Grabbing the reader by the lapels

[John Dean]

One of the key things that I tell my creative writing students is that the opening lines of their stories are crucial.

Why? Because harassed publishers, overworked agents and readers with a mass of choice all need grabbing within moments of picking up the book/short story/manuscript.

It is like the writer reaching out of the page, clutching the reader by the lapel and saying ‘don’t you dare go away, this is going to be good!’

The first rule of opening lines is that they should possess most of the individual elements that make up the story. An opening paragraph should have a distinctive voice, a point of view, a rudimentary beginning of plot and some hint of characterisation and place.

That’s a lot to pack into a few lines and you might be tempted to begin your narrative before the action starts. Far better, though, to begin at the first moment of something interesting happening, which is more likely to grab the reader‘s interest.

A key way of doing this for crime fiction, indeed all storytelling, is using The Question – posing something of intrigue which the reader needs answering. Why are the police in a graveyard at midnight, who is the man who has emerged onto a deserted night-time street, why are the burglars targeting this remote house in particular?

Whatever it is, asking the Question gives you a chance of getting your reader to the bottom of the page then onto the next page then onto the next chapter …