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First Line

Your first chapter, first paragraph, first line all need to be catchy, don't they? Otherwise, it'll be a lot more difficult to sell your story. So where do you get really good opening lines?

Unless one pops into your head right away, chances are you need to write the rest of the story before you can come up with an intro with good resonance. Here's what I do when I need to create a first line:

- Finish my story
then
- Decide what the theme of the story turned out to be
- Figure out if there's a way something in the very beginning can foreshadow the theme
or
- Determine what my character turned out to be like, in essence
- Show the character doing something that demonstrates the key characteristic.

For more tips on characterization, check out this interview I did.

Your Assignment

Back by popular demand! Your assignment this week — take a story you're almost finished with and brainstorm three different ways you could start it. If you aren't currently wrapping up a project, you could try this on a piece by someone else you've recently read.