How to Write an Effective Opening Line for Your Novel

Here's what I think makes a great opening line, and my thoughts on how to write an opening that will hook your reader from the beginning.

The opening of your book, the beginning of any story really, can be the most difficult part for a writer. Setting the reader's expectation in your opening is a difficult task, but if done right, it can set the tone for an entire novel.

The opening of your book should give the reader an idea of what your book is going to be. There's a lot to pack into an opening, setting, characters, the start of the plot itself. Including all of that, while still making your opening enticing and interesting to read, is one heck of a job.

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[Lorna-JWB]

This is three years after your post, but I LOVE your opening line.

[nehukybis]

Good insight on what makes those such great opening lines. This is why I don't worry too much about the first paragraph until the book is almost finished. Writing the first paragraph for a book you haven't written yet is like delivering a speech that you learned phonetically in a language you don't actually know.

[andreannelavoie]

I'm glad you've decided to extend the series to ten minutes! (Thought I did have a moment --just a fraction of a second-- when I thought I'd lost my mind, because I swore it was two minute techniques before :) . But you explained it all, and I'm glad I'm not imagining things.)

[opollitico]

honestly, you've helped me so much

[JoeyPaulOnline]

Those opening lines are really good and give me a lot to think about!

[MayberryBookclub]

Hello! I found your channel from your interview from Steve. This is a great discussion, a lot of insightful practical information.

[laurabesley]

I think this particular tip/technique is really insightful and useful. I recently read The Road for my uni assignment and thought it was great.

[AwakeArise]

When I saw the title of this video my mind immediately went to the opening line of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger... "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." Such a great opening line. Just had a look through my many opening lines and it appears that while a few packed a good punch, it was more the opening paragraph as a whole that I liked. Needs work I think 🤔

[writeitdown]

Great video! Glad to see you're a big fan of The Road. I wrote my senior thesis on it a few years back in college and love it to this day. It's a deeply profound novel. Did you like the film adaptation? I thought it was probably as good as it could be, and also beautifully shot, but to me it failed to capture the way in which the father employs ceremonies and small gestures for his son as a way to shape the son's experience of the world before the father is gone. You can only really capture that through the details of McCarthy's prose.

[MrK.A]

For me, nothing beats Gabriel Garcia Marquez's opening line in One hundred years of solitude: ''Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

[Joseph.S.Roberts]

Here is the opening line from the crime fiction I had written yesterday...

Troy Stephens gave Brady a blank stare and said. “Jimmy is dead.”

[lauraroberts]

You're making me rethink my first line now. I might have to use one I had later in the first chapter. It's this:
I miss Willow, of all the girls I've killed she's the one I'm closest to.

[MeredithPhillipsWrites]

I love a good opening line! One of my favorites is from Erin Morganstern's "The Night Circus:"
"The circus arrives without warning."

Have you ever thought of what might be a cool opening line, but have no idea what the rest of the story is? I have a couple of those jotted down--lines that imply some kind of mystery or adventure or raise questions. Maybe one day I'll think of a story to go with them!

[WritewithClaireFraise]

I love weird first lines they always hook me

[willname]

Do you put all of your videos in a playlist?

[leigh-anjohnson]

The opening line for my urban fantasy draft is: "I find it easier to trust someone when I know how to kill them, just in case."

How's that?

[L.DacreTynan]

Yes! 1st line success achievement badge unlocked.

Hey, what's your writerly opinion on opening lines starting as dialogue?

[willname]

When you compare stuff, I always think the first one is good, but of course, the second one is better

[morganbroadhead]

The conundrum of writing the opening line to your story is that you often don't know the opening line until after you've drafted the story.

[oyuncanavar]

My opening line:
Alex's father died when he was 10.