With five people in this photo, there are many ways for you to use this photo for an opening scene. How would you being a story? Here’s mine:

“I told you not to let that dog off her leash.” I pulled the collar of my red coast higher.

“But she hasn’t run off for week,” my younger sister said, wiping flakes out of her eyes.

“Why don’t you leave Trixie at home for our morning walks?” A plaid scarf muffled my older sister’s voice. “Have Eric walk her in the evenings.”

My younger sister walked ahead. “She can’t have gone far.”

The trail in the park dipped down, and we followed it into a clearing. We weren’t alone. Two figures, fuzzy in the swirling snow, stood about fifty feet apart, staring at each other. They hadn’t turned as we entered the clearing.

We stopped. The strangers, a man and a woman, held their attention on each other. Why hadn’t they noticed us?

My older sister gripped my arm. “Let’s go back.”

The man moved, reaching under his coat.

This photo has two obvious ways to start a story: from the animal’s POV or the person’s. How would you begin a story with either one?

Daisy’s wrong. This creature isn’t hiding food. I’ve sniffed it all over. She tricked me again. And if Mom catches me by this weird thing, she’ll probably kick me out of the nest. But it’s all Daisy’s —

It’s moving! And making terrible noises! Mom!

Since this month is all about beginnings, my prompts will be pictures that could start a story. How would you begin?

I hugged my cousin Jared as I walked into the huge reception hall.

“Glad you could make it,” he said.

“I figured I had to come. Your mom wouldn’t speak to me at Thanksgiving if I missed your parents’ anniversary soiree. Where’s Maddie?”

Jared threw up his hands. “Who knows? My parents invited so many people I don’t know that I feel like a party crasher.”

As Jared greeted another relative, I scanned the surging crowd. At a table on the far side of the room, my cousin Maddie sat with a women I didn’t know. Maddie looked as sunny as she always did although I knew she couldn’t enjoy chitchatting with strangers.

Keeping an eye on them, I worked my way through the crowd.

The woman leaned over and whispered something. Maddie’s jaw swung loose, her eyes flew open, and she went as still as stone.

The woman, with her back toward me, left the table.

I hurried over as fast as I could. “Maddie, what happened?”