The DREADED OPENER!!

So, I am a bit pumped for exactly no reason at all! This amount of energy is good because today we are talking about the dreaded first sentence grabber!!! The first sentence of your novel is one of the most important things you have to work with when you are writing a story. The first line represents the overall tone of the story as well as works as what I like to call the 'grabber' line. There is enough interest in the first sentence to grab the reader and shove their face into your book. Think about some of the most famous starting lines.

"Mr and Mrs. Dursley of number four Privet Drive were happy to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K Rowling

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattres."-The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

"Call me Ishmael." Moby Dick, Herman Melville

In each of these opening quotes you get a sense of the voice of the novel, the emotion of the novel, and it also grips you and makes you want to read more. Well, I can understand if you aren't in to reading A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick, but those two opening lines are some of the most memorable in literature today. I'm not saying we should all strive to have memorable first lines, it just some examples to help you see what I mean. Now, let's do some practices with our favorite stick figure PIP! We are going to give it a bit of a personality today.

This is Bro Pip. For anyone out there who doesn't know, a Bro is a person who like nothing more than beer and chicks and is often seen at a college party(usually part of the frat that is throwing it). Bro Pip is who we are writing our story about. We are going to do it in first person since last time I used third person. A Bad Opening:
 My name is Pipperson Rockwell. I like parties, girls, and beer. I go to the University of Illinois as a business major, but I spend most of my time at the bars, especially Joe's and Murphey's.

Eww, gross. First off this is an info dump. Second of all, even though I listed all that stuff about him, you still don't really get his personality and your bored as hell because they writing style did nothing to grab you.

A Good Opening:
The party was fucking wild. All I saw was Keystone cans, ping pong balls, and titties. I pop my color and shrug my shoulders because I got this shit on lock. The hot blonde screaming she loves the bitchin' Alicia Keys song that's playing will be in my bed tonight.

Here you get his personality...he is kind of a douchebag and I would like to apologize to anyone who is offended by Pip's colorful vocab. But if you've chosen to write about a college age boy you have to add in all the ways a boy would. You also kind of want to read a little further after the very first sentence. Why is the party wild? Where was it?

That is my help for today! I would be happy to help anyone if they are having some problems, just leave me a comment!