Writing An Opening Paragraph

Your book's first impression to the world is its opening paragraph. It's like the first cry of a baby upon its entrance to Earth. A bugle announcing just what the rest of the story will look like.

Before we jump in, remember that the opening paragraph doesn't have to be perfect at the first go. Yes, the opening paragraph is important, but should you toil over it repeatedly without making actual progress on your book? No. Perish the thought.

What To Do

There are a few ways to write an opening paragraph.

One way is to delve into the psyche of the point-of-view character. What is their mental, physical, or emotional state? Perhaps they just experienced, or are experiencing, a harrowing event. This approach sets the mood for what is to come splendidly.

In addition to revealing the inner workings of the character's mind, it also dumps the reader right in the middle of the action. And who doesn't love some action?

Say you're writing an urban fantasy/romance novel. Your POV character, an average office worker, stays at the office late at night due to overtime. She's the last person around, and she's doing her best to finish the work due tomorrow before clocking out.

How would you write the opening paragraph? Let me know in the comments! Meanwhile, I'll take a shot at it.

Benedicta Simmons tested thousands of torture methods on her boss tonight. Each one was unique and memorable; unfortunately, it was all in her head. She mourned her declining eyesight while squinting at the screen, but the fingers punching her keyboard never stopped.

In a few short sentences, I've revealed the character's name, what the character is doing, her physical condition, the time, and how the character feels about her workload. What you reveal in your opening paragraph doesn't have to be a lot, but it should be important, or at least it should pave the road for what comes next.

Another way to tackle an opening paragraph is to depict the current scene in the most memorable way you can. Go into detail. Engage the five senses. Leave a lasting image in the minds of your readers.

This time, we'll try for a harrowing experience. A police officer is secretly investigating a series of disappearances, and he just discovered the crime scene.

The walls were covered in blood. Not just the walls, the floor and ceiling too. The stench of death and decay flooded Peter's nostrils, but he resisted the urge to bend over and regurgitate his lunch. Bright red layered on dark red, daring onlookers to fathom the horrors that went on in this room. If he didn't know better, Peter would think he had walked into a slaughterhouse rather than a storehouse of the city's most prestigious orphanage.

Quite disturbing, isn't it? This will certainly get your readers wondering who the culprit is, and they just might be invested enough to follow Peter's journey till the end.

The third and most difficult-to-master method to opening your book is dialogue. With dialogue, it becomes easier to reveal a shocking statement that would grab your reader's attention in an instant. However, it puts you at risk of inviting floating-head syndrome in your readers. Without clear hints about where the characters are and what the room looks like, or even smells like, readers will only be able to envision a couple of floating heads speaking to each other in a white room. And at the start of the entire book, where nothing has been introduced about the world and characters, the chances of that happening are quite high.

However, when properly executed, dialogue becomes an incisive weapon that will keep your readers wanting more. To illustrate, I will be taking an excerpt from E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.

"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

"Out to the hoghouse," replied Mrs. Arable. "Some pigs were born last night."

"I don't see why he needs an ax," continued Fern, who was only eight. "Well," said her mother, "one of the pigs is a runt. It's very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it."

"Do away with it?" shrieked Fern. "You mean kill it? Just because it's smaller than the others?"

Mrs. Arable put a pitcher of cream on the table. "Don't yell, Fern!" she said. "Your father is right. The pig would probably die anyway."

Fern pushed a chair out of the way and ran outdoors. The grass was wet and the earth smelled of springtime. Fern's sneakers were sopping by the time she caught up with her father.

"Please don't kill it!" she sobbed. "It's unfair."

Not only is the first sentence incisive and attention-grabbing, you can tell where the characters are and what they are doing, even though the story began with dialogue. Furthermore, as you read further, you get an initial picture of who Fern is as a person: soft-hearted and outspoken.

There's so much you can achieve with your opening paragraph alone. If you aren't content with what you wrote, there are countless chances to rewrite and reshape it to your satisfaction before you publish. You can also seek criticism from fellow writers and friends/family to know how much impact your opening paragraph has.

What Not To Do

Starting off your scene with a poetic description of the weather, or the sky, will only guarantee that your reader is bored half to death in the first three seconds. Why, you ask? Because it reveals nothing about the book's characters and/or conflict. Plus, it's easy to guess what they'll see next.

In summary: not an optimistic start.

Another thing to avoid is info-dumping at the very beginning. I see this happen often with authors who want to sketch out their world in great detail or introduce as many characters as they can, but to a reader who is opening the book for the first time, it will feel like too much is happening all at once.

To this, I say the solution is interaction. You want to showcase that magnificent world you've created, but you can't just let it appear all at once. Reveal it one step at a time. Let your characters interact with that world. To them, the world you've created is as normal as the one we live in. As such, they won't randomly go into detail about how a microwave works.

Of course, it's also possible that understanding a bit of backstory is crucial in comprehending what comes next. In that case, your narrator will be pulling most of the weight, but you should still let your characters involve themselves with the world around them.

If you pace it well, readers will not be averse to learning about your world bit by bit.

Final Note

Your opening scene should be a carefully crafted tease. Reveal enough details to shock the reader or pull them into your world as swiftly as you can. Have them asking: Why? Who? When? What happens next?

Give them enough to keep going but not so much that they get bored or overwhelmed quickly.

Did you find this helpful? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Happy writing!

Your friendly neighborhood editor,

Chiedozi.