{"id":264971,"date":"2021-01-05T14:06:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T14:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=264971"},"modified":"2025-05-09T15:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T14:12:44","slug":"good-opening-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/good-opening-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Lines For A Story (Great, Effective & Bad Examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s great & effective? What\u2019s downright bad?
Real Examples From Real Writers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, we ran a competition soliciting opening <\/a>lines or sentences from real writers, with a small prize available for the winner. We\u2019re going to look at some examples drawn from that competition… along with my own (hyper-picky) comments about what\u2019s really good, and really effective. And what\u2019s just a bit… not so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we plunge into our sentence surgery, three quick comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the examples that follow are drawn from writers writing real novels (or short stories). They are, like you, serious aspiring writers, but not yet published. For the most part, we were looking at works-in-progress, so these examples were all subject to change anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, opening sentences don\u2019t matter all that much. The opening paragraph of the novel I\u2019ve just handed to my publisher ran, in its entirety, as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘Rain.’<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Was that a good opening line for a novel? Well, no one asked me to change it, but does that sentence hook a reader in?<\/a> And hook them into a story set in Wales, where the presence of rain hardly merits much discussion? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact is that the process of hooking a reader usually takes longer than a sentence and writers shouldn\u2019t obsess unduly about the stuff above and to the left of the manuscript\u2019s first full stop. There\u2019ll be plenty more full stops to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And last: I\u2019m horrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, yes, I\u2019m nice to widows, orphans and stray dogs, but I\u2019m horrible to slightly iffy sentences. I\u2019m very picky and my standards are high. So if some of my could-do-better commentary below depresses you \u2013 well, forget it. It\u2019s not you. It\u2019s me. But if you want to learn how to write opening sentences, then you probably want to look at what follows…<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n