‘It was the second time that Jessica had seen the ghost. This time, however, she was no longer frightened. In fact, she felt very calm as she walked towards it. The piece of paper in its hand held the key to what was going on in her house. Now was the time for her to find out the reasons behind everything. As she took another step forward the spirit smiled at her.’

I am certainly not an authority on creative writing, but I do know how important it is to start off a story with a paragraph that grips the reader. It has to be something that draws in the reader straight away, demanding their mind reads more so that they find out what is happening. If it starts off weak then they will lose interest as soon as they have read the first sentence or so.

The best way to see how this works is to have a look at the way stories begin. With a short story, it is crucial that you hook the reader right from the beginning because you have got a lot to fit in on only a few pages. Check out some stories by famous writers.

By the way, I’ve polished up the work over on the diesel fuel storage tank page. It’s never going to be as good as the stuff I delivered for the page, I will run with it until I feel guilty enough to tidy it up. Given that I keep the money moving, everything in the world is dandy for me and mine!