Good story openings are challenging to write but an inviting or catchy first sentence reels readers into your fictional world. Here are 8 famous first lines that teach us how to begin a novel in style:
1. Good story openings make us want more information
A strong story opening immediately makes you want to know more. The author tantalizes you with incomplete knowledge. Take the opening line of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, for example:
The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation . . . see more.