We've all been told how vital those first few sentences of a novel are -- they have the power to entice the reader, bore the reader, or turn off the reader completely. And so, we writers usually spend extraordinary amounts of time and care crafting our opening sentences/paragraphs. I know I do!
There are so many choices. Do we open with dialogue? With description? With action or danger or mystery? The decisions can feel overwhelming. That's why I usually experiment with my openings. Rarely do I keep the first opening I write, from the original rough draft. Instead, I like to play with it, test out other possibilities, try other avenues, until the right one "fits."
Just for fun, I thought I'd share the first couple of sentences of one of my novels. I've edited this novel MANY times, so the first chapter has gone through several changes. I've probably changed/tweaked/edited this opening at least five times. And this was the final result....
(Feel free to share your own first sentences in the comments!)
Chapter One
She knew it was a paradox, loving something so beautiful and so dangerous. Especially something that had tried to swallow her up ten years before.
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