12 Ways to Start a Novel
First lines. We all obsess over our novel’s first lines, and rightly so, because from it the rest of the story must flow naturally and without a pause. Here are 10 strategies to use on first lines for your novel. I’ve illustrated them with the “100 Best Lines from Novels,” as chosen by the editors of the American Book Review. The number at the beginning of each quoted line indicates its position in the Best 100 List. This was inspired by an article by Susan Lumenello, “The Promise of the First Line,” (The Writer’s Chronicle, Volume 38, Number 3, December 2005. 57-59).
- It is. . .
This is. . .
These openings give a writer freedom and flexibility because anything can come after these words: abstract images, a synopsis, a setting, etc. To the reader, this opening signals authority. The possible downside is over familiarity with the opening, so that it reads as a cliche.
It was. . .
| Quote | Author | Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. | Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice | 1813 |
| 8. | It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. | George Orwell | 1984 | 1949 |
| 9. | 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. | Charles Dickens | A Tale of Two Cities | 1859 |
| 18. | This is the saddest story I have ever heard. | Ford Madox Ford | The Good Soldier | 1915 |
| 22. | It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. | Edward George Bulwer-Lytton | Paul Clifford | 1830 |
| 24. | It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. | Paul Auster | Add a Comment |