How to write a captivating opening line

CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries for a fifth year. This unique writing development prize and programme offers practical support and encouragement to aspiring female novelists of all ages and backgrounds, from across the UK and Ireland. The prize accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction, with entrants invited to submit the first 10,000 words of their novel and a synopsis.

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Your opening line will help readers at every stage of your writing journey decide whether to read on or put your book down.

The first line of a novel should entice your reader to enter the world of your story. A really great opening sentence should do 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 inspire you the Curtis Brown Creative and Curtis Brown Discoveries team members are sharing our favourite opening lines from the books we’ve enjoyed recently. Keep reading to discover what novel openings grabbed us recently and the reasons why these first lines successfully hook readers.

Sabhbh Curran, Curtis Brown Literary Agent

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

‘You are a fingerprint.’

This authoritative, deceptively simple opening from Danya’s masterful literary thriller immediately sets up so much about the story we are about to encounter. Punctuated by the last hours of Ansel Packer, a man on death row, this is an unforgettable a story of the women in Ansel’s life which asks some challenging questions about the ripple effects of abuse and the possibility of redemption. On one level Notes on an Execution is a story of crime and punishment and so fittingly we’re offered up the hand of the perpetrator and the fingerprint as ultimate symbol of the criminal. However, the book is also a thornier examination of inherited trauma and painful relationships and so this opening image also makes us consider something much more human too, our innate identity as individuals.

Anna Davis, Discoveries 2025 Judge & Founder of Curtis Brown Creative

You Are Here by David Nicholls

‘In all her youthful visions of the future, of the job she might have, the city and home she might live in, the friends and family around her, Marnie had never thought that she’d be lonely.’

I love the fact that we meet Marnie, one of the two protagonists, in the very first breath of this story. The sentence has a Victorian or possibly an Austen-esque elegance to it, which I’m certain is deliberate. The sweep right across Marnie’s life to her disappointing present moment tees up the journey we’ll be going on with her – while the air of wistful melancholy with which she looks back at her earlier self and unfulfilled dreams is absolute Vintage Nicholls. This novel is as good as his earlier hit One Day – maybe even better.

Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown Literary Agent

The Will of the Many by James Islington

‘I am dangling, and it is only my father’s blood-slicked grip around my wrist that stops me falling.’

I feel like this one is quite self-explanatory, but this is exactly what I love to see when opening a book for the first time. As readers, we’re straight into the action and a lot of questions are already raised – who is our narrator? Why are they in a life-or-death situation with their father? Immediately the stakes feel high, and you feel utterly compelled to keep reading to find out more.

Ruby Gaffney, Curtis Brown Creative

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

‘I don’t know if you have ever stood in the middle of a squash court – on the T – and listened to what is going on next door.’

This line reveals little about characters and story. We don’t know who is addressing us, and we aren’t really in a scene so much as a hypothetical scenario. All we have is the strange image of somebody standing in a squash court, not playing as you’d expect, but listening to the adjacent game. It shows us that this novel will be quietly unconventional and slow to unravel, while introducing some of the core themes and motifs to come: loneliness, eavesdropping, and of course, squash. And if I’m being really overanalytical, I love that because of the dashes around ‘on the T’ this sentence rhythmically resembles a squash serve, with a ball hitting a wall and returning. Very satisfying!

Viola Hayden, Curtis Brown Literary Agent

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

‘Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur—a change of two letters that transformed him from a nice, ostensibly Jewish boy to a Professional Builder of Worlds—and for most of his youth, he was Sam, S.A.M. on the hall of fame of his grandfather’s Donkey Kong machine, but mainly Sam.’

It’s a stonker of a first line, and in some ways breaks lots of rules about drawing the reader in with something short and snappy. But there’s something I like about the rambling, the excess detail, the feeling like I’m not up to speed and I need to catch-up! When I reached the end of the first line, I knew there was a story with substance waiting for me in the pages

Jess Molloy, Discoveries 2025 judge & Curtis Brown Literary Agent

The Echoes by Evie Wyld

‘I do not believe in ghosts, which, since my death, has become something of a problem.’

This line has it all, intrigue, surprise, humour! It shows us very quickly that we are going to see this story through the eyes of an unusual, ghostly, protagonist and does a brilliant job embedding us in that voice. I laughed out loud when I read it in a bookshop, and was immediately gripped to find out more.

Lucy Morris, Curtis Brown Literary Agent

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt

‘Darkness suits me. Each evening, I await the click of the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the main tank.’

This is the opening to Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt. Titled ‘Day 1,299 of My Captivity,’ this first page introduces Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who narrates part of the novel, and whose exploits are essential to the plot. An unexpected introduction to a novel and unapologetically bold, it conjures instant intrigue – and you can already see the glint in the eye from the tank, can’t you?

Catriona Paget, Literary Agent’s Assistant at C&W

Still Life by Sarah Winman

‘Somewhere in the Tuscan hills, two English spinsters, Evelyn Skinner and a Margaret someone, were eating a late lunch on the terrace of a modest albergo.’

While this isn’t the loudest or most action-packed first line, it is the perfect start for a book which gets its energy from its brilliant characters. And Evelyn is front and centre in this sentence. By not being specific about where in the Italian countryside we are, the focus shifts from the where, straight to the who. Evelyn is mentioned first and given a surname, so we know that she is important, and this reiterated by Margaret’s surname flippantly being referred to only as ‘someone’. This wry dismissal includes an example of the humour which makes this novel such a fun read. It’s the perfect set up for a story that’s brimming with wit, luscious settings, and above all, characters that you never want to leave.

Katie Smart, Curtis Brown Creative

Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

‘If you ask six different monks the question of which godly domain robot consciousness belongs to, you’ll get seven different answers.’

This opening line introduces us immediately to the warm humour and contemplative philosophy that characterises this short and sweet novel. You know right from the off that this is a science fiction book from the mention of ‘robot consciousness’. Although we don’t meet our protagonists, we are introduced to the character types that lead our story – a monk and a robot. From the juxtaposition of this slightly odd pairing readers already suspect that these archetypes won’t be appearing quite in the way we stereotypically envision them.

The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from our bookshop.org page.

Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2025. We’re so excited to read your work!

Enter by 13 Jan 2025