How to Open your Novel with a Bang

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Secrets to a Great Opening 

Book openings don't get more perfect than the opening of John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies

In 51 sharp and simple words, the reader is drawn in, understands where it is set, is introduced to a main character along with a hint of what the inciting incident is going to be and drops a bombshell that utterly captures the cultural backdrop of hypocrisy and misogyny against which the story is set. 

That's a lot to achieve in 51 words but I strongly advise you read it. It's a masterpiece of an opening.

The Importance of a Powerful Opening 

It is impossible to underestimate the importance of your story opening. It’s what hooks readers, and by readers, I mean your whole audience, including agents and publishers.

Tips on Writing an Impactful Opening

Avoid cliché – Never, ever start your story with someone waking up. It’s the most overused book opening there is. Surprise your reader. Take them somewhere unexpected that they’ve never been before. They’re more likely to keep turning to the next page.

 Avoid too much description - You risk boring you readers if you go into deep level descriptions of the colours of the landscape, the sound of the countryside, the smells of the house.  Give a flavour, a hint, but leave it there and get to the action. 

Don’t use your opening as a backstory dump – this is not the place to explain how your protagonist ended up in this situation, what their childhood was like or why they fell in love with the wrong person. Readers read a story because it is active, it is moving. You can work all your backstory in later but subtly as the story unfolds.

Consider opening with Dialogue - dialogue brings the reader immediately into the centre of the story. Who is ever going to forget the opening lines of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. 

'You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.'

Spoken by the abusive father to his daughter, haunting, terrifying. Immediately the reader is drawn in knowing there's a child involved and something terrible is going on. 

Keep it Simple - Some of the greatest opening lines are the most simple. It's good to keep in mind the premise of your novel. What was the idea that drove you to write the story in the first place. If you can boil that down to one line, it could be a great opening. Think of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the line that pretty much everyone in the English-speaking world is familiar with, 

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

And so Austen sets out her stall for a story about a group of young single women whose  aim in life is to secure a suitable marriage or risk condemnation to a life of poverty. 

Accept it May Take Months to hit on the Perfect Opening -  don’t pressure yourself. My early attempts at an opening for my latest manuscript, The Win, eventually became the opening of a later chapter. If you hit on a great opening from the start, congratulations, but remember you have to trust the process and eventually it will come. Or to steal a phrase from the movie Field of Dreams, If you build the book, the opening will come. 

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