Before we delve into first sentences, I'm obligated to clarify that titles are important, too. Titles are, in fact, more important than first sentences because titles, if they're done right, cause your reader to actually buy your book. I wish I could title my blog posts more creatively, Unfortunately, the blogging gurus tell me that if you actually want anyone to find and read your writing blog, you have to write boring, shitty, women's magazine listicle (an ugly portmanteau if I ever saw one) titles like the one above. Otherwise, the little robots that find the writing blogs and suggest them on Google will miss it or something. This is why we should be hiring real human beings to do such tasks, not robots! (Google Robots: I love to read and I'm not averse to a career change. Let's talk further.)
Crafting that first sentence is always tough, so here are five things to think about when staring down the blank page. (Actually, I'm only giving you four. The blogging gurus just said it should be five, for the benefits of the robots, but I refuse to take part in that whole system.)
BEGIN WITH ONE WORD
Lorrie Moore's great short story 'Referential' begins with a one-word sentence. "Mania." Bam. She's created a mood for me, stirred my imagination and my subjective associations, and I'm ready to follow her anywhere she wants to take me.
BEGIN WITH A CLOSE-UP (AND THEN ZOOM OUT)
Anne Beattie's 'Janus' is among my top five (see that, robots?) favorite short stories of all times. I've read it at least once every year. Beattie's opening sentence is simple: "The bowl was perfect." Right away, we're wondering why this bowl is so important. The key with this opening lies in choosing the right thing to focus on. Since the majority of Beattie's story is, at surface level, about the bowl, it makes perfect sense to start with the essential and then zoom out to the peripheral (the owner of the bowl, her lover, her husband.) If the bowl was an object of little consequence and of no metaphorical value, a beginning like this wouldn't be as strong.
BEGIN WITH A DESCRIPTION
If there's a sexier and sadder story than John Steinbeck's 'The Chrysanthemums', I haven't read it. The first sentence is a nature description, but also serves as a metaphor for protagonist Elisa Allen's emotional state. "The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and all the rest of the world." A perfect beginning to a story about a passionate but unfulfilled woman. "High gray-flannel" conjures an image of a woman's nightgown with the top button buttoned.
BEGIN WITH THE PASSOVER QUESTION
Passover dinner always begins with a question: what makes this night different than any other night? In Eudora Welty's 'Lily Daw and the Three Ladies', the first sentence tells us that we are beginning on a day different than any other day: "Mrs Watts and Mrs Carson were both in the post office in Victory when the letter came from the Ellisville Institute for the Feeble Minded of Mississippi." We know right away that today is different. Today the letter is here. We can easily follow the tumble of events from the very first sentence.
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