Think of your story's opening as clickbait. Your first and only attempt to ensure that a reader doesn't put down your book or scroll past.  

The story opening serves to introduce your unique narrative voices, spark a reader's curiosity, create a precedent to drive your plot, introduce core themes, set the stage for a bold argument, introduce your writing style and much more. 

Compare these two sentences: 

1. When I was five years old, I was struck by lightning. 

2. The capital of Rivers State Nigeria is Port Harcourt. 

If each of these was the first lines in two books, which book would you read?

Here are some ways to introduce your story: 

1. Use description. 

• Describe a character. For example: 

 "At first glance, Octavia seemed like the perfect daughter. She was beautiful with a lean, tall figure and sharp eyes that spoke of intelligence, and when she smiled, she looked like a 3-year-old."

• Describe an event. For example:

"Nobody expected the new yam festival for this month to be a bloodbath. Usually, it was all dance and songs, with young men playing flutes and gongs and young women with hibiscus painted toenails and wrapper on their chest, shaking their waist to the music and grinning from ear to ear."

• Describe an action, a setting, a history, a time frame/period geographic location etc.

2. Use a first-person point of view.

Example: 

"As I watch my family share easy banter and laugh amongst themselves, I can't help but wonder how the room would feel the day it eventually happens. Everyone wondered why I wanted to have my birthday celebration two weeks early, and even though I cooked up different excuses for each of them, today — right now, just after we finish eating this cake, I would tell them the truth. That I had just two more weeks to live."

3. Use Dialogue. Example: 

 "We are jumping off that cliff and into that lake together," Harry said pointedly, tightening his grip on Emma. 

4. Ask a question. Example: 

"Have you ever been in love with a monster?" 

5. Recount a memory. Example: 

"June 15th is the day I became a new person"

6. Make a random statement. 

" People say success is the best revenge, but no one prepares you for the sacrifices that success requires". 

Your openings should immediately create a form of tension, anticipation or curiosity. Avoid ordinary beginnings like random activities or annoyance, like:

 "Simi scowled at the driver as she got out of the taxi, the man had taken a detour that had her spending five hours in transit instead of the usual 30 minutes. "

Or heavily descriptive but mundane sentences.

Your style, plot, setting, characters and devices are effective for getting your readers to care about your story, however, it is how you start the story that gets them to even open the pages, it is your first impression. Whatever way you decide to start, ensure that the purpose and result are to capture your reader's attention.