Writer Wednesday: How To Write A Killer First Sentence To Open Your Book (PHOTOS)

From Writer's Relief:

Whether you're pitching a book to a literary agent, trying to lure readers to dig into their pockets and buy your book, or hoping to impress an editor, the first line of your novel counts. Big time.

Ever shake someone's hand only to discover they've got cold skin, sweaty palms, and a grip like a turnip? A weak first line has the same effect.

But what is a good first line? The Review Board at Writer's Relief reads many first lines when we have a call for submissions. Some first lines catch us more than others. A good first line will often multitask, accomplishing many things all at once. A first line can:

• Establish tone

• Hint at conflict or theme

• Lure with the promise of some reward (reward meaning: the emotional reward of reading the book)

• Cause an instant emotional reaction, connection to character, and/or fascination with scene

Some first lines are so intense and effective that they go down in history as household phrases ("Call me Ishmael," anyone?).

Look at the great first sentences in the slideshow below. The moral of the story is that the first line of your novel must be a good one, and it has to knock readers over, including literary agents and book editors.

That said, here's our caution: Don't overthink it. You shouldn't need to force an opening line when you're composing it. Trust those deeper, animal parts of your brain to do the hard work of creating it.

If the line you come up with doesn't feel natural, then it's probably not the right opening line for your book. So be patient with yourself and know that some writers don't come up with a good opening line until they've written the last line.

For more on writing and publishing, visit our website at www.WritersRelief.com. Writer's Relief helps creative writers research, target, and submit their work to literary agents and editors. Clients by invitation only. Review Board is currently open for submissions but will soon close, then put out another call in two to four months.

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"Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

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"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." If this line were in the middle of "Mrs. Dalloway," it might not be especially memorable. But to choose this as a first line, Woolf is setting up her book beautifully. Here are a few of the things we learn from this first line: • This book will only appear to be simple and straightforward. • Mrs. Dalloway probably does not regularly buy the flowers herself, and so something special is going on. • Mrs. Dalloway must state to someone that she is buying the flowers--is she excusing her actions? Her deviation from her usual course? • There is a sense of fate lurking here in the small act of buying flowers, a sense that something significant may or may not happen at any given moment. Hard not to love that! For those of you who feel that Woolf's stories are what contemporary editors might refer to as a bit too "quiet" for mainstream audiences, let's look at another classic...

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"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

If this line were in the middle of "Mrs. Dalloway," it might not be especially memorable. But to choose this as a first line, Woolf is setting up her book beautifully. Here are a few of the things we learn from this first line:

• This book will only appear to be simple and straightforward.

• Mrs. Dalloway probably does not regularly buy the flowers herself, and so something special is going on.

• Mrs. Dalloway must state to someone that she is buying the flowers--is she excusing her actions? Her deviation from her usual course?

• There is a sense of fate lurking here in the small act of buying flowers, a sense that something significant may or may not happen at any given moment. Hard not to love that!

For those of you who feel that Woolf's stories are what contemporary editors might refer to as a bit too "quiet" for mainstream audiences, let's look at another classic...

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This First Sentence

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I could write a better one This is classic

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Comments

[iczlite]

12:56 AM on 02/25/2011

Talking about "killer first lines," few can top the mind-bending start of William Gibson's "Neuromancer":
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

[seedoubleyou]

02:36 PM on 02/24/2011

My favorite is from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 6451: "It was a pleasure to burn."

[Normel]

12:34 PM on 02/23/2011

My all time favorite first line has to be "124 was spiteful - full of a baby's venom." Toni Morrison's Beloved

[nycagnes]

12:43 AM on 02/13/2011

"They were the best of times, they were the worst of times." Most memorable i think.

[Bogey907]

06:20 PM on 02/11/2011

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate ...

[scottyknows]

01:40 PM on 02/11/2011

This is a great example of why it's good to avoid too many articles about writing.

People have made a living out of regurgitating this type of nonsense.

Lose yourself in the characters, feel their heartbeat, care about what they're doing, and you'll be miles ahead of 99% of writers.

[In the CEO Afterlife]

12:43 PM on 02/11/2011

Good suggestions for the killer first sentence. Hard to find a first sentence as direct as Bryce Courtenay's 4-word opening to the 'The Power of One'. "THIS is what happened," may seem rather pedestrian, but it introduced a breakthrough novel.

[EarDrummer]

09:57 AM on 02/11/2011

I always enjoy good subtext, allusions, clever, carefully chosen words and things with more than one meaning because it stoke my interest: What does the writer mean, what is underlying, hidden or not obvious upon a cursory read.

[sabelmouse]

09:53 AM on 02/11/2011

i have always loved ; barnabas came to us by sea. especially since in the german translation this is so long and cumbersome that it turned me off completely.

[edwcorey]

11:43 AM on 02/10/2011

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

[Bogey907]

06:21 PM on 02/11/2011

It has to be plausible to have any impact.

[Derek Lantin]

08:50 AM on 02/10/2011

Sir
How to write a "killer' first line?
I pass my hands over the keybord and wait for inspiration to come down from the heavens.
If that does not work, I go to bed.
I must confess that I sometimes sleep a lot.
Sincerely, Derek Lantin. http://dereklantin.booksabuzz.com

.

[3fingerbrown]

06:36 AM on 02/10/2011

I stitched together a novel's first paragraph out of the opening lines of four famous novels:

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much, but as Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Can you name the four novels?

[sabelmouse]

09:47 AM on 02/11/2011

only 3

[3fingerbrown]

10:11 AM on 02/11/2011

In order of appearance:
1984
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
The Metamorphosis
Tale of Two Cities

Thanks for playing, sablemouse. We have some lovely parting gifts waiting for you backstage.

[falsedichotomies]

02:51 PM on 02/14/2011

Technically, the Metamorphosis isn't a novel.

[phantoma]

06:25 AM on 02/10/2011

Let's not forget Rick Moody's Purple America.
That's a four-page opening sentence, folks.

[SirOtter]

01:01 AM on 02/10/2011

"I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other." Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

"The Gibbelins, as is well known, eat nothing less good than man." Hoard of the Gibbelins by Lord Dunsany

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini

[TomHunter]

11:22 PM on 02/09/2011

The first line of a novel is critical. Inciting incident and all that.

Here are the first lines to my own novels:

from "The Butcher of Leningrad", http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leningrad

"The child's arm ripped from its rotted body. The Russian sewer worker
flung the arm on the pile. By the hair, he dragged the child's one-armed
torso to the pile of bodies."

from "Beelyet (The Ticket)", forthcoming

" I lost the ticket. For the fifth time I searched my pockets and my coat.
I unpacked my suitcase and scoured over all my papers. I checked my
shirt pocket again but it was true. My ticket was gone. So was my wallet.
A wave of hot chill landed on my forehead. I felt like throwing up. I
looked next to me, at a homeless Russian man laying on the concrete.
A cold wind blew through the Leningradsky train station. The homeless
man and I were the same. Neither of us had anyplace better than this
train station. The frost of night had begun to fall. Soon, the dogs would
come out—the packs of homeless, unfed dogs who roamed Moscow
in the cold nights."