Famous First Words: The Power of a Strong Opening Sentence

by Tara Johnson

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, 1859

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

1984, George Orwell, 1949

Call me Ishmael.

Moby-Dick, Herman Melville, 1851

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

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis, 1952

There’s something about a power-packed opening line that entrances a reader. It can set the mood, reveal treasured insights into the main character, raise intrigue, provide humor, surprise, and invite your readers into your story.

When I was finishing my latest release, All Through the Night, I glanced back through the first chapter, sensing that something was off. The pacing was fine, the setting was good, and I loved the mood, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong. With a sigh, I shoved away from my computer, determined to take a break. Turning to my bookcase, I grabbed the newest story I was dying to read: Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan.

I flipped to the first page.

From the beginning it was the Great Lion who brought us together.

That’s a great line.

I pursed my lips and reached for my worn copy of Pride and Prejudice.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Excited, I began yanking volume after volume off my shelves to examine each book’s opening lines. All the Light We Cannot See, Redeeming Love, Anne’s House of Dreams . . . my office was soon filled with open volumes. I turned back to my computer and stared at the first page of my story.

That’s what was missing. An intriguing opening sentence.

All Through the Night originally opened up like this:

Cadence Piper walked down the darkened street, breath ragged.

Eh. It’s okay, but it tells the reader nothing about Cadence. It does nothing to introduce the tone of the book. To make the reader curious. I then tweaked it to this:

Cadence Piper walked down the darkened street, her booted footsteps clicking loudly against the gritty walk.

Better, but not there yet. I needed my readers to feel Cadence’s fear. To know she was in a dangerous place. After trying several different lines, All Through the Night’s opening paragraph is this:

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil . . .

Cadence Piper walked down the darkened street, clutching her reticule to her middle.

Much better.

The lovely thing about power-packing the opening sentence of your story, and I would say each chapter, is that there’s a variety of sentences to choose from. Each of them can be used to reveal a unique aspect of story depth to your reader.

1. Action Sentence

An action sentence shows movement, something happening, but the action should point to something intrinsically important to the character’s situation or hint at the conflict that is coming.

When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man.

Firebreak, Richard Stark

2. Character Sentence

The character sentence establishes a character in our mind, but also tells us something about him or her. It makes us curious. It should be written in such a way to make us lean in and subconsciously say, “Tell me more.”

When the blind man arrived in the city, he claimed that he had traveled across a desert of living sand.

The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier

3. Dialogue Sentence

Dialogue is one of my favorite ways to open a story. It immediately pulls the reader into the thick of the action. Be careful to quickly establish who is speaking and give the reader some sense of time and place if you open with dialogue. They will want to feel grounded to something to continue reading.

He speaks in your voice, American, and there’s a shine in his eyes that’s halfway hopeful.

Underworld, Don DeLillo

4. Thought Sentence

The thought sentence can be a bit trickier to pull off but is highly effective if it fits your opening scene. The higher the stakes, the more desperate or quirky or shocking the thought.

Don’t fail. Tonight of all nights, don’t fail.

Engraved on the Heart, Tara Johnson

5. Statement Sentence

This is the most wonderfully broad and yet creatively diverse of all the opening sentences. A statement can be curious, self-deprecating, thoughtful, philosophical, matter-of-fact, humorous, or mysterious, as long as it fits the tone of your book, invokes curiosity, and reveals something about your character or setting.

I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin

All children, except one, grow up.

Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

Back When We Were Grownups, Anne Tyler

6. World-Building Sentence.

This is an opening line that transports the reader into a new place. It can be a galaxy far, far away or the peaceful shores of Prince Edward Island. It sets the reader on new soil, with fresh sounds, smells, and wonders as it tiptoes them into the story.

Far out into the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy, lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

A fun exercise is to take the current opening line of your work in progress and rewrite it in all six of these sentence types. You may be surprised how much it changes . . . and how your own creativity is charged as a result.

When in doubt, don’t be afraid to start with a classic.

“Once upon a time . . .”

About the Author

Tara Johnson is a passionate lover of stories who uses fiction, nonfiction, song, and laughter to share her testimony of how God led her into freedom after spending years living shackled to the expectations of others. Tara is the author of three novels set during the Civil War: Engraved on the Heart, Where Dandelions Bloom, and All Through the Night, which releases in January 2021. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and makes her home in Arkansas with her husband and three children. Visit her online at tarajohnsonstories.com.

About All Through the Night

With her stammering tongue and quiet ways, Cadence Piper has always struggled to be accepted. After the death of her mother, Cadence sets her heart on becoming a nurse, both to erase the stain her brother has left on the family’s honor and to find long-sought approval in the eyes of her father. When Dorothea Dix turns her away due to her young age and pretty face, Cadence finds another way to serve . . . singing to the soldiers in Judiciary Square Hospital. Only one stubborn doctor stands in her way.

Joshua Ivy is an intense man with a compassionate heart for the hurting and downtrodden. The one thing he can’t have is an idealistic woman destroying the plans he’s so carefully laid. When the chaos of war thrusts Cadence into the middle of his clandestine activities, he must decide if the lives at stake, and his own heart, are worth the risk of letting Cadence inside.

Everything changes when Joshua and Cadence unearth the workings of a secret society so vile, the course of their lives, and the war, could be altered forever. If they fight an enemy they cannot see, will the One who sees all show them the way in the darkest night?

Giveaway

Leave a comment for Tara for a chance to win a copy of All Through the Night. 

(Prize courtesy of Tyndale House Publishers. It is subject to Seekerville's Giveaway Terms & Conditions. US residents only.) 

Hiding in Plain Sight: What My Characters Taught Me with guest Tara Johnson

“Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.”

―Stanisław Lem

“Tara, do you know what you are?”

