Pro tip: I was writing the same opening line for every story until a guy at a coffee shop in Portland pointed it out

Honestly, I was working on my third short story last month and kept starting with 'The city was asleep'. A stranger next to me at the cafe, who saw my notebook, just said, 'You know, you always start with the weather.' It hit me that I was using the same crutch every single time. I went back and looked at my last ten drafts, and sure enough, eight of them opened with a description of the sky or the time of day. Has anyone else gotten stuck on a specific opening trope and found a way to break it?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_green862mo ago

Always the weather" is so real, mine was "it all started when".

casey_barnes2mo ago

Okay but that "always the weather" thing is missing the point. If a description of the sky sets the mood right away, that's just good craft. It's a classic for a reason. Changing it just because someone noticed a pattern feels like fixing something that isn't broken. The opening line just needs to pull the reader in, it doesn't matter if you use the same tool to do it every time. I'd say lean into your style instead of worrying about it.