Narrative Openings

Narrative Openings… Grab the reader’s attention – you can jerk them in by their lapels or take their hand and lead them into your world. Strategies for writing Narrative Openings: –Describe whereDescribe where –Describe whenDescribe when –Start in the middle of the actionStart in the middle of the action –Introduce a characterIntroduce a character –Make a simple but unexpected statementMake a simple but unexpected statement –Start with dialogueStart with dialogue

Describe Where “On a hairpin turn, above the dead forest, on no day in particular, a white Toyota crashed into a black Mercedes, for a moment blending into a blur of gray.” - Neal Shusterman, Everlost “When Kevin Midas first saw the mountain, it was in perfect focus, because his glasses were not yet broken. The peak stood alone, like a single stone tooth that had been thrust up from deep within the earth, somewhere near the beginning of time. It wasn’t part of a larger range; it didn’t fit in with the rolling hills around it, it was just simply there, defying all attempts to explain it.” - Neal Shusterman, The Eyes of Kid Midas

Describe When “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit. Of course, Tally thought, you’d have to feed your cat only salmon-flavored cat food for a while, to get the pinks right. The scudding clouds did look a bit fishy, rippled into scales by a high altitude wind. As the light faded, deep blue gaps of night peered through like an upside-down ocean, bottomless and cold.” - Scott Westerfeld, The Uglies

Start in the Middle of the Action “Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.” -Neil Gaiman, Coraline “Aragorn sped on up the hill. Every now and again he bent to the ground.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Introduce a Character “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange and mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.” –J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Make a Simple but Unexpected Statement “Sometimes it’s funny how we can’t know things. I get cranky about that, but I’m always getting that way about something or other, so it doesn’t matter. But it’s still funny. Like if Python hadn’t killed the chicken he wouldn’t have been sent to prison, and I wouldn’t have helped him escape. - Gary Paulsen, The Monument

Start with Dialogue “ ‘If you don’t sit your stinkin’, useless butt back down in that shopping cart, I swear I’ll bust your greasy face in!’ she screamed at the three-year-old in front of her. He studied her face, decided she was serious, and put his leg back inside the cart…He didn’t want to sit down anyway because of the soft, uncomfortable load in his pants, which had been there all afternoon and which felt cold and squishy when he moved too much. He rarely had accidents like that, but when he did, Mama sometimes made him keep it in his pants all day to ‘teach him a lesson.’” - Sharon M. Draper, Forged by Fire