Out of the Chute: Writing a Good Opening Line (Re-Published)
I posted this in May, 2010. Since my blog statistics reported only three views, I thought I'd give it another go.
ALL THIS HAPPENED, MORE OR LESS.
Writing a good opening line is like a racehorse exploding from the chute: its inertia propels the story from a place of nowhere to an unknown fate, an unrealized destination, and even an ending that may not, in your reader's mind, actually end.
"Tom!" That's one of my favorite opening lines to a novel. It's from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In one word, Twain got my attention. Not just because it's my name. But because I know the title character is being introduced and the exclamation point probably means he's either in trouble or about to get into trouble. And I like trouble. Boy do I like trouble. It's fun to read about trouble.
See if you recognize these six opening lines from classic or popular novels:
1. "All this happened, more or less."
2. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
3. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
4. "The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting."
5. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
6. "It was a pleasure to burn."
1. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 3. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 4. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 5. 1984 by George Orwell 6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Bradbury's shocking opening line made me wonder who was burning and why it was a pleasure. But as I soon found out, he didn't mean that at all. It didn't matter. It got my attention in a way he knew it would.
Orwell used the contrast of normalcy ("It was a bright cold day in April") with twisted reality ("and the clocks were striking thirteen"). Right out of the chute, I knew I'd be experiencing a story with nightmarish implications.
In Crane's novel, he uses his first sentence as a fast-forward of a day in time to unveil the rumors of battle soldiers experience over the seasons. That experience is thematic to what his main character, the boy Henry, will experience through the story as he awaits his test in battle.
The opening sentence in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is good because he used the first person point of view of his character to establish the tone and rhythm of his adolescent thinking. Salinger's understated and colloquial opening sentence allowed me to just relax into his telling the story. To listen to the mind of a boy who, in this first sentence, appears to confuse apathy with immaturity.
Some opening sentences put forth the setting. But Dickens, whose ability to layer complications into a thematic order, brilliantly writes his opening sentence in A Tale of Two Cities to describe the backdrop of his story, which takes place at the end of the 18th century. Dickens wastes no time painting the origins of the French Revolution in portrait of the conditions in France. I know from this first sentence--and his title--that I will experience contrasts, the extremes of which will make for a memorable travel.
Vonnegut's opening line doesn't set the scene; doesn't tell me anything about the main character; in fact, doesn't tell me much of anything. Or does he? "All this happened, more or less." I remember thinking, I'm going to read honesty. I already knew that the parts of a novel--the fiction--are threaded together with truth--fact--my interest peaked immediately that this Vonnegut guy was not going to hide anything. And he didn't. He told the story of his going back to Dresden with a war buddy to the slaughterhouse where they were held as prisoners of war, then he tells the story of Billy Pilgram, an alter-ego who becomes "unstuck in time." Vonnegut cleverly established in that first sentence the unstuckness of reality with a completely honest pen. And so on.
So, how can we write brilliant opening lines? Do what I did. Find some favorite books and read the opening line. Isolating the line and considering their effectiveness--or lack of it--helps me to focus my thinking about what I want to do to hook that guy standing in Barnes & Noble to buy my book. Sure, he might read beyond or--ohmagod--the ending, but I know I have to get the reader to read beyond the first sentence to the second, to the third, to the next and onward. Opening sentences...
ALL THIS HAPPENED, MORE OR LESS.
Writing a good opening line is like a racehorse exploding from the chute: its inertia propels the story from a place of nowhere to an unknown fate, an unrealized destination, and even an ending that may not, in your reader's mind, actually end.
"Tom!" That's one of my favorite opening lines to a novel. It's from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In one word, Twain got my attention. Not just because it's my name. But because I know the title character is being introduced and the exclamation point probably means he's either in trouble or about to get into trouble. And I like trouble. Boy do I like trouble. It's fun to read about trouble.
See if you recognize these six opening lines from classic or popular novels:
1. "All this happened, more or less."
2. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
3. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
4. "The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting."
5. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
6. "It was a pleasure to burn."
1. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 3. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 4. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 5. 1984 by George Orwell 6. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Bradbury's shocking opening line made me wonder who was burning and why it was a pleasure. But as I soon found out, he didn't mean that at all. It didn't matter. It got my attention in a way he knew it would.
Orwell used the contrast of normalcy ("It was a bright cold day in April") with twisted reality ("and the clocks were striking thirteen"). Right out of the chute, I knew I'd be experiencing a story with nightmarish implications.
In Crane's novel, he uses his first sentence as a fast-forward of a day in time to unveil the rumors of battle soldiers experience over the seasons. That experience is thematic to what his main character, the boy Henry, will experience through the story as he awaits his test in battle.
The opening sentence in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is good because he used the first person point of view of his character to establish the tone and rhythm of his adolescent thinking. Salinger's understated and colloquial opening sentence allowed me to just relax into his telling the story. To listen to the mind of a boy who, in this first sentence, appears to confuse apathy with immaturity.
Some opening sentences put forth the setting. But Dickens, whose ability to layer complications into a thematic order, brilliantly writes his opening sentence in A Tale of Two Cities to describe the backdrop of his story, which takes place at the end of the 18th century. Dickens wastes no time painting the origins of the French Revolution in portrait of the conditions in France. I know from this first sentence--and his title--that I will experience contrasts, the extremes of which will make for a memorable travel.
Vonnegut's opening line doesn't set the scene; doesn't tell me anything about the main character; in fact, doesn't tell me much of anything. Or does he? "All this happened, more or less." I remember thinking, I'm going to read honesty. I already knew that the parts of a novel--the fiction--are threaded together with truth--fact--my interest peaked immediately that this Vonnegut guy was not going to hide anything. And he didn't. He told the story of his going back to Dresden with a war buddy to the slaughterhouse where they were held as prisoners of war, then he tells the story of Billy Pilgram, an alter-ego who becomes "unstuck in time." Vonnegut cleverly established in that first sentence the unstuckness of reality with a completely honest pen. And so on.
So, how can we write brilliant opening lines? Do what I did. Find some favorite books and read the opening line. Isolating the line and considering their effectiveness--or lack of it--helps me to focus my thinking about what I want to do to hook that guy standing in Barnes & Noble to buy my book. Sure, he might read beyond or--ohmagod--the ending, but I know I have to get the reader to read beyond the first sentence to the second, to the third, to the next and onward. Opening sentences...
- Are often short and catchy
- Immediately set the tone of the story
- Quickly raise questions that the reader wants answered
- Hit the reader right between the eyes by being surprising, shocking, disturbing or hilarious.
When I find that great opening sentence, it shoots me out of the chute with a blast of knowing that what I am experiencing in writing it, the reader can experience by reading it.
"In the beginning God created..." Now that's an opening line! My son is reading 1984 and he is loving it. I forgot that was the first line. I think I will read it again when he is done. Thanks.
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1984 was one of the few books I actually enjoyed reading and studying in school. And the Bible--yikes! What a divine opening line.
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