Grab Readers with First Lines

This month’s theme is plot, so I’m kicking off with the first part of any plot–the opening lines of your story and the need to grab readers with first lines. Beginnings are tricky. Authors need to snag readers’ attention while also introducing them to characters and their world.

Begin with Action …

And I don’t mean a bomb going off, although some writers start that way with excellent effect. Start with an action that’s attached to the problem the hero will have to solve. Since I write mysteries, I introduce the puzzle my detective has to solve as soon as I can in the first chapter.

In my first novel, A Shadow on the Snow, the first line is the text of the first anonymous note my amateur sleuth Rae Riley receives.

I’M NOT FOOLED, RAE. YOU’RE JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER.

So from the beginning readers know Rae will try to unmask who is sending her threatening notes.

In A Storm of Doubts, I open with:

“Just stop it!”

The shout made me jerk and get poked by a dead branch of a honeysuckle bush.

That line makes readers wonder who is shouting, who is listening, and if there’s a problem.

… and Attitude

Conveying your main character’s (MC) personality in the first few lines also grabs readers attention. I think I have it easier than a lot of writers because I write from first person POV. When readers know it’s a first person story, they also know they’re slipping into the MC’s skin and are experiencing the world from their perspective. That makes writing much easier, and a lot of fun, for me.

I was introduced to the Nero Wolfe mystery series with the novel, Too Many Cooks, in college. From the opening line, I knew I had to read more because I got a definite attitude from the narrator, Archie Goodwin.

Walking up and down the platform alongside the train in the Pennsylvania Station, having wiped sweat from my brow, I lit a cigarette with the feeling that after it had calmed my nerves a little I would be prepared to submit bid for a contract to move the Pyramid of Cheops from Egypt to the top of the Empire State Building with my bare hands, in a swimming-suit; after what I had just gone through.

What stories have you read that grabbed your attention from the first lines?

For more tips on writing plots, click here.

May 1, 2025 1

The Key to Starting Any Story

Although there are as many ways to start a story, whether it’s flash fiction or a novel, as there are writers, I think the key to starting any story is to ground it. What does grounding it mean? I means that, as quickly as you can, drop in information about the who, what, when, and where of your scene. If you get these basics on the page at the beginning, readers know how to orient themselves in the story and are ready to follow the development of it.

That doesn’t mean you can’t be mysterious. In fact, if you include the why and how of a scene at the beginning, your readers are likely to be bored because you’ve told them the point of the scene before they can read it. But there’s a fine line between being mysterious and confusing. Below are some examples of the key to starting any story.

“The Cloak” by Robert Bloch–short story

“The sun was dying, and its blood spattered the sky as it crept into a sepulcher behind the hills. The keening winds sent the dry, fallen leaves scurrying towards the west, as though hastening them to the funeral of the sun.

“‘Nuts!’ said Henderson to himself, and stopped thinking.

“The sun was setting in a dingy red sky, and a dirty raw wind was kicking up the half-rotten leaves in a filthy gutter. Why should he waste time with cheap imagery?

“‘Nuts!’ said Henderson again.

“It was probably a mood evoked by the day, he mused. After all, this was the sunset of Halloween. Tonight was the dreaded All Hallows Eve, when spirits walked in and skulls cried out from their graves beneath the earth.

“Either that, or tonight was just another rotten cold fall day. Henderson sighed.”

Who: Henderson
When: Halloween. The word “Nuts” indicates mid-20th century America
Where: Probably American from the word “Nuts” and the reference to Halloween
What: It takes a few more paragraphs, but readers discover Henderson is looking for a costume shop, and this hunt launches the story.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells–novel

“The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us. His grey eyes shone and twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The fire burned brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent light in the lilies of sliver caught the bubbles that flashed and passed in our glasses. Our chairs, being his patents, embraced and caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon, and there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought runs gracefully free of the trammels of precision.”

Who: The Time Traveller
When: The diction and the way the after dinner atmosphere is described sounds like late 19th or early 20th century.
Where: The Time Traveller’s house, because of the reference to the chairs he made for his guests.
What: Friends of the Time Traveller, and the narrator is one of them, are relaxing with drinks after a meal he has served them

In the next paragraph, the Time Traveller begins his discussion of dimensions and time travel, so in two paragraphs readers know the basics of the scene and the problem that will be presented.

“Bovine” by JPC Allen–short story

“Yes. Yes.

“I scanned the miniscule living room. The mixture of search and destruction was quite similar to that found in the apartment of my agent after his robbery three years ago.

“Seat cushions, some ripped open, lay scattered on the hardwood floor with tossed books interspersed among them. Lamps overturned. A glass-topped table shattered.

“I inhaled deeply.

“Odd. I hadn’t expected staging a crime scene to bring out the artist in me. Although all my efforts were probably wasted on the audience for which I had prepared it.

“The reason I’d asked Sara to stay at her writer’s retreat for a few weeks was because law enforcement in such a forsaken county of this forsaken state had to be mediocre at best. From what I had learned through my research of the police presence in Marlin County, Ohio, the officers could trip over a body with a suicide note pinned to the shirt and still mull over the possibility of murder.”

