Crafting your First Sentence by Verona McColl
“Your first sentence is the door your reader opens to peep inside. If they like what they read, they’ll step inside.”
The first sentence sets the story into motion and that’s the key word—motion. Start with the action, grab your reading from the beginning.
Many new writers begin their story by introducing their characters. They describe them and place them in a setting. We can just as easily learn what the main character looks like later in the first or even second chapter. Other new writers often start with an event or incident which, in most cases, misses the bigger picture – what are your characters doing and, more importantly, we want to keep reading to find out WHY.
You don’t have to start at the beginning of the story.
More often, the most captivating action in your story is somewhere in the middle. Here, consider starting in the middle then flash back. Movies specialise in this and for the right reason.
Think of your first sentence as a cliffhanger or a tease. Something that makes the reader curious. I know this sounds like you’re expecting a lot from one sentence, but these writers achieved it.
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell grabs your attention in his first chilling sentence in 1984
“When you wish that a Saturday was actually a Monday, you know there is something seriously wrong.” Polly Ho-Yen grabs us in Boy in the Tower. Of course, we want to know why his Saturday was so bad he wished it was a school day.
“Depending on who—sorry, whom—you ask, I may have killed my three best friends.”
How doesn’t want to know more from Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
“On the second Sabbat of Twelfth moon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky.”
Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor
And my first sentence: “A large, dark hand grabbed Aaron’s throat and wrenched him out of bed.” The Accidental Archaeologist by Verona McColl