OPENING SENTENCES

Opening sentences – Novels and Short Stories

Recently I received a link from my friend Melody. The article from The Atlantic talked about time Stephen King spends on “opening sentences”. It is interesting how different methods writers use to hone their craft, and how hard famous writers work at their craft.

I am a great admirer of Stephen King. Though his genre does not appeal to me I enjoy his craft. His “On Writing” a candid part-memoir, part-tool book is an excellent guidebook for all writers. He gives writers the basic skills of the craft beginner writers ought to be aware of. Every writer has his personal method. I read “On Writing” twice and I am sure I shall find reading it a third time just as illuminating. The tools he discusses in this book are invaluable to writers but he did not mention opening sentences.

King says an intriguing context is important, and so is style. But when starting a book he composes the starting sentences first, usually in bed before going to sleep. He could spend hours, weeks, months and even years perfecting his opening. It is his opening that later writes his book for him. “I’ll try to write a paragraph. An opening paragraph. And over a period of weeks and months and even years, I’ll word and reword it until I’m happy with what I’ve got. If I can get that first paragraph right, I’ll know I can do the book.”

One of my favourite first paragraphs come from the powerfully written “God of Small Things” by Arundathi Roy. The first page gives us a clue to the whole story.

The first lines: “May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month…
The nights are clear but suffused with sloth and sullen expectation.”

And soon paragraphs quietly sum up the entire novel.
‘It sets you in time. It sets you in place.’ We’re intrigued by the promise.
And the flow does not fail to keep that promise going, making the reader wanting to read and at the same time not wanting the book to end.

For me, as a writer, first lines are not a problem, it’s the endings I cannot come up with. I mull over them, write and rewrite and feel I can never get them just perfect.

First lines from some of my short stories from Floating Petals:

Running Away: “I am ten and my friends smell of fish.”

The Shadow: “It is still dark at predawn. I panic, I look around, can’t find myself. I see her.”

My Gods: “Gods, they were many in our household. We were a pan religious family.”

The Floating Petals: “When did they break your toes?”

The Couple: ““Let’s go check on our pigs,” Swee Lee said.
“Our?”
“Well, they were ours for a time.”
She and Tan floated smoothly side by side.”

Some writers in order to engage readers throw in good opening paragraphs, a dramatic scene from deep inside the story. I find this often poses a problem. It quite often leads to the unfolding of a plodding back-story or gives rise to too long an introduction. Many a book with a great hook has ended up unread in a book cemetery somewhere.

I agree with the comment from a reader:
“In my opinion, if an author needs a catchy first sentence to draw his reader in, he’s missing something much more important. (Similarly, if a reader judges a book by its first sentence, that reader must be so lacking in understanding of writing that why the heck would anyone write for him anyway?)
A good book is a good book. A catchy first sentence is the pretty parsley on top.”

The art of writing needs deep study, deep thought, and deep, deep hard work.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/why-stephen-king-spends-months-and-even-years-writing-opening-sentences/278043/