Here’s what happens (and I bet you do too): a book shows up at the bookstore. It may be the colors, an image on the spine, the name of an author or the title, but something catches your attention and you separate the book from the masses. You look at the front cover, flip it over, and read a few lines from the back cover copy. You open the book and read a little bit of the inside copy of the dust jacket, then you turn to the first page and …
You read the first line.
Which sucks, so you close the book and put it back on the shelves.
That is all. That’s how long you have to capture the interest of your readers today. If your first sentence does not capture a reader’s imagination, that reader moves on to the next novel.
Of course, if you’re John Grisham or Stephen King, readers will leave you a little slack and stick with you longer. You’ve already earned their trust in the past, so a bad first sentence is forgiven. But if you’re just starting out and looking to build an audience, that first sentence is your calling card. It’s your first, and often only, chance to make an impression.
So what makes a great first sentence?
Fortunately, you have a variety of options. The two main hooks for a powerful first sentence revolve around character or action. There are a handful of others. However, for the purposes of this article, we will focus on these two. Let’s take a look at the action first.
Action refers to movement. Tension, action, conflict … these are quite interchangeable terms. The point with an opening action sentence is to immediately grab the reader by the shoulders and shake him off. It’s like the first drop on a big roller coaster … there’s no going back because you have your reader’s full attention.
Here are some examples:
– The bomb exploded under the table at the corner table at Mindy’s Coffee Shop, where Judge Arnold Cummings ate breakfast every morning at exactly 8:35 a.m.
Sheila Hamilton desperately tugged on her kidneys but she had already lost control of Morgan in panic and it was clear that something bad was about to happen.
When the car rolled over the embankment, George Luther couldn’t help but wonder what else could go wrong today.
– A moment before lightning changed his life forever, Malcolm Zebrowski was celebrating his thirty-third birthday with a group of people he had never met before.
These samples immediately draw the reader into the movement of the story. Not only does your reader want to know what happens next, but in all likelihood, you’ve already had a number of questions begging for answers. For example, in our first sentence … was the bomb intended to kill the judge? If so, why? Who Placed the Bomb? What led up to this moment?
These are all legitimate questions that encourage your reader to keep reading. And that’s the point of a powerful first sentence … to hook the reader.
So let’s take a look at some character openings. These are based on character descriptions that create curiosity. Your reader finds this particular character so quirky or interesting that he just has to learn more. Here are some examples:
– Emily Bauer was tiny in stature, only 4′-11 “tall, but she feared no one and those who crossed her spent the rest of their days looking over her shoulders in dread.
– Max Ristow spent most of his life dealing with migraines, until the day he met his dead sister on a beach in Monterrey.
– Howard Duncan dragged his right leg when he walked, the result of an accident that killed his parents when he was six years old and left him with permanent nerve damage on the right side of his body.
– Some people called her holy, others sinners, but most considered Tammy Hathaway a woman of her word.
Curiosity. Wanting to know more. Wondering who this person is and how he ended up here. These are all pieces of the character puzzle that a strong opening phrase can set in motion.
So there you have it … two opening sentence strategies to make your novel irresistible to the casual reader. A good opening can be the great champion of your book. Give it the love and attention it deserves.