Whether you’re writing a term paper, short story, or novel, your first words have an important job to do. They grab the reader’s attention, leaving ’em begging for more. Fail to do that, and your reader will find something more exciting to do, like cleaning the lint from her belly button.
Everyone has different expectations as to what makes a great first paragraph of a story. Genre and personal preference play a large role here. But the most important thing to grab your reader’s attention is the voice. Take note, this is also true for term papers. Not to leave you in suspense or anything, but I’ll be discussing the mysterious voice next week.
There are a few things you want to avoid in the first paragraph of your story:
- Rambling beginnings where nothing is happening except for a long detailed description of your setting and main character. Boring!
- Overwriting. This means too many adverbs and adjectives. I’ll be discussing this topic more in the near future.
- Jumping in without giving the reader anything to cling to. Why should we care about your protagonist as she jumps off a cliff?
- Asking questions. I read a first paragraph recently from an unpublished fiction writer. In it, the protagonist asked five questions. The paragraph had only six sentences in it to begin with. You want your readers to be asking the questions, not the protagonist. If your readers are asking them, then they’ll keep reading because they want to discover the answers. Right?
- Starting with your protagonist waking up, unless she’s jarred awake by someone entering her room. If you do this, then build the suspense (always a goodie for opening paragraphs) so the reader has to go to the next paragraph to find out who the perpetrator is. A vampire. A criminal. Her older sister coming in through the window after sneaking around with the boyfriend her parents disapprove of. Isn’t that more riveting than having Janie wake up, look at the alarm clock, and deliberate what to wear to school?
Those are but a few suggestions as to how not to start your story. But then how should it begin? The books listed below have some great ideas, but I found them orientated more toward adult novels. The best thing is to do a little detective work of your own. Grab your favorite novels or short stories, and study their opening paragraphs to see what you like about them and what turns you off. Then keep that in mind for your next fiction project.
Here’s one of my favorites:
Phoebe and her friends held their breath as the dead girl in the plaid skirt walked past their table in the lunchroom. Her motion kicked up a cool trailing breeze that seemed to settle on the skin and catch in their hair. As they watched her go by, Phoebe could almost tell what everyone was thinking. Everyone, that is, except for the dead girl. (Generation Dead, Daniel Waters)
What could be more compelling than that?
Recommended readings:
Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us: A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing Is Being Rejected, Jessica Morrell
Hooked: write fiction that grabs readers at page one and never lets them go, Les Edgerton
Note: This super cool picture was generated using the first 100 pages of my YA novel, Lost in a Heartbeat, using the Wordle program at http://www.wordle.net/.