Your first words
Your opening chapter carries a lot of weight on its shoulders. From the very first line, it needs to create instant intrigue – enough to pique the reader’s interest, then hook them into the next few paragraphs, which in turn, should be working hard to cement that interest.
The best opening is a scene that creates immediate and immersive interest, an urgent sense of something important happening, enticing the reader to stay and find out what and why.
Strong openings stay in the moment rather than diving into backstory. It’s tempting to want to tell the reader all about your characters and how they arrived at this key moment, but resist the urge. Leave backstory until the reader is truly invested and you have a moment of pause to fill them in – in short spurts and only at relevant moments. Information dumps are the quickest way to lose the reader’s attention.
Opening lines
Some of the best opening lines are short, simple statements that hold so much drama, humour or strange information, they instantly set the whole mood of the story:
- They shoot the white girl first.
~ Toni Morrison, Paradise - It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
~ George Orwell, 1984 - I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.
~ Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle - Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
~ Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups
Others opening lines work to immediately immerse readers into the world of the protagonist as they stand on the precipice of a momentous change or realisation:
- Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
~ Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude - It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.
~ Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar - I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.
~ Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle
Other opening lines work to immediately immerse readers into the world of the protagonist as they stand on the precipice of a momentous change or realisation:
- Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
~ Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude - It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.
~ Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar - I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.
~ Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle
The paragraphs that follow
Of course, a killer opening line needs a solid follow up. And there’s no stronger way to do that than to stay in media res (in the middle of things), i.e. keep the protagonist knee-deep in the action or conflict of a scene.
Scene components
Hopefully, as a writer, you have already heard of the theory of “show, don’t tell” – using the five senses to create scene. We’re not going to dive into that right now. We’re going to focus on what components make up a scene.
The 5 W’s:
Who is the main character?
Introduce a character who gives readers a reason to invest in the story. Show us something that reveals who they are, how they behave, what they notice, how they respond to other people and what they want or fear.
Physical description should only be a small component of introducing your character. What’s more important is what they say and think, what they observe, how they interact with other characters and how they move through their world. A character who compulsively checks that the front door is locked tells us they are fearful or compulsive. A character who hurries past a homeless person without looking, tells us they are avoidant, one who stops to help tells us they are generous.
Where are they when the story opens?
Setting helps ground the reader in the character’s world – whether it’s somewhere comfortable they regularly visit, somewhere unusual that has them on edge, or somewhere new that they find fascinating. You don’t need long and intricate descriptions to establish a scene setting, rather, small details add authenticity.
When does the story take place?
This can relate to a year, month, day, time of day, season, era or character’s age. Whatever detail you choose to establish the “when”, it’s needs to be believable and relevant to this moment in the character’s life.
What is the conflict?
Conflict, put simply, is an obstacle – the source of all tension. Tension is the main driver of every story; it creates forward momentum and holds the reader’s attention. Identifying the conflict, means the reader understands a character’s behaviour and what they’re trying to achieve. Conflict is what turns a situation into a story.
A conflict can be caused by another character, a physical obstacle, a difficult situation, a secret or the character’s own fears and flaws.
You don’t necessarily need explosions, arguments or dramatic confrontations. Conflict can be subtle. A character might desperately want to tell someone the truth but be unable to do so. Someone might arrive home to discover that their key no longer works. A job interview might seem straightforward until an unexpected person walks into the room.
Whatever form it takes, conflict creates questions: What will happen next? What will the character do? Will they get what they want?
Why is the conflict important to the protagonist?
There are two modes of conflict: internal (motivation) and external (physical need). Establishing why the conflict is important to the protagonist, helps the reader understand the character’s motivations and needs. This in turn allows them to identify with the character and hope for a resolution for them.
Usually, the external conflict is more evident in the opening, with the internal conflict becoming evident as the story moves forward, as it tends to relate more to backstory.
Here’s quick example of a scene that reveals all five W’s.
Josie reaches for a second slice of pumpkin pie, her last for this lifetime. Her bony hand shakes as she eases the silver server back to her plate. Damn the arthritis.
“Mum, you know you shouldn’t be eating that.”
Josie hesitates a fraction, biting her eighty-nine-year-old tongue, but doesn’t take her eyes off the pie. She sets her shoulders and slides the soft, sweet dessert onto her plate, a little dripping onto Catherine’s gaudy Christmas tablecloth. You can’t buy taste.
Catherine huffs. “Didn’t Doctor Augus—”
“Shut it.”
“Mum!” Catherine blinks, fork poised over a slice of dry Christmas turkey – dry because she won’t let Josie cook it anymore, and even though she may have the latest and greatest kitchen stove, she still can’t get the bird right.
Josie glances at Tess, who’s wide-eyed and fighting back a giggle. She winks at her granddaughter. “I guess now is as good a time as any to tell your mum.”
“Tell me what?”
Josie reaches into her pocket and pulls out a pamphlet. She flattens it on the lace tablecloth, takes a breath, then solemnly passes it to Catherine.
Catherine looks at it. “What’s this?”
“Read it.”
As Catherine glances at the cover, blood rises in her cheeks. “Mum, you have got to be joking. These people are a cult. We’ve been over this again and again. There are no such things as aliens.”
Josie, touches her arm. “It’s okay. You don’t have to believe. You’ll see for yourself tonight. I just need you to drive me there. I won’t ask you for anything else … ever.”
Here’s a breakdown of each component:
Strong, intriguing first sentence: “her last for this lifetime” sets up an expectation that something major is about to change for Josie.
Who is the main character? Eighty-nine-year-old grandmother, Josie.
Where are they? Catherine’s dining table.
When does the story take place? Christmas, likely Josie’s last.
What is the conflict? The external conflict is Josie needing Catherine to give her a lift. The internal conflict is Josie needing her daughter to understand her emotional needs, though the mother and daughter have opposing beliefs.
Why is the conflict important to the protagonist? Josie is reliant on Catherine’s cooperation to attain her need.
Putting It All Together
A strong opening chapter doesn’t need to contain a huge amount of information. It simply needs to make readers curious.
You don’t have to spell out all the answers. Let readers discover some of them as the story unfolds. But if your opening introduces a character with something they desperately want, then puts an obstacle in their way, you’ve already given readers a reason to turn the page.
