Once Upon the Best of Times and the Worst of Times, it was a Dark and Stormy Night: The Crucial and Frustrating art of Opening Lines.

Every story has to start somewhere.

I love opening lines. As a part of the story, they get me interested, pull me in, and make me want—need—to keep reading. But on their own, too, they have a poetic kind of beauty. They are the seed from which a story is hatched; they should—if they’re done right—have the beginnings of everything important encapsulated within them.

There are some opening lines that we all know, the classics; I’ve never been that much of a fan of the classics, to be honest with you. I know, I know. I’m an English major, an aspiring writer! I can’t just look at Dickens and Bronte and Austen and go… meh. But I think most people who say that when they first picked up, say, Moby Dick, and were instantly enthralled, are basically just liars. Sure, there’s an art there; it’s a valuable literary work. But for enjoyment? For the sheer thrill of the story? It’s more of a manual on whaling and sailing than a white-knuckle joyride down Excitement Lane. I don’t want to be a writer to be “literary”; I want to be a writer because I love stories. These classics may be epic literary masterpieces, but they just don't compel me. 

All of which is to say, I want to look at a different kind of opening lines, ones whose literary quality is definitely secondary to their entertainment value. These are the stories that are near and dear to my heart—and therefore, these are the ones I want to emulate in my own writing. Some of these are techincally more than one sentence, but they’re one thought, so we’re pretending it doesn’t count.

"It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful." – Matilda by Roald Dahl

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun." — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." — The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"If it had not rained on a certain May morning Valancy Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different."  — The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

"This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."  — The Princess Bride by William Goldman

"'Four-ball, side pocket.' Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a short, quick thrust; the ball dropped into the pocket with a satisfying clack."  — Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."  — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

"Either this will ring bells for you, or it won't. A printed banner has appeared on the concourse of a petrol station near to where I live. 'Come inside,' it says, 'for CD's, VIDEO's, DVD's, and BOOK'S."  — Eats, Shoots, & Leaves by Lynn Truss

Now you may have read some of these books, and some of them you probably have never heard of (most likely the tragically underrated L.M. Montgomery book). If you have read any of these books, the opening line might bring back memories of the book, at least a vague sense of how you felt when you read it. These lines are like time capsules, little tasting menus of the stories (or essays) they preceed; Douglas Adams' book opens with a line that perfectly captures the spirit of all the Hitchhiker's Guide books, a sort of humorous take on the the fate of our planet, and the casual disregard the rest of the universe must feel towards that fate. William Goldman is setting up the framework for his story-within-a-story. Melissa Marr opens with a moment showing both her protagonist's strong, capable personality, and one of the major themes of the book: prediction, destiny, and fate.

 I'm going to stop now because I hate analysis; I always feel like I'm sucking the beauty out of a story when I look at it too hard. I've done this much to try to give you a sense of what you need to do with your own opening lines. A great opening line, a memorable one, has to do two very important things: capture the reader’s interest, and set the tone of the piece. This first sentence can also do other things—introduce the protagonist or main topic, set the scene, start the action or establish setting—but it always has to do those first two. The first sentence is the keyhole in the knob; we can only see a little tiny piece of the world beyond through that small hole, but what we see determines whether we want to turn the knob and open the door, or walk away.

What do you think? What's your favorite opening line, in fiction/ non-fiction or from your own work?