After reading through Nathan Bransford’s finalist entries to the First Paragraph Contest, I’ve been thinking a lot of about openings.
It seems now more than ever with the tight competition, the first paragraph, the first page, and the first chapter really must get quickly to the heart of your story. Especially in YA because unlike some other types of fiction, this genre tends to gets right to the action. Probably one of the reasons that I love reading YA.
And for those of you who are revising your novels, Rita Hubbard turned me on to the Gotham Writer’s Workshop Young Adult Novel Discovery Contest where you can enter the first 250 words of your manuscript. You should definitely check it out.
So all this talk about openings got me thinking. With editors and agents, you only have one chance to make a good first impression. What makes a good opening? Sometimes it’s hard to put in words and it also can be subjective since readers like different things. For me, I like an intriguing opening—something that makes me wonder and keep reading to find out the answers.
According to Les Edgerton, author of Hooked, the goals of your opening scene should have the following components:
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Introduce story problem
Hook readers
Establish rules of the story
Forecast the end of the story
So the opening has a lot of things to accomplish. Maybe one day next week, I’ll take a look at some openings and talk about what makes them work.
