Eyecatching First Lines

It's one of three things that draws us in when choosing a book - that elusive opening line.

So how do you come up with it?? For me, that's the frustrating part. I can write everything around it, but I can't think of a whizzbang opening line. I don't want something flashy and overbearing, but everything I write sounds boring that would make someone open the book, read the first line and close it shut again.

So how do you decide what your opening line is going to be? Anyone care to share any secrets??

My opening line so far is:


But for some reason, it doesn't sound right. Agree or disagree? All opinions welcome!!

The very first looks fine enough: not particularly attention-grabbing, but still enough to catch the eye and encourage reading a bit further. The second one falls a bit flat though - it comes off as very awkward. Maybe it's the repetition of 'floating', maybe it's the 'close enough to it' just making the sentence drag on.

Check out this article about beginnings.

Also, you're not 100% correct on opening lines having to be completely attention-grabbing. They can be subtly grabbing (such as "You probably know me already" from The Swan Kingdom, in the article) and be expanded upon in a paragraph.

The article goes into more depth, so I won't say it all here.

Also, another thing, don't worry about making the line perfect the first time. As the story goes on, you'll find better places to start and better ways, or suddenly the beginnings don't work and you need to completely change it. So at first, just start. You can consider it horrible or fantastic, doesn't mater. Just don't get stuck on that first line and keep writing.

~Rosey

Thanks for the link Rosey!!

I've always though of the first line as the most important part of the book. It's the first thing people read, and they're not going to want to continue if it's bad. I used to get this magazine with a feature called "favorite first lines", and people would send in first lines that they loved. A first line doesn't need to look nice, in my opinion, but it absolutely needs to sound nice. Don't contradict yourself,don't ask questions, don't confuse people. You want it to make you want to read more.

Don't be boring.

I almost never pay much attention to first lines, actually. I'm not sure why, but I feel like usually they're just fluff, and I like to get into the meat of the story more. So my personal opinion is don't worry too much about the first line, but try to avoid fluff.

I think the first line of any story is vital. I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how I'm going to open a story. If it's not attention grabbing in some way, I'm not happy.

Tip for everyone: never open a story with a description of the weather. It's so common amongst amateur writers, and it's always boring. Same goes for any sort of 'setting the scene' descriptions (unless the scene itself is attention grabbing, of course).


To date, my favourite opening line I've come up with is:

It is called the Rape Tunnel. A crudely painted sign hanging above the entrance says so.

I always wanted to write a story with the beginning:

You're dead.



I don't know why, but that always seemed like a good opener.