On Twitter, (X), #LineByLineTime will be sharing WIP openings on June 12, 2024.
When thinking of a book’s opening, examine each piece of information presented and how it fits into the plot. The reader is “meeting” the leading character for the first time.
Consider hair color. Does raven hair change or have anything to do with the plot? Could the main character “play the part” if she/he were blonde? If the character was raised in foster care, does that fact lend itself to the opening events? Is the scene about foster care? Is a piece of information, such as a romantic breakup, absolutely necessary to this all-important opening sequence?
Most backstory information is for the writer, not the reader. Leave it out, and the reader will never miss it. When writing opening words, resist the need to fill the reader in on every past aspect of the main character’s life. Readers can’t possibly care about past events until they know the main character. Trying to make the reader “feel sorry for” the sad events of someone they are just meeting is a lost cause.
The reader must introduce someone in a situation the reader can identify with or care enough about to continue reading. The question is, “Do I give a rip about this person and what they are doing?”
The second step is stakes. Does this character have any stake in the current events? If the main character doesn’t care, the reader won’t either.
The third step is agency. A hint that some change is possible. It may not be in the main character’s immediate power, but we must feel the possibility of that ability, or at least desire to have it. Without agency, it is hard to capture an agent’s or reader’s attention. Agents, in the opening lines, are readers. Once the book is published, the reactions of an agent or a reader are similar. They will either turn the page—or set the book aside.
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