You have probably heard that your first sentence has to hook your reader to keep them interested, so my question is, what do you do if you are reading a book and that first sentence doesn't hook you? Do you power through it regardless? Do you put it down and come back to it when you have nothing else?
In your writing, do you fret over the first line of your project? Do you want to make it sparkle because you need it to draw the reader in? I'm guilty of that. Very very guilty.
So how important do you think the opening sentence is to the book? The opening paragraph? The opening chapter?
Great question!
ReplyDeleteIf I'm not in a hurry, I'll give a new (to me) writer a page or two, but usually I only have time for a couple of paragraphs. The writing doesn't need to be brilliant, but it does need to be coherent, and show a promise of being interesting. I always read more than the first line - unless the first line is stupid in a not-funny way.