Openings That Pull a Reader In

An opening has one job: to make the next paragraph necessary. It does that by giving the reader something unsettled - a person who wants something, a detail that does not fit, or a voice worth listening to. Three openings that work, and why: A person in the middle of an action: 'She was still holding the envelope when the bus came.' We arrive inside a moment that has already begun. A sentence that contradicts itself: 'The most honest man I ever met was stealing from me at the time.' We stay to find out how both halves can be true. A plain statement with weight behind it: 'My mother sold the piano on a Thursday.' Nothing is explained and everything is implied. What all three avoid is weather, throat-clearing and backstory. A reader will accept a great deal of confusion about who these people are; what they will not accept is being bored while you set up. Begin where your story is already under way, and trust the reader to catch up. Revise the opening last, never first. Once you know what the story is really about, you will see which detail belongs in the first line - because that detail is the whole story in miniature. Try this Write five different first lines for the same story. Then decide which one makes the following paragraph unavoidable, and begin the story there. Questions to sit with Could your opening line also serve as the last line? What would the story have to do to earn that? What does your first paragraph promise, and does your ending keep that promise?