You want to write a novel, and you have a great idea, but you’re not sure how to start. Everybody knows that first line, that first sentence, is extremely important. It has to be right.
If you’re stuck because of the pressure of crafting the perfect opening line, you’re not alone. And neither is your angst misplaced.
I was reading the blog of one of my favorite authors, Jerry Jenkins, this morning when I ran across this post. I have read it before, but sometimes I think we all just need a refresher. If you’re like me, you have so much information being thrown at you, you can’t possibly retain it all.
Most great opening lines fall into one of four categories.
- Surprising
Fiction: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-four
Nonfiction: “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.”-Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man
- Dramatic Statement
Fiction: “They shoot the white girl first.” – Toni Morrison, Paradise
Nonfiction: “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison.” – Jimmy Santiago Baca, A Place to Stand
- Philosophical
Fiction: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Nonfiction: “It’s not about you.” – Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
- Poetic
Fiction: “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. -James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss
Nonfiction: “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.'” -Truman Capote, In Cold Blood.
This link will take you to some more great opening lines, and one of Jerry Jenkins’s blogs. Here’s a list of famous openers.
Hope this helped!
Jan R
I know I’m suppose to write in the active voice, but why? What is the difference between active voice and passive voice and why does it matter?
When writing, remember less is more. Stay away from qualifiers. They weaken your prose, and the result is the exact opposite of what your were trying to achieve. I know why you use them. I’m hooked on ‘very’. Other people are hooked on the word ‘too’. If you are resorting to qualifiers for emphasis, odds are, you are using the wrong word in the first place.
I occasionally review older blogs I have written for content and ideas. I have been blogging for a year and a half now, and have to admit, there are days I’m at a loss as to what to write, or just don’t have the time to sit down and produce a blog I would want to read.
When you hear the word setting, you think of a time period and place, but settings do so much more than that.
Have you ever read a sentence and thought that is way too long? The author lost you two commas ago, and now you have to go back and read the whole thing again, to try and figure out what’s going on.
If your hero is drinking sake in Tokyo, you better know which hand he should use to hold the cup; and when he is sunning on the beach at Cape Cod, remember that there won’t be any palm trees-Dean R. Koontz
Am I a writer? You ever ask yourself that question? I do, and am still hesitant to tell people I write. I’ve never published a book. I’ve never been paid to write anything. As a matter of fact, my work was rejected because it wasn’t good enough. Side note-it really wasn’t good enough-I just didn’t know it at the time. I was too new to the game to know any better.
Writing your first novel-Things you should know 