Hackneyed opening in short story (5)
I believe the answer is:
stale
'hackneyed' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'opening in short story' is the wordplay.
'opening in' says to take the initial letters.
'story' becomes 'tale' (synonyms).
The first letter of 'short' is 's'.
's'+'tale'='STALE'
(Other definitions for stale that I've seen before include "no longer bearing interest?" , "Musty - out of date" , "Lacking freshness" , "past the sell-by date" , "Musty or hackneyed" .)