Wednesday, August 10, 2016

F is for First Lines

Paula’s thoughts about the first line (or paragraph) of a novel.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"

A modern editor would probably use the imaginary red pen on Jane Austen’s first two paragraphs, both of which are author statements. He/she might say the story should begin at the third paragraph – or maybe even later in the conversation between Mrs. Bennet and her husband. Thus we would lose one of the most quoted ‘first lines’ of any novel.

I’ve often wondered about the emphasis that the ‘advice givers’ put on the first lines or first paragraphs of a story. The first line, ‘they’ say, must hook the reader, but is that true? Do readers really get pulled in by the first line of a story? Do they decide whether to buy or not to buy based on the opening sentence or paragraph?

It seems to me that this advice is based on the image of someone standing in a bookstore and picking up a book. In that scenario, the cover, the back cover blurb, and the first few lines of a book are probably the most important ‘hooks’ for a reader.

However, in this digital age and with Amazon’s facility of ‘click to look inside’ i.e. a sneak peek at the first chapter (or more) of a novel, the reader is sitting at a computer, or using a laptop or tablet. They have more time – and therefore, in all probability, will read more than the average person standing in a bookstore.

I’ve done this many times before downloading books to my Kindle, and have invariably read far more than the first page (unless that happens to be riddled with grammatical errors or typos etc). Therefore I’d hazard a guess that the majority of readers will make their decision based on part or even the whole of the Amazon excerpt, and not just the first line or paragraph. I’m not saying that the first few lines aren’t important, but that we should be also looking at the whole of our first chapters. Are the main characters well defined? Is the set-up/location established? Are the seeds of future conflict or problems sown? All these can make the reader want to buy the book to find out more.

I’ll admit that the original opening of my novel Her Only Option was probably my weakest. However, when it was first released, someone made this comment on Facebook: “I read the whole of the free sample on Amazon, and now I'm hooked. When does the movie come out?”

This reader wasn’t put off by what I later considered to be a weak opening, so maybe those first lines or paragraphs aren’t as vitally important in this digital age as the pundits would have us believe. Readers are no longer standing in a bookstore reading the first few lines; they’re sitting at home and reading the first chapter (or more) on their screens.

In this case, instead of agonising over our first lines, perhaps we should be thinking more about whether our first chapters will hook our potential readers into downloading our books.

11 comments:

  1. Your first line should draw the reader in. The second should compel him/her to continue reading.

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    1. I agree to a certain extent, John - but nowadays when readers can look at the first chapter easily online, I think the first 2 or 3 pages are equally as important.

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  2. Because we deal with people with increasingly short attention spans, our first lines should be strong enough to draw the reader in. However, if the continuing paragraphs don't deserve equal attention, we'll lose the reader.

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  3. For me the first sentence is important, from that I will continue to finish the paragraph and then the chapter and so on. I've read a few books recently in which the first sentence seemed irrelevant to the story - a description of a cat- or the weather- and my attention has wandered immediately.

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    1. I must admit I can get past a 'bad' opening sentence if the next couple of pages pull me in.

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  4. I still think first lines are important, but I concur with the thought that the rest of the paragraph and page must live up to the 'expectations' set or the reader will lose interest.

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    1. I'm reading a story at the moment in which the first paragraph was simply a description of the heroine walking along a hotel corridor, and the next para was backstory - definitely not what you would describe as 'hooking the reader' - but I read more of the excerpt, and downloaded it, and am really enjoying the story. That's what made me think about this topic, and whether the first line or para is as vital as we are told it should be!

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  5. I've read that the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page and the first chapter each must hook the reader into continuing.
    They also have to introduce the main character(s), their opening situation and immediate story goal, as well as the setting.
    Whew.

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    1. Exactly! That was my point. I think they're all equally important!

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  6. A good point, Paula. Personally I always I get hooked by first paragraphs or page. If a book doesn't draw me in right at the beginning I don't want to carry on. Inevitably I do but I really do like punchy first lines.

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