We'll Start At The Very Beginning

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

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Did I get your attention? Then I'll begin.

They say the opening is the most important. It's the one that grabs the reader. The one that makes us want to spend 300+ pages with the hero/heroine. It's also the one that can have us staring at the blank page tearing our hair out.

But how do you get that opening just right? How do you go from an so-so opening to a great one? You know the one I'm talking about, right? The one that makes agents excited enough to read on. That makes them see the potential in you/your MS baby and request your full and then offer representation. The opening that - once published - makes readers buy your book and set up those fan pages dedicated to great quotes.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. Back to reality.

His Dark Materials author Phillip Pullman was asked how he wrote great books. His reply was that it's easy; all you have to do is write a brilliant first page. And then a brilliant second page. And then a brilliant third page... And well, you get the idea.

My first line trick? Get the darn first draft out of the way. Once the whole thing is done, I can then go back to focus on the first line during edits. It may be that killer opening line is a sentence or paragraph further down. Time and re-reading (and amazing CP's) can help pull it to the surface.

 I wish I had a magic formula to share. If they're are any hard and fast rules then I'm still looking, but there are a few other things that can help:

Choose a few books off your shelf. Read the first lines. See what grabbed you as a reader.

You can also check out these links:

http://writing-novels.suite101.com/article.cfm/more_great_first_lines

Stina Lindenblatt has a few posts on awesome first lines here.

So over to you. Do you have a favourite opening of a novel? How do you work on yours to make it great?

Contests GALORE!!

This post's title pretty much says it all. Today I'll be talking about... you guessed it... CONTESTS!

*dances*

If you have a completed and uber-polished manuscript, here are three contests you should check out:

Operation Awesome's October Mystery Agent Contest

On Saturday, October 1st, another awesome Mystery Agent will be open to your one-line pitches! The official rules, as well as our Mystery Agent's preferred genres, will be available this Saturday, so mark your calendars!

Note: For those of you who entered our September Mystery Agent Contest, the results will be in very soon! Check back to see if you won a full manuscript request!

Krista V's Agent Inbox Contest

Krista over at Mother. Write. Repeat. is throwing another one of her epic Agent Inbox contests! You can submit your query and first 250 words, which will be read by an agent. This contest is only open to YA and MG submissions, though. For more official rules, check out Krista's post here.

Reel YA's One-Line Pitch Critique Contest

This is Reel YA's first contest, and it's all about the one-line pitch. Two (uber-fabulous) agents will critique two one-line pitches, and they'll share their feedback on the blog! This contest is open to all the genres the two agents represent, which can be found on the contest post. For more official rules, click here. 

Now tell me: did I miss a contest?? If so, please let me know in the comments! And best of luck to those of you who enter these contests!!

Opening Lines--The YA Contemporary Edition

Welcome to part three of my Opening Lines series! 

If you've been following the series, you know I've already tackled opening lines in YA paranormal romance and the YA dystopian/sci-fi/post-apocalyptic mashup. Today, though, I'm tackling yet another genre: contemporary fiction. 

Le opening lines:

"It is my first morning of high school"--Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak.

"Everyone knows I'm perfect"--Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry.

"The first feeling is exhilaration"--Hannah Moskowitz, Break.

"Goebbels materialized on the back patio, right before we moved to Baltimore, and started chewing through the wicker love seat"--Natalie Standiford, How To Say Goodbye In Robot.

"Jason was going to Brain Camp"--Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever.

"The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle"--John Green, Paper Towns.

"I liked him first, but it doesn't matter"--Elizabeth Scott, The Unwritten Rule. 

"I should have known"--Kristin Walker, A Match Made In High School. 

"The day I broke up with my boyfriend Evan was the day he wrote the song"--Robin Benway, Audrey, Wait!

"Three things I know this second: I have morning breath, I'm naked, and I'm waking up next to a boy I don't know"--Daisy Whitney, The Mockingbirds.

