You’re writing fiction, so you’re aware of the importance of narrative hooks.
Always plant your first hook in the first sentence of your novel.
Start your novel with a hook: it’s a promise
What’s a “hook” in fiction? It’s a promise that keeps readers reading — a promise that something is either happening, or is about to happen.
Your novel’s first sentence must be a hook. Otherwise readers won’t read your second sentence.
Five “hooky” first sentences (all bestsellers have hooky first sentences)
Let’s look at the opening sentence of five novels. Each and every one is a hook.
Here we go…
The recovery mission was called off at 6:56 P.M. (Sandra Brown, Ricochet)
The music-room in the Governor’s House at Port Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli’s C major quartet. (Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander (Aubrey/Maturin Series, Book 1) )
Matilda Jane Roberts was naked as the air. (Larry McMurtry, Dead Man's Walk: Lonesome Dove 1)
From above, from a distance, the marks in the dust formed a tight circle. Jane Harper, The Lost Man
The stranger appeared just after lunch on day one of Wyatt’s operation against the Mesics. (Garry Disher, Crosskill, Wyatt Book 4)
I love those five sentences because each one is perfectly tuned to the readers of the genre of that novel.
Tip: pay attention to first sentences in the novels you READ, especially if you enjoyed the novel.
Do this:
- Read the novel. Then if you enjoyed the novel,
- Go back and reread the first sentence and ask yourself some questions.
You might ask:
- What made me keep reading after I read the first sentence?
- How did the sentence make me feel?
- Did the sentence encapsulate something about the novel? What?
Of the above five first sentences, my favorite is the first sentence of Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander. The novel begins his Aubrey/ Maturin series of novels; they’re set during the Napoleonic Wars.
In the first scene, Aubrey and Maturin meet. It’s one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever read. Although it seems that nothing much happens in the scene, we discover the characters of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. We also learn about the Royal Navy in 1800.
The first sentence introduces the scene and the novel — we like these two men, and want to read more. Readers who read the blurb of Master and Commander know what they’re getting: a novel about naval warfare. So the first sentence creates cognitive dissonance and arouses the reader’s curiosity.
Tip: write your novel, THEN worry about the first sentence (it may well be FINE)
All authors know that the first sentence of a novel is vital. If a reader won’t read your first sentence, he won’t read your book.
Some first sentences are so memorable they’re famous. Consider:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” (Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities.)
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” (Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca.)
New authors know that their novel’s first sentence is of vital importance, as is the first scene in their novel. So, they tend to rewrite the first few paragraphs over and over.
Don’t do that. Write your novel. Then rewrite your first sentence, if you must. Often you’ll discover that your first iteration of your first sentence is fine, so don’t think you must make it “perfect.”
The specific words in your first sentence don’t matter. All you need to do is keep readers reading. As long as your first sentence is a hook, readers will do that.
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