You’ve got the first sentence to make someone want to read your first paragraph (and the first paragraph to make them read the first page, and the first page to make them read opening chapters).
Actually, you have the book or story title to get them to read the book/story description, then that description to get them to read the first line, but that’s a whole other discussion.
So what is the common wisdom on ways to a write story opening that grabs and engages your readers?
1) Writing an Opening Hook
- Your opening hook needs to flow naturally into the rest of the story, be true to it, match its tone and style, and not feel like a gimmick or a standalone bit of cleverness just to get the reader’s attention. It perfectly sets up the reader for the journey to follow.
- Ways to “hook” your readers include:
- Open with a shocking or funny statement or fact;
- Setting up a situation that leaves the reader with a question that they feel they just have to keep reading in order to get answered;
- Show the main character with a problem the reader wants to keep reading to find out more about and see resolved (more on this below);
- In general, connecting with the reader, grabbing their interest, and then rewarding that with an interesting and satisfying second sentence, then paragraph, etc. that flows naturally from that first hook.
Sometimes an opening line may be the thing that inspires the rest of your story to begin with.
If not, consider waiting until you’ve written your full first draft to go back and start massaging the opening line, as your entire opening may change to fit what you end up actually writing for your ending.
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