"Imagine four years"--Courtney Summers, Cracked Up To Be.

"For the record, I wasn't around the day they decided to become Dumb"--Antony John, Five Flavors of Dumb.

"The winds in Washokey make people go crazy"--Kirsten Hubbard, Like Mandarin.

"I watch drops of water fall from the ends of my hair"--Nina LaCour, Hold Still.

"I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds"--E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

"This was getting old"--Kody Keplinger, The DUFF.

"Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amelie and Moulin Rouge"--Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss.

After reading all those opening lines, there's one thing that jumps out at me: they are all telling. Despite the similar openings, they are all different. Why, you ask? Because they all have their own voice. 

And lots of it.

For example, The Mockingbirds and Anna and the French Kiss open with a list. But notice the tone in each sentence. Is it the same? Are these main characters super happy about their current situations? No. Are they both scared? Yes, but the source of Anna's fear isn't the source of Alex's fear. Also, Anna seems to be pretty sarcastic, while Alex is straight-up blunt. 

In contemporary fiction, readers may find telling opening lines, but what counts is the attitude with which authors choose to kick off their stories. If that opening line makes you:

• laugh out loud (Five Flavors of Dumb, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Anna and the French Kiss) 
• feel compassion (Speak, The Unwritten Rule, Hold Still, The Mockingbirds) 
• sit back and go "WTF?" (Perfect Chemistry, How To Say Goodbye In Robot, Audrey, Wait!, The Truth About Forever, Like Mandarin)
• not know what's going on, but forces you to find out (Paper Towns, The DUFF, A Match Made In High School, Break, Cracked Up To Be) 

...you've gotten a taste of what's to come, and of who's going to lead you to it. This is why I believe telling opening lines show you who the MC is by spelling out what he/she is experiencing, or what they think about their circumstances. 

So there you go, folks. YA contemporary fiction features a ton of opening lines that pull some serious double duty. If you're working on a contemp story right now, read as much as you can, and make that first sentence as awesome as the ones above :)

Now tell me: any opening lines from YA contemporary books you love? 

Opening Lines--The YA Dystopian/Sci-fi/Post-Apocalyptic Edition

Yep. It's time for the second installment of my Opening Lines series! But unlike the first installment, I'll be looking at first lines from a few genres, not just one. 


Which genres, you ask?

1) Dystopian

2) Sci-fi

3) Post-apocalyptic

Le opening lines:

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold"--Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games. 

"It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened"--Lois Lowry, The Giver. 

"Good girls don't walk with boys"--Elana Johnson, Possession.

"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit"--Scott Westerfeld, Uglies.

"There is one mirror in my house"--Veronica Roth, Divergent.

"'Nina, look.' Sandy jabbed me in the ribs"--Julia Karr, XVI.  

"I'm afraid my hair is showing"--Elizabeth Scott, Grace. 

"My mother used to tell me about the ocean"--Carrie Ryan, The Forest of Hands and Teeth. 

"CA-CHUNK, CA-CHUNK, CA-CHUNK"--Pam Bachorz, Candor. 

"Daddy said, 'Let Mom go first'"--Beth Revis, Across The Universe. 

"Now that I've found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?"--Ally Condie, Matched. 

Okay. Time for a closer look...

