your novel’s opening line and making it count
how to craft a line that pulls the reader in. how to make it rememberable for generations.
In this day in age with so many distractions from TV, the internet, cell phones, video games people are having their attention pulled in every direction. As a writer you want them reading your book and never putting it down. And it all starts with the opening line.
in this blog, we will be looking at your novel’s opening line and making it count…
YOUR NOVEL’S OPENING LINE AND MAKING IT COUNT
Table of Contents
It doesn’t matter what kind of book you’re writing be it romance, drama, science fiction, horror. The opening line has to be the best line it can be. As a writer, you only have a few lines to pull the reader into your novel or they’ll walk away.
This is not new. This idea goes back hundreds of years. Some of the greatest writers in the past understood the importance of the opening line. The fact that some of the greatest literary books of all time have amazing opening lines is not luck. The writer did so on purpose knowing it will pull in the reader.
YOU NEED TO GRAB THEIR ATTENTION
The first line is what determines if you read the second, and the second is what makes you decide to read the third. as a writer. You don’t want to waste such a golden opportunity with a weak line. It should take you just as long to write the first line as it does the whole novel.
You need to make your opening line grab the reader’s attention. You need to make them think. The biggest thing an opening line needs to do is make the reader ask questions. they should be asking who, what, when, why. The more the opening line grabs them the more likely they are to read on.
SOMETHING YOU CANNOT WALK AWAY FROM
That opening line needs to make the reader wonder about what’s happening. If your opening line doesn’t trigger the reader’s imagination they will close the book. As people, we’re drawn into a mystery. There’s a reason why we want to look behind a door that says “do not enter.”
When your book’s opening line triggers the reader’s imagination it will make them want to read on. We as people cannot walk away from a mystery. Once our curiosity has been triggered we need it solved. This is why “Nancy Drew” and “The Hardy Boys” are people all these years later. If a mystery novel ended without the murderer revealed the reader would be upset. We don’t care if the murderer gets away, but we do need to know their identity.
YOU HAVE TO CREATE A FEELING OF MYSTERY
As a writer, you want to place the feeling of mystery and wonder in the reader’s mind right away. So why not start on the first line. Your book might be amazing in the middle, but if the beginning bores the reader they’ll stop reading, never getting to that “amazing middle:”
It’s as if the opening line is like poetry, a dance of words. (not to say you have to write an entire book of poetry) but using very few words to capture something powerful at the start. The reader will sense it. they will want to read more.
YOU NEED TO AVOID A FLAT OPENING
How many times have you read a book where the opening line is flat, nothing important is really being said. It leaves you not wanting to read on. It kills any desire you have to read on. The author should not have wasted a golden opportunity to pull you in.
You want that opening line to be about the characters, revealing something about themselves. Most new writers will make their opening lines about the location or setting. The problem is we as people do not connect with “location” we connect with the “human condition.”
CREATE A QUOTABLE OPENING LINE
You want people quoting your opening line many years down the road like they do with “A tale of two cities” “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That line has gone beyond a line in a novel and now used as a quote people use in life.
Think back to your favorite novel. At first, you weren’t sure if you wanted to read it. Commenting yourself to reading from start to finish. (your average person does the same thing with any novel. Because let’s face it, reading a book takes a long time. Watching a two-hour movie will only take two hours of your life, but deciding to read a long book takes time.) Chances are you hesitated but after reading the opening line you were drawn in. Something caught your attention and you read on. Until you got to the end and loved it.
ALL NEW BOOKS ARE UNKNOWN TO THE READER
Writing a novel is like fishing, you want to hook someone right away. Why wait until the 3rd chapter to hook someone when you can do it at the start. If your 3rd chapter is amazing the reader may not get to it because they given up after a few pages.
When you’re in a bookstore you pick up a book. The book is unknown to you. You know nothing about the problem or the characters. You look the cover over, reading the title. Flip through the pages and read the first line. At that point, you’ll decide if you want to read on or not. You have just proven how powerful that opening line is. If it’s wonderful, you read on. If it’s flat you don’t feel your heart is in it. So you close the book.
