Five Ways To Write The Perfect Opening Line

Be Unique

Another approach to writing a stellar opening sentence, is to create a unique voice, right out of the gate. A classic example being J.D. Salinger’s opening sentence in The Catcher and The Rye: 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.

I could talk all day about the genius behind this sentence, but suffice it to say, we have a pretty good idea of who the narrator is after reading this. We get just as many clues to his personality and disposition from what he says as from what he doesn’t say, and how he doesn’t say it.

Be Surprising

Memorable first lines are shocking – from the master of the unexpected, George Orwell: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen, (1984).

There is a subdued sort of shock in this sentence, if such a thing can exist. It isn’t over the top, plunging into the deep end of insanity or horror; rather everything about this sentence seems well and good until the very last word: thirteen. There is another lesson to be had in reading this line, namely, word placement. Orwell could have written, “The clocks were striking thirteen on a bright cold day in April,” but it clearly doesn’t have the same punch as the original.