The 5 Parts of a Perfect Opening Page 🥇
1. The Who 👤
Who is your main character? Your opening should include their name, their age (if its relevant), and a defining trait/circumstance that is most important for the reader to know.
This could be that they have a magic power, that they just moved to a new town, or that they have a gambling addiction.
2. The Hook 🎣
What is the most interesting thing in your opening scene? It might be the action that your character is doing, but it can also be an event the main character is witnessing, or a certain aspect of the setting. The Hook should be in the first line and the story expands outward from there.
Think of it as the camera lens in a movie. What does the camera look at first? Then, what does it see as it pulls back?
Sometimes the Hook and the defining trait/circumstance of your main character are the same, but push yourself to make them different pieces of the opening even if they stay related. For example, if your defining trait is that the main character has a cool magic power, maybe the Hook is prank they are playing with their magic power.
3. The Where 🗺
What is the setting of the scene? Unless the setting is the Hook, you only need to paint with broad strokes here. Is it a city or a forest? A classroom or a distant planet? Communicate this as early as possible. Readers want to know they aren't just in the white void of the page.
4. The What 🌟
What does your main character want? This is the scene goal. Don't be afraid of stating plainly what the goal is. During the opening, readers want information fast. The scene goal is the the promise of a story worth reading.
For example, a character wandering through a party with no clear destination isn't a story, and it will only hold a reader's attention for so long. But a character who is searching a party for her boyfriend to throw a drink in his face as revenge for cheating, makes the reader invested to see how it will all play out.
5. The Type of Story 🪄
What is your story's genre? What is your plot's archetype? Mystery is a genre, but any genre can have a murder mystery as its plot archetype. You can have a fantasy novel about a heist. You can have a thriller about winning a competition.
Show both the genre and archetype as much as possible in the opening. Trust your reader to understand hints and genre conventions. If on the first page your character mentions being unlucky in love, the reader will know its a romance. If your character is practicing lockpicking for fun but swears they're retired from their bank robbing past, the reader will know its going to be a heist plot.
Go Forth and Write 📖
I challenge you to write a first page with these 5 elements included. For a more advanced challenge, do it in the first 2 paragraphs.
Happy writing!
