How critical is your first page, really?
If it doesn’t grab the reader / editor / agent on the first page, you are done.
Step 1: Opening line
- Memorable
- Poetic
- Gets a laugh
- It out to connect, entice, tickle reader’s curiosity
- Make it impossible for a reader t put your book down
Your opening line should invite the reader to read the story.
Good examples to study:
- Hunger games
- Fault in our stars
- Twilight
- We were liars
Stages of hooking your reader:
- Hook
- Tease
- Taste
- Establishment
- Character
The Hook:
- Start in the middle of the action
- Shock the reader
- Be funny or unexpected
- Dialogue – something to connect with instantly
Tease
Taste
- Giving people a hint of the style
- Give them your voice at its purist
- Does voice match subject matter
- Establish dominance over story from the start
- Check out your favourite authors and see what their opening lines are like
Establishment
- Earthing reader in the story
- Two different ways
- Set up scene – time and / or place
- Let reader know what kind of story they will get
- Eg young adult, romance, murder mystery
Character
Step 2: Follow up with a smashing opening page:
Context
- Setting the scene
- Grounding reader as soon as possible
- Exactly where they are
- When they are (time era season etc)
Atmosphere
- Emotional atmosphere
- How do you feel inside the character’s eyes
- Sight, smell, taste etc
- Put reader in right mood for your story
- Energy
- Hope, fatigue, delight etc
Tension
- Does your opening have tension?
- Doesn’t have to be action
- Create empathy – emotional attachment to reader
- Show, don’t tell
- Dialogue works
- Better to be part of conversation
Character imprint
- If doesn’t happen on opening line, make it happen on first page
- Is antagonist the first person we meet? First person who intrigues us
- Take care when introducing secondary characters too early
- Think of how they are introduced, if name, he, she etc
- Reader wants to love the hero so will forgive him a long
- Heroine needs to be strong enough to match him
- Get hero and heroine on page together quickly
Prologue
- Keep it short
- Use only if absolutely necessary
- Often can be chapter 1
Closing
- Opening is what hooks them
- Closing is what gets them to buy next book
- Reason readers stick to the book all the way through
- If question is asked at beginning of book, then this is place to answer it
Kindle direct
- Now pays based on how many pages they read, rather than per book
First page
- Inviting
- Intriguing
- Grounding
- Cajole reader to keep going
Ally will put notes up on her website