Opening Lines are Important

 

This is a repeat post from a few years ago. Still pertinent for today's writers. 

Our poster quote is from Plato. Pretty smart man since we still look at his quotes these many, many years later. I doubt he was speaking primarily to writers when he uttered these words, but he could have been since it's important advice for anyone who writes. Plato told us:  The beginning is the most important part of the work. 

When you write a story, an essay, or an article--even a poem, the opening lines or paragraphs gives you the opportunity to grab your reader's attention. If you don't, their attention will drift away, and they won't finish reading what you wrote, no matter how good the middle and ending is. 

That person who is reading your piece could be the editor or publisher who was the first person to read your submission. If the beginning is lame, he/she will probably not even finish reading. Then, it's boohoo time for you.

Many years ago in one of the first face to face writing groups I joined, the moderator had a gathering at his home and invited a few other writers to join our group for that day. Several brought something to read to the group. One woman stood up and proceeded to read her short story. She read a page, then another, and by this time people were fidgeting, looking out the window, or refilling their coffee cup. Two pages into her story, nothing had happened to grab the reader (or listener in this case). She spent two full paragraphs describing the protagonist making a sandwich. In detail!!! No one is going to care that Billy got up, went to the fridge, pulled out the makings of a sandwich. Nor will they be interested in how he made that sandwich, step by step. As the story went on, it became painful to listen.

The meat of the story was alright, not great, but ok. She made two mistakes. First, her opening was boring, and second, she spent many sentences describing the man making the sandwich. One would have done it. 'Billy made a sandwich.' She shouldn't even have added that if it didn't have a bearing on the story itself. If the sandwich is what poisoned and killed Billy, it might have been important, but for anything else, not so much.

Some writers like to use the opening paragraphs to set the scene. Sometimes, that works, but only if the writing of those paragraphs is good enough to draw the reader in. Write a group of sentences that have subject and verb and not much else, and you'll lose the reader fast.

Even an essay or nonfiction article needs to have an opening that draws the reader into the whole essay or article. I have read books that use an opening chapter that is boring, ones that don't get to the action or the meat of the story for pages. The writer knows what is coming next, but the reader doesn't. He/she might stay with it until the 'real' story begins, or they might not. 

When writing those first few lines or paragraphs, do whatever it takes to catch your reader's attention. Start with a question. Ask something that intrigues them enough to want to continue. Or perhaps it is something that is a bit shocking. That opening line is asking the reader to come in and sit a spell. 

Charles Dickens opened A Tale of Two Cities by what has become one of the most intriguing openings in a novel. He set the theme for the novel in that first paragraph. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Don't you want to ask 'Why?' 

Opening with a narrator gives the opportunity to divulge some interesting information about the one telling the story. 

A conversation between two people can grab the attention of the reader if that bit of dialogue is intriguing. 

Mysteries might open with the discovery of a body by an innocent bystander. There is some shock value, and the reader would probably want to know more about the victim, the circumstances involving the death and more. 

Go through your files and read the opening paragraph or two of stories, essays, or articles that you have written. Do you think they are of the kind that will draw a reader in? Or not? 

Grab your reader right away, and they're likely to stay with you to your scintillating conclusion.