Who: Unnamed male narrator who is an artist of some kind and a snob
When: Probably contemporary
Where: A writer friend’s retreat in Marlin County, Ohio
What: Staging a crime scene

The narrator’s motives for staging a the scene are unknown to readers. But even though they are in the dark about what the character is up to, readers do understand what is taking place and are getting a sense of who is narrating, so they can imagine the scene and follow the story.

What are some of your favorite opening scenes? Put the first lines in the comments

For more tips on writing beginnings, click here.

April 18, 2024 3

Start a Story with a Plot

You know you want to write a story and you have a killer plot twist–what if one identical twin betrays the other in some way? Betrayal is a powerful plot device, and you think having one twin turn on the other makes it even more powerful. You’re not sure if the betrayal comes at the beginning, middle, or end, but it’s pivotal to the story. But that plot twist is all you have so far. How do you start a story with a plot? I have some suggestions to provide inspiration.

Since we are dealing with betrayal, this plot point can take one of two general flavors …

Epic or Everyday?

Do you want the bad twin to betray the good one to a merciless wizard who is attacking the magical kingdom of which the good twin is the queen? Or do you want the bad twin to betray the good one to the Nazis as they try to escape occupied France? Or does the bad twin betray the good one by stealing her husband in present-day Los Angeles?

Deciding whether the betrayal fits within an epic story or an everyday one will make huge strides in helping you decide the shape of your story. One way to choose is to look at what you enjoy reading. If your favorite stories are epic adventures of fantasy, then you will have the most success writing in that genre since you know it so well. If you love historical fiction, select a favorite time in history and research it.

Who are the Characters?

You know your main characters are identical twins. So uncovering their family history is critical for their development. Are they male or female twins? Which parent do they resemble? Act like? For the betrayal to mean anything, they have to be close and not just because they are identical twins. What makes them close? A shared interest or talent? A traumatic past?

Once you’ve established a bit of their past, dive into their personalities. Even if they are identical twins, they have differences. What are they? Do these differences lead to the betrayal?

Where do these Characters Live?

What would be a good setting for this betrayal? I’ve already mentioned a magical kingdom, Nazi-occupied France, and current-day Los Angeles. What kind of people inhabit each of these settings? If the characters are human, then at their core, there’s something common to them, regardless of setting. But how can these or other settings influence the people the twins have become?

When choosing major settings, you only have to concern yourself with this one question: is the setting one you know or would like to know? Never pick a major setting you have no interest in. For example, let’s say you choose to set your story in Nazi-occupied France because you think that will give your betrayal added depth. But you haven’t read much historical fiction, don’t care much for France, and loathe history research. Your story will never get past the idea stage.

Selecting settings you know personally well or are eager to research will make writing your story much less of a chore and provide ideas on how the topography, climate, weather, architecture, history and local inhabitants will affect the plot.

For more inspiration on plotting, click here.

How do you start a story with a plot?

January 5, 2023 1

Writing Tip — Start With Action

Like a lot of new writers, I began my stories with two misconceptions: (1) That my characters were fascinating to everybody, and (2) I should start my story by showing my characters following their normal routines. Once readers got to know my characters, I’d bring in the problem or event that changed their ordinary lives and kick off the plot. I didn’t think I needed to start with action

Now I know better. My characters will never fascinate readers in the same way they do me, just like my kids will never fascinate the other people the way they do my husband and me. Also most daily routines are boring. Boring readers for a couple of chapters, if they last that long, should not be the goal of any writer.

Looking back, I see why I started like that. It was easier to introduce characters and backstory without having a pesky plot to deal with. Dribble in characters and description and backstory while the plot is under way? That’s hard!

At first, I didn’t think I could do it. But as I pushed through revisions of my first novel, it became a game. What nuggets of information could I drop into this scene that would flesh out characters or settings without slowing the plot? Rather like a snowboarder surfing the half-pipe and judging how many moves she can work in without losing momentum.

When I came to write “A Rose from the Ashes”,my YA mystery, I had several false starts. I need to start with action but which one? A mystery should be mysterious, but if I wasn’t careful, I easily could go from mysterious to confusing. I’ve set aside many novels in which the characters in the first chapter know a lot more than I do. Instead of these hints of a bigger story being intriguing, they are just frustrating. I give up.

I decided to keep the opening scene simple. I stopped trying to be clever. I described the scene as my main character experienced it. Here’s the first paragraph:

Glancing left and right, I crunched across the frozen weeds to the abandoned children’s home. I could not afford to be spotted now. If only I could take a few seconds and snap some pictures. The light from the early December sunset was perfect. Gashes of blood-red light seeped through the clotted clouds, creating an ominous background for the gray stone building that was rumored to be the scene of a murder.

So I start with my main character approaching a derelict building and not wanting to get caught doing so. Why doesn’t she want to get caught? There are many reason readers can imagine, and I hope that was enough of a hook to keep them reading. Readers don’t know who the narrator is yet and don’t have to at this point. The character’s fear of being spotted and the creepiness of the scene puts the reader in the character’s shoes and keeps them reading.

If you have an opening paragraph with action, please put it in the comments below. Or if you’ve read a particularly effective opening with action, please share it!

January 23, 2020 2

Tag: How to start a story