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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nOpening lines of books are so important, as you know. First lines should draw the reader in and inspire the reader to keep reading. Thanks to a book club friend who sent Colum McCann’s article to me, excerpted below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also like his take on \u201cwrite what you know.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colum McCann:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A first line should open up your rib cage. It should reach in and twist your heart backward. It should suggest that the world will never be the same again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening salvo should be active. It should plunge your reader into something urgent, interesting, informative. It should move your story, your poem, your play, forward. It should whisper in your reader\u2019s ear that everything is about to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But take it easy too. Don\u2019t stuff the world into your first page. Achieve a balance. Let the story unfold. Think of it as a doorway. Once you get your readers over the threshold, you can show them around the rest of the house. At the same time, don\u2019t panic if you don\u2019t get it right first time around. Often the opening line won\u2019t be found until you\u2019re halfway through your first draft. You hit page 157 and you suddenly realise, Ah, that\u2019s where I should have begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So you go back and begin again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t write what you know, write towards what you want to know.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A writer is an explorer. She knows she wants to get somewhere, but she doesn\u2019t know if the somewhere even exists yet. It is still to be created. Don\u2019t sit around looking inward. That\u2019s boring. In the end your navel contains only lint. You have to propel yourself outward, young writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end your first-grade teacher was correct: we can, indeed, only write what we know. It is logically and philosophically impossible to do otherwise. But if we write towards what we don\u2019t supposedly know, we will find out what we knew but weren\u2019t yet entirely aware of. We will have made a shotgun leap in our consciousness. We will not be stuck in the permanent backspin of me, me, me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n