work if so what’s the best way?? Any advice is welcomed!! Thanks in advance
Amanda, there is nothing far-fetched about your dream.
My suggestion would be to finish the whole story first. Later, you can go back and evaluate whether the information in the prologue can be incorporated anywhere else in the chapters of the book. If the prologue serves mostly as a place to get across a bunch of information at once, that information can usually be worked in here and there through the dialogue and exposition. But there’s no reason to even worry about it at this point!
I hope that helps! Good luck with your project!
Bryn,
I can’t thank you enough for your response. Your advice makes sense and does help. In fact I hate to say it but since reading the comments I’ve been a bit stuck and second guessing myself. I think I need to ” just write” the story I want to tell. Then maybe worry about more intense editing?? I really don’t have a sounding board in my life for these questions and cannot thank you enough for your advice!!!
Amanda
These are great ideas! Beginnings are so hard. After a ton of rewrites, my WIP begins with a combination of #24 and #25. My princess MC is putting the final touches on an outfit before going out on the balcony to attend a memorial for other royalty who have died as sacrifices…in which she finds out she’s going to be the next one.
Hey Bryn,
I loved your ideas.. I always start off with either someone sitting by the window and appreciating the landscape. I once did start with a lady describing the groom at a wedding and I still managed to make it seem morbidly sad. I am pretty sure I could think of better ways to start a story now. Thank you..
Thank you very much, you helped me a lot, i have just started writing, its my first time writing & i am writing it in “English” (since my native language isn’t English) so you helped me a lot.
I want to ask you for a favor and i hope you could help me… will tell you what i want to ask u… well, Its my first time writing and i have a big reason that doesn’t allow me to show it to anyone i know, So if i finish my story, then would you please read it for me and correct any mistake in it, and give me your opinion in it later please… and thank you in advance even if u can’t, its alright.
As an ESL teacher, and one who’s never had too much reading material, I’d be glad to help out, Adna, if you’d like me to.
So… I stumbled across your blog as I was prepping for Nanowrimo. I’ve been perusing your site for two consecutive days and find your content not only informative but entertaining as well. WHERE have you been all of my life?? 🙂
Michele! Oh my gosh… you made my day. I’m so glad you like it! Welcome. 🙂 And good luck on NaNo!
So helpful; thanks!! My WIP opens with a scene that’s typical of my protagonist’s life–his parents having a screaming fight downstairs. Hopefully it will also create sympathy for him as he lies in bed upstairs trying (and failing) to go to sleep and not worry.
This is a great article! I’m thinking of starting to scifi novel off with a news article-what do you think?
Love it. The book The Atlantis Gene (which was this crazy-successful self-published book that sold a zillion copies) used news articles a few times as short chapters, and I thought it was really effective! I think it could be a great opening, too!
Hi, im currently writing on a fantasy novel, and i dont know how to start it of, cause i want the writers to be “hook” on from first sentence.. You have many good ideas, and im inspired to find a start to my novel now.
I like no. 28 because it starts with a “bang” and then were going into the story. But im not quiet sure yet.
This post is amazing! It gived me ideas to start my new story!
Hi, Mehtab! So glad you liked it!
Another great way to begin a novel is with a general paradigm from the point of view of the writer. Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be want of a wife.” My own begins, “Life is lonely for those with exceptional minds; clearly having few peers among the general population, it is unlikely to find even one in his or her home town.”
31. An intimate moment of realization. A letter/phone call/article/obituary that rocks the perception of something/someone that a character has held for years.
32. A wake or a funeral or a baptism or a wedding.
33. An ordinary task where something goes awry: washing dishes (a broken glass and cut), grocery shopping (running into a former classmate or “townie”, filling the gas tank (an error in the receipt), out for a run (and a car stops and the driver asks for clearly obvious directions), making morning coffee – every detail (but this morning it tastes bitter), etc.
It’s all about transition – psychological, physical, unexpected, unwanted, or delightful!
Maybe two characters in an argument…
Ok well i have a question. What would your opinion be on opening your story with any of the following ideas posted above, but my main character is dead. Would this be an attention grabber or just weird? I know how i want to write this story but would this be giving away to much? Ugh so conflicted right now. I’d love some feed back and could give a better description of what my ideas are for this book if that’ll help as well. Thank you!
Hi, Stephanie! So…is the character dead throughout the whole story? Or would chapter two go back in time to when your main character was alive? Either way, I think it can work, and I think it would be an attention grabber!
So if I were to start it off with a nightmare, would that be bad? I had an idea of starting it off as a suicidal dream to try and grab attention and give an idea of what it’ll be about. I’m not sure though. Should I change it?
I think it would be a good idea
I know that I am quite late – two years almost -, but I would like to recommend you a book called “The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas”, that in English it might be also called “Epitaph of a Small Winner”.
