Alright, so it’s three in the morning, and you’re staring at a blank sheet of paper – possibly drooling – as you try to will the opening of your novel into existence with your self-proclaimed psychic powers. You’ve been at it for the better part of the evening, and after giving yourself one hell of a headache you’re finally starting to realize that you have no idea what you’re doing. Wonderful.
Anyone who has ever tried to sit down and write a novel, or even a short story, knows how hard it is to simply get started, let alone create something you’re happy with. Novel openings get even more complicated when you realize that you’re not just writing for yourself, but for a bunch of people you don’t even know who are always watching, judging you. Compound those things with a tendency to over think, a bit of self doubt, and a lack of experience and the only thing you’re left with is a fleeting hope that someone will throw you a lifeline. Lucky for you, I make them as a side business.
The Opening Line:
This is your hook. Make it mighty, because this is the line that will draw your reader into the story (as well as an agent and/or editor) and propel them through the rest of the novel. If it fails to do its job, the reader may put your book down, and no matter how great the rest of your story is, they will never get to read it.
The best first lines are the ones that not only set the scene, but initiate a series of questions in the mind of your reader. My favorite example of an opening line comes from the sixth book of The Dresden Files, Blood Rites by Jim Butcher:
“The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault.”
What a great hook for a novel! It immediately pulls me in and floods my mind with questions:
What happened to set the building on fire?
What sort of trouble did you get into this time Harry, and who did you piss off?
Is Harry inside of this burning building or is he outside?
If he’s inside, where in the building is he and how does he plan to escape?
If he’s outside, is there anyone else around? Is he staying at the scene or is he running away?
Granted, being that this is the sixth book in a series I have some pretext about the narrator, but that doesn’t change the fact that this opening sentence serves its purpose, and serves it well. When trying to devise a great opener, try taking a look at some of your favorite books to see what kind of hooks they have and use them as an inspiration for your own.
You Had ONE JOB Opening Line, Just ONE JOB…
It’s also beneficial to look at openers that aren’t that great so you can see what others did wrong. A great source for these is an amazing contest called The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/). It invites writers to come up with their own terrible openers and is named after Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who penned what’s been considered to be one of the worst by the literary world:
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Now wait, the description in this is lovely and I certainly get a good sense of the setting and tone, so why is it considered to be a bad opening line? To answer, look back up at the line from Dresden and compare. This line gives us a definitive sense of the scene’s imagry. We know it’s raining heavily in London and not much else. I am left with no questions. There are no characters, no set up for a conflict, and no idea where the story might be going.
The line doesn’t propel the reader forward into the rest of the story and because of that, it fails at its job.
Start with Action:
This advice has been repeated time and time again, and in the majority of cases, it seems to hold true. Give the reader an event, such as a car crash, a gun fight, or a brawl, that will keep them latched onto your story like a lamprey on the body of a fish. Of course, the event doesn’t have to be something out of an action movie; just have your character doing something. It can be as simple as him being late for a dinner date or sprinting to his destination when fate decides to intervene.
Be creative here, and don’t be afraid to do something different! Remember to keep the scene moving. Action, in a writing sense, is often defined as:
A series of events that form the plot of the story, moving it forward.
An activity to accomplish an objective.
The event you choose to start your novel should propel your story forward to whatever your next plot point (beat) may be.
Introduce Your Main Character:
Be sure to introduce your main character early on in your novel, usually within the first few sentences. They will be the reader’s window into your fictional world and, unless you have multiple protagonists, will be the character that the reader spends the most time with.
Unnecessary Information:
Since the beginning of your novel is your reader’s gateway, you never want to bog down it with unnecessary information. This includes exposition that would be better served in a later part of the novel and mundane scenes that have no bearing on the actual story. When in doubt, understand that the scene shouldn’t be included if it doesn’t accomplish one of four things:
Establish an effect, tone, or mood.
Including scenes that have no purpose will either bore or frustrate your reader (or both), and probably cause them to put the book down. If you painstakingly describe every minute detail, like the number and placement of the fibers of your character’s clothing, or have her stare at the magnets on a refrigerator for a full two pages only to accomplish nothing, your reader is probably going to throw the book across the room. If those damned magnets don’t open up a portal to another dimension when rearranged (or give us insight into something important about your character), don’t waste time on it.
When it comes to exposition, only give the reader what they need to know to understand what’s going on in the current scene. Don’t give them extra information that they don’t need; front-loading exposition is not the way to keep a reader interested. As an example, if your character is an officer of some special secret agency, your reader doesn’t need to know, for the moment, that they’re also an acrobat, card shark, and bookworm. Reveal that other information later on when the topics actually surface and are relevant to what’s occurring in the story.
I recommend reading the first few pages of the first Dresden Files book, Storm Front. Jim Butcher executes this technique exceptionally well:
He lets us know that Harry is a wizard shortly after a scene when his new mailman comes around and reads the sign on his door. Butcher gives us exactly what we need to know at that moment, as well as just enough to keep us wanting more. He poses a question with the line: “But then, if you’d seen the things I’d seen, if you knew half of what I knew, you’d wonder how anyone could not think I was serious”. He makes us wonder exactly what are those things Harry has seen and what does he know that the normal person doesn’t.
And we continue reading. You need to keep your reader wondering. Throw them a few pieces, but not the whole fish.
General Tips:
Think about your opening as if it were stand alone. Does it draw you in with its premise or voice? Does it make you want to know more about the story? If you were a member of your audience, would you care about the main character from reading just that section? If your story is more plot-centric, would you care about the event? If your answer to any of that is no, then you need to go back and edit.
Simply stated, when it comes to openings less is more. The less your audience knows about the situation or the characters involved, the more they’re going to want to continue to read to find out what happens next. But keep in mind there’s a fine line between just giving enough and giving too little.
One final piece of advice is take a break once in a while. If you’re staring at your writing for too long, focusing on how to improve it, you’re never going to actually improve it. Take a step back. Go watch a film or play a game. Then, come back to your story, regardless of how long it takes. The best ideas sometimes come when you least expect it. I suggest that you carry a notebook.
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