By:
Chris Winkle
The
perfect opening line embodies the magic of authorial voice, blended with
heartfelt experience, stirred with striking prose, shaken with a mysterious
essence beyond our comprehension, then poured carefully over ice.
Just
kidding. Effective opening lines perform a handful of functions that are
surprisingly straightforward. Get to know these functions, and you’ll start
recognizing them in famous first lines yourself. Then, you’re only a step away
from creating amazing opening lines for your own stories.
1. Suggesting Conflict
You
probably already know that conflict keeps the reader
entertained, and it’s the main ingredient in an effective story hook. So it
should be no surprise that most famous first lines have conflict.
“Someone must have
slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong,
he was arrested.” — The Trial by Franz Kafka
While
lines like the one above throw the reader right into a conflict, that can make
it difficult for writers to set up the story. It’s more common for strong first
lines to foreshadow problems on
their way.
“Blue Sargent had
forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.” —
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Many
famous lines also declare that a conflict has already
occurred. The narrator might even describe their own death. Readers will
expect the writer to tell them more about this event or at least show its
repercussions. As fancy as it sounds, it’s just another way of foreshadowing.
“The morning after
he killed Eugene Shapiro, Andre Deschenes woke early.” — Undertow by Elizabeth
Bear
For
a subtler touch, the writer might leave overt foreshadowing out but use
symbolism to create an ominous mood.
“It was a bright
cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” — 1984 by George
Orwell
If
your opening line mentions a problem of
some kind, it probably has conflict.
2. Raising Questions. . .
To
read the rest of the post, click here:
~*~
If
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are again:
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