This week in our writing group we worked on openings. We each selected an unpublished work, excised our first paragraph to a separate sheet of paper (to keep the work discrete and achievable), and rewrote our openings. We began with the first sentence.
This was hard work. That one sentence carries a heavy burden, a pack laden with all the supplies for a journey before the reader has consumed a single morsel to lighten the load: tone, setup, character, summary, the launch, a hook. The essence of the entire piece.
1. For inspiration, I pulled favorite novels off the shelf and copied first lines into my notebook, like this one from A Prayer For Owen Meany:
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany. (John Irving)
Wow. Right? I mean, I was ready to put everything down and start reading Owen Meany again. But then I realized I don’t write fiction, and I certainly don’t write novels, so maybe I should find inspiration in the type of work I do write: creative nonfiction. I made a list of essays and nonfiction pieces that have stuck with me, and I dug through internet bookmarks and compilations of The Best American Essays to find their openings. Here are the ones I wrote in my notebook. Notice the compelling titles; the title carries tremendous weight as well, and when combined with a great opening, a title can be unstoppable.
2. So You Hate Short Stories? by Jacob Tomsky on Book Riot
I always hated short stories.
I considered reading a short story like going out to dinner and only ordering an appetizer. Want a real meal? Eat a goddamn novel.
3. Rejection Sucks and Then You Die: How to Take a Dear Sad Sack Letter (And Shove It) by Alexis Paige on The Rumpus
Maybe the rejection letter was curt, churned out like a widget, or maybe it was wordy, with a misused semicolon, and penned in a respectable Serif font.
4. Seven Essays I meet in My Literary Heaven by Jennifer Niesslein on Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog
1. The Essay that Manages to Be Funny, Poignant, and Thought-Provoking All at the Same Time.
5. This Is Not a “Travel Blog” (But It Is a Travel Blog) by Cheri Lucas Rowlands on Writing Through the Fog
In her essay about life on tour with a rock band, Claire L. Evans says that travel teaches her more about time than it does about place. I agree.
My favorite kind of “travel writing” — or I suppose writing about place — embarks on an inner journey, and uses a physical location as a diving board into one’s depths, into their mind.
6. A Hidden Writing Life by Simone Gorrindo on Vela Magazine
For the first time in my life, I have a room of my own in which to write.
7. An Unwanted Guest by Simone Gorrindo on Vela Magazine
I didn’t see the jellyfish, but I felt it—a searing pain at my ankle that shot up through my leg, bringing me, in a matter of seconds, to my knees in the sand.
8. “Small Rooms in Time” by Ted Kooser in River Teeth (The Best American Essays 2005)
Several years ago, a fifteen-year-old boy answered the door of a house where I once lived and was murdered, shot twice by one of five people – two women and three men – who had gone there to steal a pound of cocaine.
9. Swerve by Brenda Miller on Brevity
I’m sorry about that time I ran over a piece of wood in the road. A pound of marijuana in the trunk and a faulty brake light—any minute the cops might have pulled us over, so you were edgy already, and then I ran over that piece of stray lumber without even slowing down.
Enjoy, and I hope you find inspiration from these too.
This 9 opening are great openings.
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I love your description of an opening sentence as a back pack. That’s a keeper.
Interesting bit of irony with your choice of John Irving. He has described his own writing method as far as novel writing is concerned. The first thing he needs to do is write the LAST sentence. And then he’s good to write the rest of the novel. (LOVE Owen Meany, btw – I’ve read it several times.)
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Yes, he is a genius. The chapter on openings in The Writer’s Portable Mentor (the book we are using in our craft group) begins with a quote from Irving: “When in doubt, or wherever possible, tell the whole story of the novel in the first sentence.”
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Andrea, as always you provide me with great ideas. I’m trying to start a serious writer’s group, and your info on “objects,” a prompt box, and now modeling openings is awesome. Of course, I need to purchase The Writer’s Portable Mentor! Blessings.
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A good start is half the race.
Every single book I spent my hard earned money on was heavily influenced by the opening line. And that’s from a reader’s perspective.
Of course I took books on loan from friends but when I was left to my own devices I was a fussy reader. I could spot a waste of money on the first page, even though I couldn’t have done much better.
My all time fav opening line comes from a book called ‘Father Joe’.
I won’t type it here. Buying the book will be money well spent.
I think the author’s name was Tony Hendra (I gave the book to a neighbour – a while back)
Great Post!! Very Important reminder.
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I love Brenda Miller! Swerve is one of my all time favorites. Thank you for an inspiring post!
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