In a lengthy article for Lit Hub, Allegra Hyde examines some great opening lines to find out what makes them work. “A great first line can spur intense readerly attraction—provoke a compulsion to know more,” Hyde writes. “It takes something special for a first line to capture the heart of a reader—to propel a text out of a slush pile or off a bookshop shelf—for a work of literature to transform from stranger to intimate.”
Hyde asked Twitter users to quote their favorite opening lines and realized all had one thing in common. “Nearly all the favorite first lines gave readers an elegantly balanced dose of clarity and curiosity,” she writes. “Or to put this another way: seductive first sentences ground a reader in a situation, while also prompting a question in the reader’s mind that propels them forward in the text.”
What provokes that curiosity? “In my opinion: weirdness, conflict, tragedy, mystery, the supernatural, any whiff of struggle, or something being slightly off,” Hyde says. First lines also often reference death and time. A sense of time orients the reader in the story, while an impending or recent death piques their curiosity. Other great first lines introduce a narrator or protagonist, or ask the reader a direct question, which are often introduced with dialogue.
“There are many kinds of sentences—just like there are many kinds of people—that might beguile you if they present the right blend of clarity and curiosity, perceptibility and mystery,” Hyde concludes. “What is important, in the end, is that the right first sentence finds the right reader.”
