Frame the story [here, the story is wrapped in someone's dream]:
In his dreams, the old baker does not notice the cracking sound in Raymond's chest.
Have the narrator say the most important thing on their mind (from the 'I' point of View):
I know I'm Dying.
Or, Have the narrator say the most important thing on their mind - that sets up a scenario:
First thing in the morning they’ll be coming for Suzette and Daniel. My babies.
Show the narrator’s frame of mind:
My voices are all on the inside, afraid to come out.
Jump in in the middle:
Today it will simply not happen again.
Tell us something provocative:
She sounded so damn good on the phone.
----NOTE: Do most of your work for this type of opening in the present tense, not the past. Provocative should be immediate
Narrate, setting a dilemma, even a small dilemma:
It took hours to find the exact shade of blue polo shirt he used to wear back when he was the assistant manager for the Globe Tire shop in Torrance.
Open with a letter, email or blog post:
My Dear Loved one, This is me, finally doing as the judge ordered and having the courage up to write.
Narrate, introducing a character from a Memory:
When we were both fifteen, Anna stood in the center of Pious X Girl’s Senior High quad, smiled, winked and started yelling. Out came very cuss word that she knew or could make up for the occasion
Start with a emotional memory:
What I remember most from that day was his nails. Thin bands of bone white, curt in length, like the words he had for my mother.
Open with conflict:
The guy at the back table, the one rustling his newspaper every five seconds, Bobby’d take him out first.
Start with Sights/smells/sensations:
Crystal hadn’t opened her eyes yet when she smelled the stench. Roses. She hated roses. She peeked out from under the sheet and saw the huge glass vase on the night stand; looking rosy, smelling like death.
Begin with a song reminding who/where/what:
The first time Pauline ever heard Rod Stewart sing “The Killing of Georgie” she was in the Fox Hills mall parking lot, waiting in the back seat of Vita’s white 69’ Impala. It was Southern California, November 1976, she was 19 and she thought to herself: This is the best song Bob Dylan’s ever done.
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Chance is only Fate using a pen name ~ ej runyon
32,415 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2007 - 19 26
okay, I now officially love you, because this is exactly what I needed. ^^;;; I tend to have a bit of trouble figuring out how to start stories, and then never do start them because of that.
51,897 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2007 - 20 14
these can also be used to start new chapters or new sections of you novel.
----------the possibilities are endless.
Chance is only Fate using a pen name ~ ej runyon
0 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2007 - 00 21
Thank you. This was very helpful for a newbie such as me. :P
----------51,362 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2007 - 05 19
Interesting thread! I went to a seminar recently that was all about opening lines in novels, and it's a very useful kind of thing to think about. After all, it is arguably the most important line in a book. :) Here are a few more suggestions:
Here I Am:
"Call me Ishmael." Herman Melville, Moby Dick
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Into the Family:
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow." Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Beginning of a Journey:
"An ordinary young man was on his way from his hometown of Hamburg to Davos-Platz in the canton of Graubünden. It was the height of summer, and he planned to stay for three weeks." Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
Into the Action/Grabbers:
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die." Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Broad Statements:
----------"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
"Prestigious. Often an adjective of last resort. It's in the dictionary, but that doesn't mean you have to use it." William Strunk and E.B. White, 'The Elements of Style'
8,021 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2007 - 20 09
Excellent suggestions !! Started my brain turning.... Thanks !
50,141 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2007 - 22 49
These are all excellent! Thanks!
----------~~~
Participant since 2001 ~ Winner since 2002
10,173 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 12 22
I plan to use the Classic:
It was a Dark and Stormy Night
----------51,692 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 15 39
i officially love you also. :)
----------this is EXACTLY EXACTLY what i wanted!! now i don't need to put up a help thread!! XDDD
.
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~*clicky here for photography
52,381 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 18 58
XDD oh my goodness... XDD This brings back good memories... When my sister and I would stay with our grandfather, he used tell us a story every night. Each story would be different, and he would often continue a story over a week or so, but I don't believe he ever finished such a one. Well, anyway, when he had both of us sitting beside him on the old couch, he would start off, "I bet you're never guess what I'm going to say." Of course, since he had been telling us stories since we could remember, we knew what he started every story with, but we played along, "What?" Then, in a mysterious tone, he would say, "It was a daaark and stooormy night." We would giggle, or scoff, or say, "You always say that!" but we listened aptly anyway. The nature of the stories varied, and sometimes he would just start off with it being a dark and stormy night, and there were sailors on a ship, eating biscuits and telling stories to calm them down. Then he would trail off into one of the sailor's stories...
X3 But yeah... I love that phrase now, because it reminds me of those nights spent with my grandfather.
52,381 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2007 - 19 44
hrm... on second thought, please no one blatantly steal this... I might use this/rework this/somehow use this in my novel... XD because it's actually fairly good writing for me...
50,055 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2007 - 18 47
This was very helpful. I plan to begin with a quote by Sylvia Plath.
----------Emily Wallner
Novel 2007: "Deep In The Dark"
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." -Edgar Allan Poe
55,097 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2007 - 21 20
Great list of ways to start novel/chapter/section. Thanks so much!
----------2007 - To Hell and Back (Mainstream fiction)
50,044 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 17 20
Great advice for starting a new scene! Thanks!
----------Word Count: 2725
Characters Killed: 0
Goats Killed: 1
39,954 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 08 17
I often start with a line of dialogue, then jump right into the action of the speaker.
Thanks for all the great suggestions!