The first 100 words of your book are some of the most important words you will write. Those words should grab your reader and make them want to read more. According to The Writers Little Helper, the first 100 words set the tone, establish a point of view, set the scene and should smack the reader between the eyes with an element of "Oh wow!" I love to wander through bookstores grabbing books at random reading first paragraphs.
The Writers Little Helper list's great examples of opening scenes. I thought I'd share a few with you.
I didn't see him at first, I smelled him though... John Grisham' s The Street Lawyer
When I was little I wuld think of ways to kill my daddy. Kaye Gibbons book Ellen Foster
....much as I loved my son, I was glad to see him dissapear. Terry McMillan's How Stella Got Her Grove Back
What are some of your favorite openers?
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4 comments:
Howard Roark laughed. Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Of course, this happens to be one of my all time books, but after reading it several times -- and understanding the character, Howard Roark, this is the perfect opening sentence.
Right now I am in love with Marjorie M. Liu's openers. I just think she is brilliant. Here's the opener to her novella, Hunter's Kiss:
My mother used to say that the tale of the world is drawn in blood, blood in flesh, veins forking into destiny like the branches of the tree from which the apple hung and the serpent danced, trading whispers for the corruption of innocents. Good and evil, knowledge and choice. And there at the root of history, the world tumbld down.
Oh, these are wonderful. They make me want to dive right into the book - exactly what you said they should do. I'm looking forward to checking the site later to see what other openers have been shared.
I have two favorites that are not romance:
When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow - Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Three weeks after Granny Blakeslee died, Grandpa came to our house for his early morning snort of whiskey, as usual, and said to me, "Will Tweedy? Go find yore mama, then run up to yore Aunt Loma's and tell her I said to git on down here. I got something to say. And I ain't a-go'n say it but once't." - Olive Ann Burns, "Cold Sassy Tree"
In the romance genre - here are my three favorites:
At ten minutes after midnight on a muggy Saturday morning in late July, my kid sister, Sistine, shot her rat-b*st*rd boyfriend, Rockerfeller Hughes, with a twenty-two caliber pistol - Lori Wilde, "Saving Allegheny Green"
He didn't even attempt to draw on the intruder; it was far too late for that. The cold weight of a pistol barrel rested on the hollow of his throat, and he heard the click of the hammer as it snapped back - Linda Lael Miller, "Two Brothers"
and finally
"There's no excuse for a grown woman to be so d*mn*d irresponsible. How can you lose an SUV?" - Dixie Cash, "My Heart May Be Broken, But My Hair Still Looks Good"
Tye, great first lines.
I've never read Cold Sassy Tree, but the line alone sends me looking for a copy.
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