60 story starters for collaborative writing

Why opening lines matter

The opening line of a collaborative story is the only line every writer has to react to. Make it specific. 'It was a dark and stormy night' is a wall — 'It was the third time that week the front door had been left open' is a door.

How to use these starters

Each starter is a single sentence you can use as the first line of your story. Copy it into Storybored as a story title or as your opening line, then pass the turn.

60 story starters

1. It was the third time that week the front door had been left open.
2. The phone rang at 3:17am and a child's voice asked for me by name.
3. My grandmother died on a Tuesday. She came back on the Thursday.
4. The cat sat at the bottom of the garden, staring at something that wasn't there.
5. The letter had been written in 1948 and addressed to me.
6. She knew, the moment she saw the wedding photo, that she hadn't been at the wedding.
7. The boy in the painting moved when no one was looking.
8. Every Christmas, my father told the same story. Every Christmas, the ending was different.
9. The car wouldn't start. The car had never started.
10. On the last day of school, the headteacher made an announcement nobody understood.
11. The taxi driver said he had been driving for forty years. The taxi was four years old.
12. She bought the house because of the apple tree. The apple tree wasn't there in the morning.
13. The first cold day of October, the radio started playing songs from a station nobody could find.
14. The dog was waiting at the bus stop. It had been waiting for three days.
15. I inherited the shop, the cat and the bookkeeper's grudge.
16. Every photograph in the house had a stranger in the background.
17. The plane lifted off, and the man in seat 12B started to cry.
18. He hadn't seen his brother in twenty years. The doorbell rang.
19. The new neighbour spoke only to the children.
20. She was the only one who remembered the year nobody had Christmas.
21. The lighthouse beam reached the village for the first time in a hundred years.
22. The compass needle pointed at me.
23. The library closed at five. The library reopened at four.
24. My mother taught me three rules. Today I broke the first one.
25. The boat came back without the captain. The boat came back without the cargo.
26. On her ninth birthday, the cake had ten candles.
27. I won the raffle. I had not entered the raffle.
28. The post box on Acacia Avenue swallowed the postman.
29. She had been a nurse for thirty years. She had never seen a death until today.
30. The village hall meeting was held on a Tuesday. There were no chairs.
31. The hotel room had been booked in my name. I had not booked the hotel room.
32. Every door in the house opened to a different garden.
33. The clock on the church tower stopped at 11:03. The church tower stopped at 11:03.
34. Two friends made a pact in 1979. One of them kept it.
35. She heard the front door open. She lived alone, three floors up.
36. The boy was lost. The boy had a map.
37. The wedding band played a song nobody had requested.
38. My uncle disappeared the year I was born. I look exactly like him.
39. The garden centre had a section nobody was allowed in.
40. The phone in the kitchen rang twice a day. The phone in the kitchen was not connected.
41. Three sisters inherited a ferry, a feud and a cat called Margaret.
42. The estate agent showed me round the house. We did not enter the back room.
43. My mother wrote a letter to her past self. The letter arrived this morning.
44. She bought the lottery ticket because of a dream. The dream was right.
45. The vicar's sermon ended with a list of names. One of them was mine.
46. I had taught at the school for forty years. Today, I did not recognise it.
47. The pub quiz answer sheet said 'do not give back to John'.
48. The fishing boat returned at dawn with a net full of clocks.
49. She read the obituary three times. She wrote the obituary.
50. The school bus stopped at a stop nobody had requested.
51. On the last day of the holiday, the hotel asked us to extend.
52. The dog inherited the house.
53. The corner shop sold one item nobody had ever bought.
54. My grandfather collected stamps. After he died, the stamps started arriving.
55. A baby was left on the doorstep with a note. The note was addressed to the dog.
56. Every birthday card I have ever received was kept in a box. Today, the box was empty.
57. The driving instructor said 'turn left'. There was no left turn.
58. She found a key in her late mother's coat. The key fit nothing.
59. The new vicar arrived on a Sunday. The previous vicar had left on a Sunday, thirty years ago.
60. I told my daughter a bedtime story. She finished it for me.
61. Two strangers ordered the same drink at the same time, in the same pub, three nights in a row.