Do you prefer...

I want to be thrown into the deep end, but not necessarily into an action scene. Throw me into the universe and let me figure out what's going on as I move forward. Some of the greatest opening lines in the history of literature have done exactly that--piqued the readers' interest by being just vague enough, but also just weird enough, to engender intense curiosity.

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." Why not? Does this character normally take walks? What's different about this day in particular? Has something happened? I'm interested--let's keep reading.

"Marley was dead to begin with." Whoa. Who's Marley? What killed him? What do you mean "to begin with?" Are we going to be seeing more of this guy, and what does that entail with his being dead and all? Again, interested--let's keep reading.

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." First--hilarious. Second--what about this hilariously awkward and embarrassing name connects it to this character? What's his personality like that he doesn't quite deserve the name, but only "almost?" I'm interested--let's keep reading.

It goes beyond just the opening line, but that idea is what drives the story forward--open with something interesting. It can be action, but it can also be description. The best kinds of openings, IMO, feature the characters and make me wonder what they're up to that I should be interested in.

Rhoda Nightingale said:

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."

Jane Eyre.

"Marley was dead to begin with."

A Christmas Carol. Apparently the original ms has it punctuated as "Marley was dead: to begin with." Which is a bit odd.

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

The Voyage of the Dawn Treaders.

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Made me google.

One problem is that editors these days, pressured to choose mss that will sell and possibly become bestsellers, are hesitant to buy anything that starts slowly. Or quietly. The default position is that you must hook the reader in the first few pages or they won't continue reading. Is this true? Doesn't matter, because that's what most editors believe.

And it's a lot easier to hook a reader with an action scene, or at least a scene with some sort of conflict than it is any other way. It's fine to advise, "just make it interesting" but that's no more helpful than the advice "just write better."

I love books that start slowly and gradually build, but I'm not the demographic when it comes to what sells.

For me, a good starting scene gets the story rolling while introducing me to the person who will be the main (or at least one of the main) character/characters.

I tend to feel cheated by opening scenes that hook me in with something dramatic happening to a throwaway or minor character (took me a couple tries to get into A Game of Thrones for this reason) or if there's too much world building or routine stuff happening before the story gets underway.

Conversely, a scene can also be problematic if it starts with so much chaos and action that I have no idea who the protagonist is, what they are doing, or why I should care that they're fighting for their life.

I think some new writers mistake the advice 'hook the reader' for 'detonate a bomb in the first sentence.'

I like those openings that intrigue. You know "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." My WIP starts along the lines of "the hills of Assyria where breathing."

gothicangel said:

I think some new writers mistake the advice 'hook the reader' for 'detonate a bomb in the first sentence.'

I like those openings that intrigue. You know "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." My WIP starts along the lines of "the hills of Assyria where breathing."

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True, though the idea that you need a punchy, dramatic, "it was the day my grandmother exploded" kind of opening line is overstated too. A perusal of most of the books I've purchased recently (which include many first novels by new authors) suggests that good books don't always, or even usually, start out with a bang.

And starting with a bang, then dropping into somnolence for several more chapters can be worse than a slower start where the tension mounts steadily.