It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .

Call me Ishmael. . .

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into a giant insect.

In the great green room, there was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of . . .

Recognize these words? Their authors? You should. They are some of the most famous and oft quoted first lines from celebrated books. What distinguishes most of them is that they immediately draw the reader into the story. They hint at something intriguing to come. They promise.

They say that if an author hasn’t grabbed the reader by the first 100 words of the story that reader may be lost. That makes the first group of words, that first sentence or that first paragraph of paramount importance. That’s a sentiment most writers hear, I think. I don’t think anyone would argue with it, but in practice it can be just so hard to do. How do you pick those first few words that will make the reader want to read on?

First, you have to start your story with something interesting. The scenario has to be right. Some people say jump right in with some sort of action; others say ease into the story with some kind of backdrop info. In my opinion, either can work, depending on the theme, pace and setting of your story. The point is to make it compelling enough for the reader to want to keep going.

In analying this topic, I turned to my own titles, since I won’t get upset if I say something unflattering about my work. One of my favorite openings came from my book Once and Again:

Nathan Ward stood at the front of the church, where, in less than fifteen minutes, he would relinquish his freedom.

I go on to say that he’s wearing black in his own brand of protest and that his grandmother at that moment is praying a rosary that the divine will intervene in this farce, but you get the idea in that one sentence that our hero is not looking forward to saying I Do. Of course, this begs the question: why not?

Another of my favorite beginnings from Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places:

Liza Morrow woke, not to her alarm clock as she usually did, but to the sharp, insistent buzzing of the smoke alarm in the hall.

This type of opening tells you a few things–who your viewpoint character is (for this particular scene,at least), that what is going on is out of the ordinary and that there may be some danger involved. Actually, someone has set a fire in another apartment in Liza’s building so that he can search her apartment while it’s vacated. There are a number of ways the same information could have been imparted to reflect the mood and tone and type of story. This was a romantic suspense, so I could have shown the villain setting the fire and its aftermath from his perspective if I wanted to. That would have set a more ominous note to the story. As I was going more for humor, that wouldn’t have worked so well. This line sharply contrasts the first line of a darker romantic suspense of mine, An Innocent Man:

The only truth in her nightmare was the fear.

So, if you’re having trouble coming up with that beautiful beginning, here’s an exercise–go take five of your favorite books off your shelves and look at their first lines. How compelling are they? Do they draw you into the story? If so, how? What did they promise you?

What type of story are you promising your readers? Put it there in your first line.

And by the way, The books and authors listed above are Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities; Herman Melville, Moby Dick; Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis; and Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight Moon.

Deirdre Savoy is the national bestselling author of more than a dozen books. You can visit her website or read her blog.



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