How about a STORY

Well look at that, one of the most popular letters is a Y in the 5th position.  You are excluding the valuable "E" with a first word of STORY.  This provides a 15% chance of landing a Green tile with the "S" in the first position.  You also have the same 15% chance for a Green tile with the "Y" in the last position.

STORY is a good starting word, but what else can we gather from the chart?

The 5 most popular letters overall are

1. E
2. A
3. R
4. O
5. T

This would result if a very good starting word being ROATE, OATER, ORATE to gain some 🟩 or at least a couple 🟨.

If these words whiff entirely...then what is the next best choice?