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Writing Tips:
What Makes a Good Opening
The less said the better. Entice the reader to want to read on. I love openings where the reader is thrown into a moment in the character’s life without introduction or background so that the reader wants to read on to explore the character, their past and their future. |
Randa Abdel-Fattah offers
tips on: What Makes a Good Opening
Anything that makes the reader want to read on – an intriguing sentence that doesn’t explain itself immediately, a strong voice belonging to a character who sounds like good fun. You could also hint that you have a cracking story to tell – make the reader feel he or she is in safe hands by the confidence of your beginning. |
Some thing which makes your readers intrigued from the very beginning, and want to know more about what's going to happen. Start with a moment of excitement or mystery. Once you've got the reader's attention you can go back and explain what's just happened. |
A good opening for me is one that grips you and doesn't let you go until you've finished the entire book. Don't go into too much character detail to begin with, that can come later. Start with a moment of change for your main character. Something that makes the reader wonder what will happen next. |
The key word is INVOLVE. Involve the reader right from the start. Grab the reader's attention at once. Don't start off with a long scene-setting passage where nothing happens. There must be something in the first few lines that makes the reader want to reach into the story to find out what happens next. |
I like to start my stories at a point where something exciting is happening, so the reader doesn’t have a chance to out the book down! I want people to be hooked into the story from the very start. So… forget lengthy descriptions and jump into the story! |
A good opening is one that interests the reader, perhaps makes them ask a question. |
A problem, a conflict, or an outrageous statement! Always remember that you are trying to engage the reader's attention IMMEDIATELY!!! |
It depends. You might want to make your first line the same as the last line, so the story itself goes in a circle leading you up to that point. Or you might want to shock the |
Anything that raises a question in the reader’s mind that needs to be answered so they read on. (Example: “Stop it” Stop it right now!” she said. We ask ourselves: ‘stop what?’) Or something so confident and authorial that we know we are in the hands of a fine storyteller. |
I go along with the old adage: a dead body on page one. A turning point, a dilemma, a revelation or a puzzle work for me. The opening should ask a question. The rest of the book is an attempt to find the answer. |
Your main character in a position of conflict or crisis. You need a “hook” – then you can flashback with background information. |
You need a good “hook”. Your readers bite and you draw them in. Nothing too dramatic…you just need to get people interested quickly. |
Probably one that draws the readers' attention by surprising, or intriguing, or enticing them in. I usually favour plunging the reader into the story from the first line. This is made easier when I write in the first person, because then you're immediately establishing a dialogue between the writer and reader. It's very direct. |
Really, the basic requirement for a good opening is that it entices you to read the next bit. You have to sink your hooks into the reader if you are going to get him to come along with you for the long ride. And again, this usually comes for me through voice. Whether the speaker is interacting with another character, talking to himself, or addressing the reader directly, the opening statement of the book comes up out of the character, says something important about the character, and says it in a provocative way. If I can open with a funny line, I do (If I can make every single line in the book funny, I do. But I can’t, actually.) Try and make that opening line a head-turner, something to make the reader go whoa, but without sounding ludicrous at the same time. That balance is important because you are going to have to live up to the promise of that first line. |
If you're writing a funny story - begin right away with something funny. A ghost story? Begin with something scary happening. A thirller - make it something exciting. Look at how your favourite books begin - how did they grab you and make you read on? |
The single most important thing is to emotionally involve your reader as quickly as possible. If you are writing a thriller, start with a piece of action. If it's a drama, start with a character facing a problem (preferably one of your main characters) or something that establishes your character's personality and makes the reader warm to them. Another good starting point is to pose a question, or create a mystery - make the reader ask what is happening, and make them want to read on. Avoid starting any story with long descriptive passages of landscapes, or weather, or the world around your characters; you can't get emotionally involved with buildings or hills. I can sometimes jump between two or more narratives at the beginning of the book, but it's best to keep to one if you can, so the reader can follow it and get engrossed quicker and easier. Whatever you do, remember you only have a few pages to grab your reader's attention. The start of your story is the single most difficult and important part. |
A sentence that immediately grips the reader. “Bad Girls” by Jacqueline Wilson starts with “They were going to get me.” See how it draws you in? Do the same. |
A surprise! Or a question? "Some speech," |
Usually a bit of dialogue or something that grabs at the reader, something funny, shocking (depending on the genre). There is also a lot to be said for introducing your main character quickly to get the reader involved. And get to the story from page one. |
A good opening should engage the reader immediately: interest, intrigue, raise questions in the reader’s mind, make him/her want to read on, but it should also hint at what type of story this is going to be. To see how it’s done, look at the opening paragraphs of some of your favourite books, or books by writers who are very good, Philip Pullman’s ‘Northern Lights’, for example, has a great opening, as does Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’. |
Action. Hit the reader hard and fast and go into details later. |
A dramatic line or ‘hook’, something that will make the reader want to continue reading your story. An air of mystery always works well, hinting at an event that has either happened or will happen. |
There is no formula for this. Write something that you, as a reader, would find intriguing or exciting. Never forget that your reader always has plenty of other things he or she could be doing, and you've got to get their attention. Think of yourself as a storyteller, rather than a 'writer', and imagine how you might get someone else interested if you were telling the story aloud. |
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