Fantastic First Lines

And why they are all winners!

Let's be honest with ourselves: 'Once Upon a Time' and 'One Dark and Stormy' night are not only overused and cliche, but ooze with unoriginality and immediately provide the reader with the impression that you really haven't thought about how to capture their attention – or keep them hooked, for that matter.

There are lots of things that openings – especially opening lines – should and shouldn't do, whether you're writing a novel or a short story. However, above all else, we need to be be offered a hand that will pull us head-first into the world of your imagination. Let's get down to what specifically makes a good opening, as well as how these rules have been applied to some super story openings from contemporary and classic story openings.

Crucial Ingredients for a Great Story Opening

All openings should do the following things (not necessarily in this order, but at least in the first three sentences):

1. Show us a character

2. Show us a setting (that your character is in)

3. Show us how your character is interacting with your setting (It is key that your opening 'image' contains action, but this doesn't necessarily have to be something as intense or fast-paced as a fight scene or a chase sequence...)

4. Provide the reader with a question (something intriguing, shocking or unexpected) that makes them want to read on

Other considerations include how you can hint at genre and the general overall tone or your story from your opening lines, which can be achieved through language selection and some manipulation of your sentence structure.

Let's Analyse Some Examples

Now let's analyse some fantastic first lines (or first 1-3 lines), paying specific attention to the four elements listed above. For your convenience, I have colour-coded the individual elements of each opening with the following:

• A character

• A setting

• An action / interaction

• A question / point of intrigue for the reader

  
  

1) Opening to Happy Head by Josh Silver (2023):

'I think it's down there,' Mum says.

'We've already been down there,' Dad says, a bit shirty now.

'No, it's a different road – look.'

>> This opening of dialogue is not only fast paced, but presents us with two major things: family conflict and confusion on the road which feels all too familiar for many readers – except in a good way!

The characters presented to us first - although they aren't the main character(s), are Mum and Dad, the setting is a road (or a junction), the action is driving, or trying to figure out which road to go down; and the question that the reader is presented with is "What are they trying to find?"

2) Opening to 'The Bee Sting' by Paul Murray (2024):

In the next town over, a man had killed his family. He'd nailed the doors shut so they couldn't get out; the neighbours heard them running through the rooms, screaming for mercy. When he had finished he turned the gun on himself.

>> If anything else, this opening is both shocking and a heavy start to a story! But why does it work so well? We are presented with characters – the main focus being on "the man" but also his family and the neighbours – as well as a setting (The next town over), an action (the murder itself), and finally – and the most engaging – the question of why he killed them, and then himself.

3) Opening to 'Play' by Luke Palmer (2023):

Everyone's setting their socks on fire.

We're up on the school playing fields, the moon a hard gash in a darkening sky, and everywhere little orange flares are glowing around people's feet. From where I'm lying they look like stars, or fireworks. Puffs of light coloured by laughter.

>> This opening demonstrates how you can rearrange the colour-coded elements to play around with how to set up the opening image. Because of the use of the first person pronoun 'We / we're', we immediately understand that this story is being told through the first person POV. The setting is a school playing field, which heavily suggests that the characters are teenagers. The action is two things: setting their socks on fire and the observation that 'little orange flares are glowing around people's feet', the former also acting as our question – why are they setting their socks on fire? Another great way to pull in the reader is with something unbelievable or absurd – just don't overdo this. The last thing you want is your reader to feel like they're being tricked into reading something using 'click-bate' style sentences that reoccur and don't live up to their promise.

I hope this article was helpful for you and your writing. Take some time now to read other openings and underpin what works best for you. And experiment! Experimenting with different sentence structures and language styles will really help in your journey to starting your story, and grabbing the reader from the get-go.

Thanks for reading!