It Began with A Hook

Podcast Episode:

MAL Season 2, Episode 8 10/7/23….  It Began With a Hook

Word of the week:

Convey: Communicate a message; make an impression

10 Great Opening Lines

A great opening line can draw a reader in and keep them reading your story.  One of the best ways to improve your own writing is to learn from the best.  Here are 10 great opening lines from different authors.  

1. “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?”

Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carrol

2. “On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre Dame de la Garde signaled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.”

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
by Alexandre Dumas

3. “All children, except one, grow up.”

Peter Pan
by J.M. Barrie

4. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens

5. “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.”

A Series of Unfortunate Events
by Lemony Snicket

6. “To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.”

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle

7. “My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.”

Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens

8. “This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”

The Princess Bride
by William Goldman

9. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” 

The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien

10. “Marley was dead, to begin with.”

A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens

Tips: 8 Ways to Write a Great Opening Line

A great opening line sets the tone for the message you want to convey in your writing.  Here are 8 tips on writing a great opening line:

1. Start in the middle.  Create an opening line that draws your reader right into the where the action is already happening.
2. Begin with a name.  This could be the main character, or another character that will have an impact on the story.
3. Grab your reader’s attention.  This could be a question, confusion, humor, tension, or another method to get the reader interested in what you are writing.
4. Give your reader a sense of place.  Where does the story take place?  Make your reader feel like they are actually there, at that place with vivid details. 
5. Start with conflict.  Begin your writing with a conflict between two of the characters, or the environment and the character. 
6. Describe an important item.  Begin by showing your reader something important that will play a large role in the story. 
7. Start with a flashback.  What happened in the past to bring your character to where they are today?
8. Begin with a strange detail, something that will grab the reader’s attention and give hints of what is yet to come.

Writing Prompt: Opening Lines

Create a list of ten unique opening lines for a story about a haunted house in different genres.