Many short stories begin with descriptive opening paragraphs that answer the ‘who’ and ‘where and when’ questions and set up the ‘what happens’ question.
Read this opening paragraph. Identify where the ‘who’, ‘where and when’ and ‘what happens’ questions are answered.
Tomak Brennan, a burly road haulier, lived in a small terraced house on Dead End Avenue.
One wild, stormy winter’s evening, Tomak answered the door to a small, frightened woman clutching a large, tatty holdall. Behind her, sheets of rain pounded down on the deserted street. Forks of lightning cut across the murky sky and thunder growled ominously. A blinding bright flash and then a clap of thunder shook the house to its foundations.
As the power went dead, street and house were thrown into blackness. In the narrow hallway, Tomak felt the visitor brushing gently past him. ‘May I come in?’ she murmured softly in the darkness.
The opening sentence names the character,
describes him and invents an imaginative place name.
