I was given this great block, filled with 786 ideas to jump start your imagination. I don’t promise to get through all 786 of them but I will drop as many of these into this block as possible. Thank you to the author, Jason Rekulak. Inspire!!
Idea #1 Opening Lines
What makes a good opening line? It depends on the story. Editors of suspense thrillers often hold a manuscript up to an “Airport Test.” If you were browsing through an airport bookstore, picked up a paperback, and read the opening line, would you buy the book before boarding your flight? You’ll find that John Grisham’s novels pass this text nearly every time. His fifth consecutive bestseller, The Chamber, begins with this whopper: “The decision to bomb the office of the radical Jew lawyer was reached with relative ease.”
But you don’t always need to drop bomb shells on page one. Any Rand’s epic Atlas Shrugged starts by posing a question: “Who is John Galt?” Alice Walker’s The Color Purple opens with a warning: “You better not never tell nobody but God.” And William Gibson’s Neuromancer begins with an arresting image: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
Draw up a list of five favorite novels and review their opening lines. What drew you in? A beautiful metaphor? The hint of danger? Try duplicating the effect in opening lines of your own. See where they take you. …. Jason Remulak
So readers, what is your opening line in your current WIP? Don’t have one? Try this tip by Jason
Mine is: “If it weren’t for the voodoo curse, she’d make a terrific mother.” What do you think?
Writing Under Fire 
Opening line from “Sink Rate”…That sound, it just goes right to the center of his insides.
Opening line from “Rope Break”…Any moment now, coming in from the right on an angle, the sound of wings dragging on the ground grew a little clearer and louder.
Opening line from “Captain’s Cross”…Ben heard the pack horse nicker and then the rustle of a bare branch sliding across leather.
None are jaw dropping, terror inducing or “It was a dark and dreary night” chilling beginnings but they set up the main characters and set a mood. I think you are right though. Real grabber opening lines would get some readers to plunk down the price of admission but we still have to feed them the rest of the book.
I buy books for a lot of reasons. Back cover pitch or the cover itself are big attention getters. An author who I have read before or maybe as a research piece for something I’m working on. Frankly, the first line, paragraph or even page is seldom what does it.
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Good point Mike.
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