Story opening lines are critical to your writing success. How many fantasy tales have you read that start with \u201cIn the year of 456, the dark Kingdom of Somethingness was on the verge of war\u2026\u201d? As a reader and editor, I\u2019ve seen too many.<\/p>\n
We care about the characters. They are what hooks us into the story, and they keep us reading until the end. The relationships between the characters, their fates, their transformations, the power dynamics are the core of any story \u2013 they are the heart of the drama.<\/p>\n
Asking the reader, especially in short stories, to wait for the actual characters to show up later than the story\u2019s opening lines means, almost always, that the writer is misusing the trust of the reader.<\/p>\n
There is a credit of trust between the reader and the writer. Built on making and fulfilling promises about the story, it is a silent contract between the storyteller and their audience. By filling the story opening lines with things that the reader does not yet care about, you borrow from that credit. If it is not repaid soon enough \u2013 you lose the reader.<\/p>\n
In discussions about beginning stories with worldbuilding, fantasy and sci-fi, authors love to bring out the corpse of the\u00a0Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u00a0and point at six million pages of \u201cConcerning Hobbits\u201d chapters describing the smoking and culinary habits of halflings with hairy feet.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em>\u00a0actually reinforces the position that we should start with the characters. J.R.R. Tolkien shows us the equilibrium of the peaceful life of the peace-loving hobbits. He makes sure that by the start of the action we care not only for Frodo and Sam but for the way of life and the community that they represent.<\/p>\n This artistic decision allows for the rest of the story to work \u2013 we care enough to endure fifty-seven pages of elven poetry and whatever that Tom Bombadil nonsense was.<\/p>\n Look at the beginning of Albert Camus\u2019\u00a0The Stranger<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cAujourd\u2019hui, maman est mort.\u201d Today, Maman died. The first line tells the reader so much information with just three words \u2013 a plot point that is a wonderfully dramatic moment for the story and characterization \u2013 the distance of the book’s protagonist, Meursault, from the woman who bore him. A single sentence paints a three-dimensional picture of the character, his world, and his subjective perception of that world.<\/p>\n That is true for all formats of writing, be it novels, novellas, or short stories. But it is most critical to short stories. With limited space, the story requires top-notch effort to be told as succinctly and efficiently as possible.<\/p>\n That \u201cKingdom of Somethingness\u201d sort of introduction, while being uninformative, tells the reader a lot:<\/p>\n Another aspect of weak beginnings is that they reveal the issues in the theoretical, behind-the-scenes, side of the writer\u2019s storytelling techniques.<\/p>\n Dramatic storytelling is built on characters and their relationships, and the dialectical nature of it \u2013 the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis \u2013 allows for conflict to ensue and give birth to beautiful and engaging stories. When the author negates some part of the inner workings of the story and does not think them through or polish them enough, their story ends up limping on feet of clay.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t despair – there is still hope…<\/p>\n Authors could easily overcome the issue of a false start by asking themselves the following questions:<\/p>\n The first one requires introspection into what image you as an author want to put into the mind of the reader, what aftertaste will last for weeks after they put your story down. To practice it, imagine yourself a sculptor, with Occam\u2019s razor instead of a chisel in your hand, carving away all that does not add depth and tangibility to your image.<\/p>\n The second question requires patience and practice to master all the literary tools at your disposal. With each draft and each rewrite, the content and form of your story\u2019s opening lines will improve (as will the overall quality of the text).<\/p>\n But this doesn\u2019t mean you have to rewrite the same stuff endlessly in complete isolation (unless that\u2019s what works for you) or religiously study\u00a0Elements of Style<\/em>. There is a myriad of resources to start with. Most of them available for free, including:<\/p>\n It took Stephen King more than fifteen years, and one can only wonder how many drafts, to come up with one of the best opening lines in modern literature, and what he himself considers one of the best lines he\u2019s written: \u201cThe man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed him.\u201d<\/p>\n When I sort through the slush pile, I\u2019m always giving every story a chance, reading it to the very end before rendering the final decision. Editing is another story. I\u2019d die on the hill of beginning with the characters, and I do all I can so that my authors don\u2019t forget about it.<\/p>\n There rarely are any writing rules or advice that can be applied universally. They are guidelines at best. Readers have different attention spans, different expectations, and different perceptions of the same techniques. And yet, when the underlying dramatic elements have been mastered, tamed, and polished, the reader stands no chance from the first sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[37,7,11,12],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Your Story in a Single Sentence<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Good Story Opening Lines Need a Strong Base<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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In the Beginning, There Were Two Questions…<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n