YOU’RE HALFWAY THROUGH
It’s the opening line that’s the hardest to get through. Naturally, when you’re halfway through a book you’ll keep reading because you’ve been drawn in. But at the very start, it’s the toughest. You know nothing about the story. Chances are if someone is going to close a book it will be at the start.
When you see someone flipping through the pages of a new book and putting it down you have to ask, why did they not read on? But you then see them picking up another book reading and then buying it. What happened there? What was it about the second book that drew them? The first book failed to catch their attention but the second one did.
CALL ME ISHMAEL
Chances are the first line in the second book was catchy. Pulling them in. Got them wanting to read more. To a point where they wanted to buy the book. But the first book opening line might’ve been flat and boring.
There are many books where the first sentence fails to do anything to sell the book. Nothing clever or unique, most writers are missing a powerful change at writing something that will be remembered in time. A lot of great books have a great opening line. Everyone knows Moby Dick‘s “Call me Ishmael.”
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO STRESS YOURSELF OUT
As a new writer, you do not have to stress yourself out trying to come up with an amazing opening line as soon as you start writing your novel. You can write something basic to start off with. Then while writing your novel an amazing opening line might come to you. You can then go back and add it to the start.
Too many new writers will sit at their computer staring at the screen trying to come up with something amazing. But since they can’t right away they end up writing nothing. As though in order to write your novel you have to start with a perfect line right away. You can come back to it later. Ask any writer, they will tell you the first page is the toughest to get through. Ask any reader and they will say the same thing.
IT’S A CREEPY OPENING LINE
As an example, imagine writing a book about a hunted house in which the story starts with a group of kids walking down a sidewalk and the author starts off describing the neighborhood, when your first line could’ve been, “I could swear there’s someone inside that empty house staring at me through the darken window.” That type of lie will pull a reader in more than a long paragraph about the neighborhood. It’s a creepy line. it makes the reader feel uneasy. Making them want to read on.
FOLLOW THESE THREE STEPS
As a writer you want 3 important things to happen right at the start.
1/ The reader has to “feel” something. ( The more they feel the more they’ll read on. Chances are the most successful novels makes the reader “feel something” as soon as possible. If the reader doesn’t “feel” while reading they’ll stop. It’s like reading a phone book, nothing exciting over that.
2/ You want the reader asking questions. One of the biggest things that makes the reader read on is asking questions. They “want to know.” The more you can make the reader ask questions the more they’ll turn the page. This is why murder mysteries do well. The reader needs to know who did it. They can’t walk away not knowing.
3/ The reader needs to be “pulled into the story” as though it’s happening to them. This is what makes a novel successful. Puling the reader into the story. You don’t want a story where the reader feels a “gap” between themselves and the novel. You want them to feel as though they’re the protagonist. The more the reader feels the story is happening to them the more they will read on.
MY DEATH WASN’T EASY
Imagine an opening line being “my death wasn’t easy” a line like this confuses the reader. Stops them in their tracks. Gets their mind racing. They can’t help but ask a million questions. The reader will be wondering “how can someone dead be talking?” “Why wasn’t their death easy?” “Are they talking as a ghost or from heaven?” These types of questions will make the reader read on. A simple short line can trigger so many thoughts and emotions within the reader they have to read on.
And remember you can fix your opening line if it isn’t good. If you think you have an amazing opening line and come up with something even better you can make the changes anytime. It’s not like you have to stick with the first line. Putting stress on you to make it perfect the first time. It can be changed a million times while writing.
DON’T PASS ON A GREAT CHANCE
Don’t pass up a chance to make a great impression with your first line. Like the old saying goes “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”. Take the first line opportunity and make it gold. Get the reader feeling, wondering, daydreaming, questioning. If your opening line is flat the reader will feel the whole book is flat. If the opening line is amazing the reader will feel the whole book is amazing.
It’s as if the opening line is like curb appeal when buying a house. If the outside is amazing you’ll believe the whole house is amazing. If the outside looks dull you’ll believe the rest of the house is boring. You want to start off with something amazing. the reader will have a desire to carry on. Something they’ll remember for a long time.
you might be interested in these blogs…
HOW TO CONTROL YOUR NOVEL’S PACE
HOW TO HAVE THE PERFECT ENDING TO YOUR NOVEL
THE BIG NO-NO WITH MacGUFFINS IN NOVEL WRITING
