New Shoots

Snowdrops in London’s Regent’s Park, St. Brigid’s Day, Feb. 1st, 2020. 

In Ireland, February 1st, St. Brigid’s Day, is the first of spring. Admittedly, we’re a bit ahead of ourselves weather-wise, but these snowdrops in London’s Regent’s Park get it. With an opening as elegant and simple as a snowdrop – spring must be a good thing.

Just as nature opens with a simple attention grabber – so should your work.

Your first line is probably the most important in your work. It should surprise and intrigue your reader and somehow give a taste of what is to come. Ideally, it should be unusual or uncanny and most importantly, it should encourage your reader to read on…

‘”Damn,” said the Duchess.” is a first line  attributed to Agatha Christie, though I am unable to identify which of her novels is thus launched. Regardless of its provenance, this line is arresting, or was in its day. “Damn” was a pretty raw word in 1920 or so, rarely uttered in front of ladies, not to mind say by one, and then one of high social standing. So, an opening line such as this was written to shock, to intrigue, to grab the readers’ attention and it is a good idea to find one with a similar punch in the modern age.

Thereafter, is often a good idea to follow your first line with a pacy set of three chapters. These are also the showpiece you’ll be sending off to agents and publishers, so make sure they’re written to hook.

Some writers write their last chapter first, so they can figure out their plot, and then leave writing those all-important first few pages until last. In fact, the very last piece of writing they might do is the first line. Therefore, don’t fret over your opening, get the rest of your work down and come back to it later if necessary.

And, take note that just as your first line should reach out and grab your reader – your final line should linger with your reader for sometime afterwards…

 Can you guess which works gave us the following opening lines? Answers below

1) ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’

2) ‘I’m writing this sitting in the kitchen sink.’

3) ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’

4) ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’

5) ‘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.’

6) ‘Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.’

7) ‘Mother died today.’

8 ) ‘It was the day my grandmother exploded.’

9) ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’

10) ‘He – for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it – was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters.’