Young Writers Society

I'm having trouble with writing the opening sentence/paragraph in my stories, can you guys offer some good tips or strategies please.

Hmmmm....What I usually do ...or try to do is start in a way that will get someones attention.like when you start by having a problem/fight/tragedy some people will go on reading just to try and figure out whats happening.
Other times you're maybe starting from eg how your morning started...that kind of peaceful setting you might want to use good english not the plain simple one. usually a stories got a problem right?what I like is to get a hint in the begining of that problem but not the problem itself.

be as original as you can possibly get.If your work stands out it may make people want to continue.

hope this help
I have problems with beginings to so I try those.
I had first paragraph in mind...not sentence.

These are a couple tips I picked up from a friend of mine:
1) The sentence can be an unusual one, so that it makes them curious.
2) Humorous, make it funny so they want to read more.
3) Shockers, make it shocking so that they get blasted and want to know what happens next.

Summary: You want to make it a really, really good sentence, to pull them into it.

Hope this helps you,
~Skye~

Loved that tip.

Have you written your novel yet?

Having a good opening is like hitting the green button at the right time and getting a super boost on Mariokart. It starts you off on a high and keeps you going.

The truth though is that you're probably going to change your mind about your opening scene several times before you finish, so it's best not to worry about it until you're done.

Then, your opening line is your first impression, it counts for everything so try to capture the essense of your novel in your opening line. You can approach it in a thousand different ways. I tend to ask my main characters (or sometimes the main antagonist) how they think the story should be started, since most of the time it's about them.

Possible introductions include:

Introduce your character: 'Jack liked his work, but his work didn't like him, because he always turned up in a mohawk to hide the fact that he was four inches below average height.'

Set the scene: 'The office was dull and quiet, with the typing of keys and the echo of exasperated sighs, save the illuminous gleam of green hair at the corner desk.'

Dive straight in: 'The bullet barely skimmed the top of his mohawk. Three men in black suits had broken into the office and chosen him as their first target.'


It all depends on what you prefer. Your reader will better enjoy a different beginning not only depending on what their prefered taste is, but also their mood and environment. You're never going to get the perfect beginning so just go with the style that feels best for your novel.

Questions work, or opinions.

I always start my stories with something interesting but not completely foreign. If I picked up a story and read "The magical beans ate a million bunnies and conquered the world again," I would set down the book and back away slowly.
If you don't like your first sentence start in on your story and come back to it a page or two later.
-Bel

Don't stress the beginning. Yep, I said it.
You see, when you're writing the first draft of your novel, it doesn't matter if your opening line would win a prize for best opening line ever (or worst). It just matters that you get your book started. And if the opening scene bores you, skip to a part you want to write and backtrack later.
Then, you edit.
When you edit (and every serious writer has to edit sometime in their life) you can tweak, change, polish, fix, clip, play with and rewrite your opening sentence. You can polish it to perfection until it's the best opening line the world has ever seen. In fact, you can do the same with your entire story
So you see what I'm saying? Don't stress the opening line in the first draft, but edit it later and totally stress over it then xD
good luck and keep writing!
~McKie