• XVI and Across The Universe both open with dialogue, but they do it in a way that leaves you hanging. With the former, you ask yourself what Sandy wants Nina to look at. With the latter, you ask yourself what the main character's dad wants Mom to do, and why should she go first. Usually, this type of opening is frowned upon by agents, but exceptions like these ones do exist. Why? To me, it all comes down to creating intrigue. Your opening dialogue should make the reader ask themselves a question, and of course, want to know the answer immediately.
•  Candor relies on a very unusual opening: sound. I, for one, am wondering what makes that sound, and what it entails for the main character. Is he/she in danger? Is he/she causing the sound, or is someone/something else responsible? Where is the main character? Bottom line: there are more than one questions asked here, and whichever one you choose to answer doesn't matter. What matters is that you will read on to figure out what the heck sounds like that!
• The Hunger Games, The Giver, Possession, Uglies, Divergent, Grace, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth all share the same trait: they start with a "telling" sentence. Sure, there are more exciting ways to open (EXPLOSIONS! BATTLE SCENES TO THE DEATH!), but these authors chose to ease the reader in through good ol' telling. And I think it works. Why? These "telling" sentences make me freak out. They all have a WTF quality to them, whether they're producing fear or a raised eyebrow (WHY is Jonas beginning to be frightened? WHY is the fact that her hair showing such a big deal? WHY is there only one mirror in that house? WHY can't good girls walk with boys, for Christ's sake???). Notice the alarm these opening sentences cause? They force you to feel something you're not entirely sure why you should be feeling. 
• And last but not least, we have Matched. This one is just plain lovely to me. It's sort of telling, but not exactly. The lyrical quality of that sentence suggests the main character is either reciting or reading poetry, which makes me go, "Hmm... I wonder why that quote jumped out at him/her". I think it serves two purposes: 1) set up the tone of the novel with (a very pretty) voice; 2) set up the main character's dilemma (uncertainty about which path to take). While I do believe other sentences flaunt the MC's voice, this one reflected that submissive, identity-crisis feel of a dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel. It rings true to the genre it belongs to, and makes me want to know how the MC will solve their problems.

So. There you have it, folks. If you're working on a YA dystopian/sci-fi/post-apocalyptic novel, I hope you consider these openings and make yours even better :)


Now tell me: are there any YA novels in these genres with openings you love? Share them in the comments!

Opening Lines--The YA Paranormal Romance Edition

So. It's official. Today I'm kicking off an Opening Lines series!! 

*shimmies* 

And I've decided to start with a genre that is near and dear to my heart: YA paranormal romance.

Below you will find a few opening lines from a few YA paranormal romance novels. With this exercise, I aim to see which types of openings characterize the genre (and why I think they work). 

Le opening lines:

"If there's a Hell on Earth, it's high school"--Lisa Desrochers, Personal Demons.

"I'd always welcomed war, but in battle my passion rose unbidden"--Andrea Cremer, Nightshade.

"Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape"--Lauren Kate, Fallen.

"There were only two kinds of people in our town"--Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures.

"Violet Ambrose wandered away from the safety of her father as she listened to the harmony of sounds weaving delicately around her"--Kimberly Derting, The Body Finder.

"I walked into biology and my jaw fell open"--Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush (this is from the first chapter, since the prologue is in another POV).

"I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves"--Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver.

"I'd never given much thought to how I would die--though I'd had reason enough in the last few months--but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this"--Stephenie Meyer, Twilight.

Okay. What do we see here? 

Some opening lines are all about Character + Voice (Personal Demons, Fallen, The Body Finder, Beautiful Creatures). This is one of the hardest openings to pull off, but oh so awesome when done correctly (as in the above examples).  

Nightshade's opening line is a mix between Character + Voice + Action. We get the feeling the MC is in the middle of a fight, and if not, he/she is bracing themselves for it. Either way, I want to know which one it is. 

In Hush, Hush, Shiver, and Twilight, we get Character + Cliffhanger = Tension. In all honesty, this is the one that always hooks me. I am a sucker for that OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING kind of opening, but I need to "feel" the character as well. I want to get a taste of their personality while their worlds are being thrown out of balance. Whether it's a surprised student, a victim of unfriendly wolves, or someone who knew their tragic fate and faced it anyway, these openings show that despair readers can relate to. You're rooting for these people, mainly because their circumstances leave you no choice but to sympathize with them. 

So. If you're working on a YA paranormal romance, consider these types of openings. And makes yours even better :)

Now tell me: which one of these openings works for you as a reader/writer? Are there any other types of openings you've noticed in YA paranormal romance books?