How to write a memorable opening line
BY Discoveries
23rd Nov 2023
We and the Curtis Brown Literary Agency are proud to partner with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run this unique writing development initiative for a fourth year. Discoveries invites unpublished women writers aged 18 and up, currently residing in the UK or Ireland and writing in English, to submit their works of adult fiction to the Discoveries Prize. The prize doesn’t require writers to have finished a novel – only to have started one – and it is free to enter. We're looking for writing that shows real potential, not necessarily polished drafts.
To enter, all you need to do is submit…
- The opening of your novel – up to 10,000 words.
- A synopsis detailing the outline of your story – up to 1,000 words.
This week the CBC and Curtis Brown Discoveries team members are exploring the power of opening lines. A good first sentence will help readers at every stage of your publication journey (from competition judges and literary agents to bookshop browsers) decide whether to read on or put your book down.
A strong first line should entice your reader to enter the world of your story. An opening sentence usually does one of three things:
- Introduce us to a protagonist.
- Tell us when and where the story is happening.
- Set the tone for the novel and show us what genre we’re in.
These are not hard and fast rules, some authors choose a more experimental approach to their opening, and some manage to do all three things at once! To test out the theory we've collated some of our favourite first lines from the books we’ve been reading recently and explored the reasons why these writers are so good at hooking the reader...
Anna Davis, Discoveries 2024 Judge & Founder of Curtis Brown Creative
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
- ‘Charles Bramwell Brockley was travelling alone and without a ticket on the 14.42 from London Bridge to Brighton.’
It’s a gentle opening, and the use of the character’s full name – Charles Bramwell Brockley – gives the impression of correctness, and perhaps a little poshness. And yet there’s a hint of something amiss in this very first sentence – the writer makes a point of telling us he’s travelling alone – not an issue in and of itself, but he’s also travelling without a ticket. Something is clearly not right, and the reader wants to know more.
Jess Molloy, Discoveries 2024 Judge & Curtis Brown Literary Agent
The Four by Ellie Keel
- ‘It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed Genevieve out of our bedroom window on our third day at High Realms.’
What a killer first line – it introduces characters and place immediately but also brilliantly captures the dark humour that spills out of this book. We are immediately intrigued by the casual discussion of violence and left suspecting that things are going to go horribly wrong as we keep reading. How could you not keep reading?
Lucy Morris, Curtis Brown Literary Agent
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
- ‘Dear both
As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you read the enclosed.’
A short legal memo from a QC to two junior lawyers kicks off Janice Hallett’s The Appeal with an immediate call to action. An investigation is afoot – and it’s on us to figure out how to put the pieces together. As an opening it’s the definition of start as you mean to continue! Clever, fun and at once satisfying and subverting the conventions of the genre.
Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown Associate Agent
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
- ‘I was nine the first time the Physicians came to the house – my uncle and his men were away, my cousin Ione and her brothers played loudly in the kitchen, and my aunt did not hear the pounding at the door until the first man in white robes was already in the parlour.’
With this opening, the reader is immediately sucked into the story and the mystery that will be threaded through it. Who are the “Physicians” and why are the coming after our narrator when she is a child? It gets the readers thinking from the get-go and also sets up the tone of the book nicely: something dark and ominous is brewing. It also seamlessly blends in small worldbuilding details that can give us some indications on the time and place the book is set in.
Sabhbh Curran, Curtis Brown Literary Agent
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
- 'So now get up.'
With just four words the reader is immediately at the heart of the action, with a boy who has just been beaten to the ground by his father. It’s a terrible demand, that the child, a young Thomas Cromwell, should stand only to get knocked down again. But the words are so much more than that. They reflect the seam of resilience and the survival instinct that run through the heart of Mantel’s trilogy and set the tone and ambition for the story of a poor boy from Putney who will become one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Tudor Britain. The reader doesn’t know it on page one, but these opening words will echo through the book.
Rosie Pierce, Curtis Brown Associate Agent
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
- 'I remember, in no particular order:
a shiny inner wrist;
steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it;
gouts of sperm circling a plughole, before being sluiced down the full length of a tall house;
a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams;
another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface;
bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door'
Cheating slightly here with this ridiculously long opening sentence in list form, but I just think it’s such a brilliant way of setting the tone of this story. As well as being gorgeous on a line level, and rich in sensory detail, these flashes of our narrator’s memory build a picture of a story that I’m very intrigued to read!
Catriona Paget, Literary Agent’s Assistant at C&W
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
- ‘Something dreadful happened in Wales yesterday, but it was William’s graduation and so he has been distracted.’
The book opens with a reference to a tragedy, but neither the reader nor William seem to know what exactly has happened. This attracts the readers curiosity while also creating an affinity with William, as both are in the same boat. By mentioning this event and his graduation in the same sentence, we understand that the two are connected. Our curiosity is then stoked by the juxtaposition of tone and the implication of physical distance between the events. For we are left to wonder, what could have happened that is so awful, and how and why is this relevant to William?
Annabel White, Literary Agent’s Assistant at Curtis Brown
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
- ‘The night I watch Athena Liu die, we’re celebrating her TV deal with Netflix.’
The opening line of Yellowface packs one hell of a punch. I read this and I wanted to know more. Who is Athena? Why did she die? What was her TV deal with Netflix? I also love the voice. It’s detached and dry, and hints at an intriguing dynamic between Athena and the narrator.
Ria Cagampang, Curtis Brown Creative
Children of Paradise by Camila Gurdova
- ‘The Paradise cinema had a gaudy interior and a pervasive smell of sweet popcorn and mildew.’
A great example of using very simple, sensory descriptions to set the scene of your novel! The contrast between the sickly, sweet popcorn and wet mildew, really gives you an idea of how truly gaudy and dilapidated the Paradise is with that pervasive smell sticking in the reader’s mind as the novel unfolds.
Katie Smart, Curtis Brown Creative
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
- ‘My marriage ended because I was cruel.’
This opening line gets straight into the premise of the novel – the aftermath of a break-up. The first-person perspective pulls no punches – it is brilliantly acerbic and self-deprecating. The reader knows that the protagonist isn’t going to be ‘likeable’ but perhaps might just be painfully relatable. You want to know more about why the marriage broke apart and what truth there is to the statement that the protagonist is ‘cruel’.
For more advice on creating a compelling open read our blog post: How to write a good first page.
Plus, get unmissable advice on preparing your entry to Discoveries in this post: How to prepare your submission to Discoveries 2024.
Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2024. We’re so excited to read your work!
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