Write a Catchy First Paragraph In today's fast-moving world, the first sentence of your short story should catch your reader's attention with the unusual, the unexpected, an action, or a conflict. Begin with tension and immediacy. Remember that short stories need to start close to their end. After reading your first paragraph, we should have an idea of who your main character is, where he or she is, what he/she is doing, and possibly and glimpse into the problem itself.

I heard my neighbor through the wall.
Dry and uninteresting.

The neighbor behind us practiced scream therapy in his shower almost every day.
The second sentence catches the reader's attention. Who is this guy who goes in his shower every day and screams? Why does he do that? What, exactly, is "scream therapy"? Let's keep reading...

The first time I heard him, I stood in the bathroom listening at our shared wall for ten minutes, debating the wisdom of calling the police. It was very different from living in the duplex over middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their two young sons in Duluth.

Examples:

TELLING: The old man sat on the bench.

SHOWING: His hair was as white as the snow on the ground, and as he inched onto the bench, the whipping wind caused him to nearly lose his balance.

TELLING: This morning my mother announced that I would have to get a haircut.

SHOWING: It was just about the most awkward thing a teenage boy could experience. Sitting in the chair, cape half-choking his neck, the hairdresser pump--, pump--, pumped the boy-man upwards, causing a tussle of hair to flop in his face—the very reason that his mother had called and made the appointment. There’s nothing worse than having to make conversation with a chemical-smelling woman who you don’t know and who is as old as your mother. Between the gum smacking and the hair snipping, she had the gall to ask me if I was having a good day.
“Of course not,” I wanted to say. But I didn’t.

TELLING: The seven-year-old girl was mad and sat in her room.

SHOWING:

I give Brainliest!