When considering how to open their stories, authors too often ask themselves: What information do I want to feed out to the reader at the start?  This approach is fraught with problems. If you are a writer, you undoubtedly already know that we change our minds about this a lot, until our openings become the most often-rewritten aspect of a manuscript. Make no mistake: opening a novel can be tricky, and the effort deserves all of the time and attention you are willing to apply. But a surer approach can be found with a different question: What is it my reader wants from my opening?  The basic answer: He wants to gain orientation to the story while questions are raised. These questions create little mysteries that tip him into the story. Since this technique works regardless of genre, let’s look at the ways a few disparate authors successfully employ it—with only their first three sentences. The Salt God’s Daughter  by Ilie Ruby We ran wild at night,...

This month’s question often plagues first-time writers and sometimes experienced ones. A great story idea comes to mind. You write it down so you won’t forget it, and then the notes begin. Characters form in your mind, an outline takes shape as a storyline, and the plot thickens. You create character sketches and review them (even if only in your mind) until you know each one as though you had been acquainted for years. With a working title in place, you sit down at the keyboard (or typewriter or with a writing tablet and pencil), ready to produce a bestseller. Where do you begin your story? Now that “once upon a time” has fallen from favor, this is often the first of several challenges that face a writer embarking on a new tale. The experiences of those whose books I’ve edited, as well as my own, indicate the first chapter or two are the most difficult to write. They can also be among the most challenging to edit. Why is this? Even though we think we know our characters intima...

I love to pick up a book and read the first line. Sometimes they really are a “hook,” set to reel me into the story. Writing gurus tell us we need to do that, especially when submitting to agents and publishers, because if they’re not compelled to read beyond the first line, your manuscript will find its way into the rejection file rather quickly. Sometimes they stay with me…for weeks, months, even years. My all-time favorite is “The last camel collapsed at noon” from Ken Follett’s Key to Rebecca . Our writing group once did an exercise using that sentence as their opening line. The results were fascinating. Every story was different. Another one I especially like is “The man with ten minutes to live was laughing.” (Frederick Forsyth) That’s a line that makes you wonder, why is he laughing when he’s about to die? I want to know! And then there is “I stopped shooting people two weeks after I won the Pulitzer Prize” from Dead Sleep , by Greg Iles. Again, makes you think. The writ...