Story Openings: not where to begin but how

Last Monday my U3A writing group (who have grappled gamely with Zoom and capricious email to turn in some really great work this year) had three short stories to consider and they made me think of the importance of openings.

The group are all very aware of the pitfalls of working out where a story  does or doesn’t begin, which led to a discussion of in medias res ­– the concept of jumping in at the right place, avoiding back story which (if the reader really needs it) can be dripped in as the...