On Opening Lines
Greetings, writers—
We had a great generative writing class Monday night1. I hope to offer these monthly, with the next one being Monday, April 10th, same time (7:00 pm), same place (Zoom). More info TK2 soon.
After class, one participant emailed me what he’d written, which was a really great piece, and thanked me for being “our coach and writing witness.”
With Good Ideas, I’ve been thinking of myself as a teacher, a cheerleader, and a boss (“Write X for 20 minutes!”). But the much better term, actually, is writing witness—I’m here to encourage and honor people’s creative processes, to offer support and, I hope, a sense of community.3 You want to write? I want you to write, too.
Okay—onto the prompt for today.
“Uncle Harold was famous for lying.” So begins a chapter of Russell Baker’s memoir, Growing Up.
“My brother Ward was once a famous man.” This is the first line of Pete Dexter’s The Paperboy.
Two short, declarative sentences, both involving the verb was and the adjective famous and both promising narrative pleasures ahead: the first because we’ll be treated to whoppers from Harold, and the second because we’re going to find out why Ward was famous and, perhaps more importantly, why he isn’t famous anymore.
Open a scene with a similarly brief sentence that makes a powerful statement about your character (or yourself).
Either continue with what follows your strong initial declaration, or else write a bunch of really short, punchy opening lines until you get one you really love.
Here are a few more examples, all employing “to be” verbs, which some folks will tell you to avoid but which clearly have their place in good writing.
Marley was dead, to begin with. — Charles Dickens
I am an invisible man. — Ralph Ellison
I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other. — Sara Gruen
Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. — Ernest Hemingway
Happy writing—
Emily
The only thing I would’ve done differently was not instantly confess to burning off half of my hair with a curling iron. 🤷🏻♀️
TK means to come, and it is the “word” that appears more than any other in my current novel draft—e.g., virtually every character’s name is TK, because I don’t know what to call them yet.
Thanks for the new terminology, Logan!