My Yahoo! + Movable Type Blog

Beginnings are difficult.  New beginnings even harder.  As 2008 approaches, let's think "beginnings."

 The most important part of any writing is the "beginning," not the end, because that's the first impression your reader has of your writing.  The very "first" sentence.  And that's what every editor will use as a deciding factor--the first sentence and no more than the first page of your work.  The ending doesn't matter if your beginning doesn't work.

 So, this is a great exercise.  Create the best opening sentence you can. But before you do so, make believe that this sentence is the only sentence an editor gets to read of your work. From this one sentence, the editor decides whether or not to read the rest of your manuscript.

Here are some awesome opening sentences to great works:

Judgment by Kate Wheeler - When Maryland Thompson dies he wants to be buried with the body of a twelve-year-old girl.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier - They murdered him.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.

 The Master by Colm Toibin - Sometimes in the night he dreamed about the dead - familiar faces and the others, half-forgotten ones, fleetingly summoned up. 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.

Get out some of your favorites stories and books and read the first lines before starting. Notice how the first sentence draws you in immediately.  That's what your first sentence, and especially your first page, must do.

Hope you'll share a few of your "beginnings" with us.

Richelle