Hook, Line and Sinker – The Problem with First Lines

by Janis Patterson

Unfortunately we live in a sound bite age – if you don’t get their attention in X amount of seconds you don’t get it. Time was when authors were advised that you had the first chapter to hook the reader (agent, editor or customer). Then it went down to the first five pages. Then the first page. Then the first paragraph. Now people are leaning toward the first line. Logic would dictate that it would stop there, but in this crazy publishing world I wouldn’t bet on it. With a sad fatalism I’m waiting for a list of sure-fire attention-getting first words. Where things will go after that I don’t even dare speculate.

So what do you do? You grab their attention from the first. Now I’m generous, so I personally work under the three sentence rule. You have three sentences to intrigue them enough to read on. Almost every classic novel violates this rule… some of them adhere to the old ‘first couple of chapters’ convention, which means many if not all would never make it to the shelf today. Of course, novels, conventions and writing styles have changed over the years; what was loved and lionized years – decades – centuries – ago is dead weight today. After all, how many modern people read really old books today for pleasure? (I know some do, and good on them, but we’re talking about modern, short-attentioned modern genre readers.)

So what is it about first lines? People say, you have your cover blurb – why won’t that make them read the book? Well, sometimes it will. It and the cover will usually get the reader to look and pick up the book, but the first sentence(s) will make them want to read the rest. (And like all other things in this more than slightly mad business, this is a generalization. Nothing is ever absolutely certain!)

How? is usually the first question. What do you do to hook the reader? What formula is there to make sure that first line makes them want to continue reading?

The first thing you do not do is start off boring. Don’t talk about the weather, or the pretty scenery, or how much you like your new red dress… unless of course, this is so strange or so much of a clue or whatever that it almost turns out to be the turning point/crux of the story. That’s an individual story call.

Some people just start writing and eventually go back to edit; others end up cutting the first thousand or so words to get a good beginning. Every writer at one time or another has been told “Your story starts in the middle of the second chapter – cut everything before that and lard the information into the story later on.” Other writers can craft a winning first line almost from the get-go. Still other writers come up with a sterling first sentence and then create a story to support it. Even other writers… well, you get the idea. Writing is a highly individualistic enterprise and everyone’s process is different. There are requirements about the finished product, but the process is up to the individual writer.

Back to first lines. Do start off in the middle of something exciting. The hero is caught in the middle of a wildfire or is being stalked by a hungry tiger or is hiding from a gunman – or is being made love to by the most beautiful woman in the world whom he has never seen before. Make his emotions your own. Make the reader wonder (1) how did he get into such a situation and (2) how is he going to get out so much that he has to keep reading.

Once the reader is engaged you can tell the rest of the story – either from that point on or going back to the beginning to tell how he got there or whatever timeline the story demands.

Let’s face it – it doesn’t matter how good and outstanding your story is, or how you present it, the reader is not going to read it unless you hook their interest, and one of the primary tools for that is the first line.