What do great story introduction examples teach us?

1. Good story openings make us curious

Let’s dive in by examining examples of the first lines of stories that supply the above insights:

1. Good story openings make us curious

A strong story opening immediately makes you want to know more. The author tantalizes you with incomplete
knowledge.

Take the opening line of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992), for example:
The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand
the gravity of our situation.

Referring to the death of a character with an unusual nickname makes us want answers to ‘who’ and ‘why’. Who’s
Bunny and why’s he dead? Tartt’s use of past-perfect tense (‘Bunny had been dead for several weeks before…’)
extends the sense of mystery to the events following on from Bunny’s death. Bunny hasn’t died right this moment
or 5 minutes ago. It’s been weeks, and those weeks are a blank space the reader wants filled in.

The opening teases us with unanswered questions, hinting at the narrator’s possible complicity (along with the
involvement of other, not-yet-introduced characters).

2. Strong opening sentences introduce novel themes

Many great novels open with narration or description that doesn’t immediately suggest the themes of the story.
There is no absolute ‘rule’ for first lines (other than to craft a good sentence) when writing a novel.
Yet many celebrated novels do open with lines that establish theme.

The opening to Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most famous first lines in fiction:

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.

Dickens’ first line is an excellent example of a catchy first sentence. The parallel construction contrasting extreme
opposites is memorable due to its repetitive, epic-poem-like structure. It also clearly establishes theme. It suggests
the book’s preoccupation with historical processes (specifically the French Revolution).
 3. Enticing story beginnings make bold statements

The opening sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Constance Garnett translation) is another famous first line
from classic fiction:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Tolstoy’s first line introduces the domestic strife that drives the story’s tragic events, using a bold, sweeping
statement.The opening line is effective for two reasons. On one hand, it makes a claim we might argue with.
‘Happy families are just as diverse as unhappy ones,’ we might object.Secondly, the opening sentence is well
constructed. The opposition between happy and unhappy families has symmetry. The sentence structure draws
our attention to this opposition. Its clear structure makes us dwell on the statement and become curious about
how this bold claim will be proven by the story.

4. Hook-driven openings set story development in motion

Interesting first lines of novels often begin with striking character actions that prepare the stage for further
developments.The opening sentence of George Orwell’s famous novella about farm animals staging a revolt
introduces the antagonist, the farmer who is the villain to the revolutionary animals:

Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the
pop-holes.

Orwell shows his character making a mistake in the first line. Because Orwell mentions Jones’s oversight, it
becomes significant – we surmise there will be consequences for this drunken mistake.Through
this, plot development (the conditions necessary for the animals meeting to organize their rebellion) is shown from
the start.

5. Effective openings set fitting tone

The first sentence of a novel doesn’t necessarily need to focus on your protagonist or a central character. Take this
fantasy first line example from the prologue to George. R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones:
“We should start back,” Gared urged, as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”

There is a clear, immediate tone of danger. Despite many blogs and books advising to the contrary, Martin begins
with dialogue (many assume that beginning with dialogue is somehow wrong whereas here we can see how
effectively it can introduce character, tone, and place rolled into one).This fantasy opening sentence example is
effective for several reasons. The two sentences:

1. Introduce characters on the cusp of a possible change for the worse (creating immediate suspense).
2. Lend the action a sense of urgency (the stakes of the party not turning back are implied to be mortal in the
reference to the dead wildlings).
3. Establish not only place (the woods) but its morbid mood, too.
4. There is already a sense of GMC – Goal, Motivation and Conflict, or what characters want, why they want it, and
potential drama in the works.
6. Inviting first lines of novels orient us with context

Inviting opening lines of novels lay down context for the events that follow. We’re introduced to a setting or a
point in narrative time.

The first line of Harper Lee’s celebrated To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, establishes the teenage viewpoint of
the narrator Scout’s world:
When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

The line itself perhaps doesn’t rank with the greatest openings of all time: it’s simple and doesn’t tease any great
mystery. Yet it’s precisely this simplicity and the family-oriented voice of Scout that leads us into the story.From
the opening line we start forming a sense of Scout’s young but mature, empathetic character.

7. The best first lines introduce strong narrative voice

A great aspect of first person narrators is the immediacy of the first person pronoun, ‘I’.

Starting a story using first person means introducing a character’s worldview and psychology from the start.

J.D. Salinger does this brilliantly in The Catcher in the Rye (1951), creating a vivid impression of the cynical Holden
Caulfield:
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my
lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David
Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

Holden’s words come across as sarcastic and world-weary, creating a vivid portrait of a disaffected teen.The direct
address to the reader takes the reader into the narrator’s confidence, rapidly establishing intimacy, too. This
inviting voice gets us to invest emotionally in the narrator quickly.