The protagonist is dead, so I think that it fits what you are looking for.
A character moving in to a new place interest me a lot. Thanks,
“What happens on page one stays on page one.” I know that is kind of snarky but it can be twisted, say into a red herring or or worse. You read the whole book looking for that particular reference.
Hello, what do you think if I started off as my character in the middle of preparations to carry out a great life-changing task? Does it invoke curiosity and keep the readers wanting more? Opinions would be greatly appreciated!
I finished the four last shows of the Gilmore Girls. Rory, grandfather has died. Rory slept with an old boyfriend now married. The last line of the four shows is fm Rory, where she informs her mother she’s pregnant. We don’t know who the father is, but we can guess.
This is where my story starts. Rory miscarriage her child. She’s depressed to the point she wants to kill herself. Rory realizes that she’s failed at everything. She has her “aha” moment, which is a lie she tells herself. The lie she refuses to believe is that she doesn’t try hard enough. The lie she believes is that the reason she’s failed at everything is because she’s a woman! The middle part shows she’s a great writer! But she can’t go on pretending she’s a man. She reviews everything she’s learned by adopting her male disguise and the story ends by tying up all the lose ends, realizing it’s not because she’s a woman. It’s because she’s been lazy and unwise.
Got the idea by watching a made for TV movie, Her life as a Man.
Sitting alone in a small town jail, especially a youth.
How does this sound for a book’s beginning? I don’t know if it’s considered okay for a writer to set up a story in this way.
The first time that I danced with Death, I kept stepping on his toes. I was only eight at the time, and had been forced to go to a school dance with the rest of my fellow foster kids- as part of a so-called “bonding activity” with the current victims- uhm … I mean, foster parents- of the month. It was a hot night in August, and I remember that day mainly because I spent the majority of that summer’s lemonade money- which was really not a lot- on a hand me down dress from Salvation Army that I liked, a pretty red one that was slightly small on me, and even had one of my foster siblings fix up my curly red hair. I had been really excited to attend my first dance, but still spent much of that night reading in the corner of a school gym- because for all of that talk about family bonding and other shit like that, nobody had ever bothered to teach me how to dance.
About an hour into the dance, someone walked up to me, breaking me out of my story-induced haze. “What is a sweet little girl doing sitting by herself at a dance?” a voice said, causing me to be slightly annoyed from the interruption. “Surely someone as pretty as you has a chaperone or something? Where are your parents?”
I resisted the urge to look up from my book, but something about the kind voice, or possibly the way it seemed to silence the voices in my head like nothing else could, interested more than Artemis Fowl at the moment. Instead, I take my hair out of its bun, letting the non quite ginger curls fall down loosely around my freckled face. “I don’t have any parents,” I say, used to being an orphan even at such a young age. “May I please go back to my book?”
The man looks at me with what looks to possibly be pity, his hazel eyes seeming much lighter in the pale dance lights, before kneeling down to my eye level. “I take it no one taught you how to dance then,” he says, helping me up to my feet in a quick movement.
“And I take it no one taught you manners,” I say, sassiness being my second language(or third, really) even then. “I may not know much about dancing, but I’m fairly sure you’re supposed to ask a girl to dance rather than just pulling her onto the dance floor.”
The man laughs for a second, a hearty little laugh that I rarely hear nowadays, before letting go of my hand and bowing. “My name is Gabriel,” he says, extending his hand out to me. “May I have the honor of dancing with you, Miss Samantha?”
I nod my head, returning his bow with an awkward curtsy before straightening myself and taking his hand. For some reason, I wasn’t worried about how he knew who I was without me introducing myself. “Yes you may,” I answer, before following him onto the dance floor.
He disappeared shortly after that dance, and I spent an entire half hour asking about him to no avail, wondering if perhaps he was the dad of one of my fellow students. I quickly forgot about him after that for some reason, and went on with the rest of my life like normal for nearly eleven years. I wouldn’t see my father again after that; not until I myself had entered into his realm. For this story doesn’t start on a happy note; nor does it end in one. This is the story of someone’s death- mine.
I started on with a reference to a past action that seems to portend the future. Turning my palms up to the sun I stare at thin, raised pink scars crossing my wrists, was I really that desperate, then plant the tips of my toes at the roof’s edge. The ground lies four floors below. A stiff gust of wind cools my sweaty back and threatens my balance. Suicide was too easy. But I dose not portend the future or present, It portends motivation.
I started one with a reference to a past action that seems to portend the future. Turning my palms up to the sun I stare at thin, raised pink scars crossing my wrists, was I really that desperate, then I plant the tips of my toes at the roof’s edge. The ground lies four floors below. A stiff gust of wind cools my sweaty back and threatens my balance. Suicide was too easy. But It dose not portend the future or present, It portends motivation.