“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
“Call me Ishmael.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
George Orwell, 1984
“I am an invisible man.”
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
* * *
These first lines stand out, not because they are from famous authors or equally famous books. They stand out because they capture the essence of their stories in a few, scant words. They do the hard work of setting the tone while offering a glimpse of what will follow.
First sentences are paramount to stories. They are the first impression. The hook by which readers are tempted to continue on instead of tossing the book back on the shelf so they can keep looking. They are a portal to the story itself.
The sad truth is that many editors and agents only read the opening paragraph to determine a book’s fate. They don’t have time for much more. They are buried in queries and sample chapters. No one has time to wade through them all, suffering past long-winded openings that wander and bore.
Your fate as an author, at least as far as your story is concerned, is contained within your first line and paragraph. How does your stack up?
Each first line should have:
A distinctive voice that sets it apart. The voice should be that of the protagonist or narrator and reflect the voice of the novel in its entirety. Look at the lines above again and consider the voice in each example. They are unique. You could not swap the tone from one line to another story. Holden Caulfield could not narrate Invisible Man. Nor could Dickens use C.S. Lewis’ approach in A Tale of Two Cities. The opening lines fit the stories that follow them.
A point of view. Your reader should know who is speaking, or have a sense of the narrator from the first line and paragraph. They should know whether the narrator is omniscient or from a character’s perspective. Let’s look at examples:
“Here is a small fact: You are going to die. I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please trust me.”
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak — obviously a personal perspective with a distinctive voice and point of view, not to mention attitude. This particular book is narrated by Death.
“Before my wife turned vegetarian, I’d always thought of her as unremarkable in every way.”
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith — another personal narrative in first person that lets the reader know quite a bit about the husband with one line.
“History has failed us, but no matter.”
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee — this is another personal perspective, but this time in third person. Like the other two examples, this opening line sets up a strong backstory. How has history failed the narrator? What happened? Why does it not matter? Or is that comment resigned or fatalistic? It begs for more information.
A first line should pose questions to the reader—questions they need answers for, which results in turning pages to find out why, how, when and all the other W questions.
If you expand the first line to include the entire first paragraph, then a reader/agent/editor should understand more about the core conflict and through line of the story. In short, it should set up what is to follow. Tease details about the protagonist and story to come.
First lines need to include:
A distinct voice
A point of view
A tease of what is to come
But they can contain much more than that. In the next blog, we will look at ways to boost your first line.