My friend sipped her coffee and leveled me with a kind but far too direct stare. The kind of stare that is only earned through truth and years of hard-won trust.

“What?”

“You’re a rodeo clown.”

I blinked, unable to formulate a reply in the sting of her assessment. I didn’t relish being compared to a clown. All I could see were the floppy shoes and bright-red nose. I contemplated dumping the coffee in her lap when she smiled.

“I don’t mean like Bozo the clown. I mean you stand in front of the crowd doing tricks, telling jokes, making everyone laugh. You see to their happiness while plastering yourself in makeup to give the illusion of a whimsical clown. But sometimes you hide behind that painted smile.”

She was all too correct. It’s easier than some might think to hide in plain sight.

I grew up as a preacher’s kid. I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly in churches. Somewhere along the way, I fell for the lie that approval and love are the same thing, but I was wrong. They are polar opposites.

Approval is a stamp that says, “You meet my expectations.” It drips of condescension and conditions. Love says, “You’re a mess, but I’m crazy about you anyway.” For too long, I lived as a people pleaser, looking for unconditional love in conditionally-minded people. I failed. Over and over again.

Thankfully I grew older and wiser. God brought amazing people—teachers, doctors, and friends—who helped unearth the wounds I kept locked away in the shadowed places of my heart. For a while I thought I had it all figured out . . . until I started writing. That’s when my characters began to teach me things I’m often afraid to confront.

In my debut novel, Engraved on the Heart, my heroine Keziah battles epilepsy while working as a conductor in the Underground Railroad. She struggles against the expectations of her staunch Confederate family, hiding her frailties from society’s critical eyes and pleasing the brother she adores while still trying to remain true to her own convictions. As Keziah’s story unfolded, I realized I fell for the same lie she had . . . that broken means worthless.

In my latest novel, Where Dandelions Bloom, Cassie Kendrick escapes her abusive father by enlisting as a male soldier in the Union Army. Cassie hides in plain sight yet fools herself into thinking she is finally liberated from the torment that has shadowed her life. In her quest for freedom, she comes to realize the only thing keeping her captive is her refusal to forgive her father.

While penning these two novels, I came to understand two things. First, I discovered Cassie and Keziah are reflections of my own secrets, the wounds I’ve tried to mask behind grease paint and wide smiles. Second, I realized why I write. Writing to win over the masses or for my own personal ego is a broken cistern of despair, nor do I write to escape. Instead, I start each book with a question I don’t know the answer to and ask God to reveal the answer as the story unfolds. To reveal himself.

In other words, I write to know God.

Many writers think their main goal should be voyaging off un-pubbed island. A noble goal, as long we don’t forget why we write. Published or unpublished, they both have their place and can teach us beautiful things at our particular point along the journey. Be careful not to base your identity in being a published author or as a writer at all. The more you build your identity on something other than Christ, the greater the pain if that identity crumbles.

“The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.”

―Wally Lamb

Know why you write. The motivation makes a difference.

And if, like me, you discover you’ve been hiding behind face paint and false identities, that’s okay. Write about that too.

Why do you write? 

What unexpected discoveries have you learned about yourself or about God as you’ve delved into the world of story? 

Do you believe courage is a requirement for being a writer?

Join the conversation in the comments! Thanks to Tara Johnson and Tyndale, one commenter (US only) will win a copy of Where Dandelions Bloom OR Engraved on the Heart!

Cassie Kendrick is on the run. Her abusive father arranged her marriage to a despicable man, but she's discovered an escape. Disguised as a man, Cassie enlists in the Union army, taking the name Thomas Turner.  On the battlefields of the Civil War, keeping her identity a secret is only the beginning of her problems, especially after she meets Gabriel Avery, a handsome young photographer.

Anxious to make his mark on the world and to erase the darkness and guilt lurking from his past, Gabriel works with renowned photographer Matthew Brady to capture images from the front lines of the war. As Gabriel forges friendships with many of the men he encounters, he wonders what the courageous, unpredictable Thomas Turner is hiding.

Battling betrayal, their own personal demons, and a country torn apart by war, can Cassie and Gabriel learn to forgive themselves and trust their futures to the God who births hope and healing in the darkest places? 

Where Dandelions Bloom... Available now! 

Tara Johnson is an author, speaker, and passionate lover of stories. She loves to travel to churches, ladies’ retreats, and prisons to share how God led her into freedom after spending years living shackled as a people-pleasing preacher’s kid.

From the time she was young and watched Gone with the Wind with her mother for the first time, the Civil War has intrigued her. That fascination grew into all aspects of American history and the brave people and stories who make up its vibrant past.

She says, “History is crammed full of larger-than-life characters. Doc Holliday, Annie Oakley, Helen Keller, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Amelia Earhart, and Frederick Douglass are just a few examples of flawed, wounded humans who battled their demons with determination and left an indelible mark on the pages of history. I suppose that’s why people are so fascinating. No matter the era, we all battle the same wounds. Abandonment, abusive fathers, overprotective mothers, loss, grief, rejection, addiction, crippling anxiety, loneliness, or the yearning for unconditional love, to name a few. We all battle the same junk and have to decide whether to fight or cave. Run or stand. Cry or smile. That’s what great characters do. They are a reflection of our struggles, our own wounds. Our own need. And, when written well, they remind us whom we need to turn to for healing.”

Tara has written articles for Plain Truth magazine and has been a featured guest on Voice of Truth Radio and Enduring Word Radio. Tara is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. She and her husband, Todd, live in Arkansas, and the Lord has blessed them with five children: Bethany, Callie, and Nate, as well as Taylor Lynn and Morgan Lane, who are with Jesus.

Visit her website at www.TaraJohnsonStories.com and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.