Opening Sentences

SOME EXAMPLES OF OPENING SENTENCES  

>  What would YOU do if YOUR hair turned into spaghetti? 

>  There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did  this 

       to me-not forever, but periodically. 

>  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... " 

>  After nearly a quarter-of-a-century of marriage, Richie Meyers, my husband, told me to call 

         him Rick. Then he started slicking back his hair with thirty-five-dollar-a-jar English pomade. 

>  Opening with action is an effective narrative hook.  As you write the sentences describing 

          your opening incident, ask yourself: 

• Does this action suggest that a change has just occurred or is about to occur in my 

  character's life? 

• Will this action lead the reader to wonder why it's occurring, what my character will do 

       next or what the  consequences might be? 

Rewrite the following sentence as an opener to a story: 

When little Stevie, who had really gotten on Mom and Dad's nerves during and after  supper, woke up screaming in the middle of the night for the fourth straight night, his parents, who were tired from their jobs, their housekeeping and their gardening, rolled over, stuffed the big feather-filled pillows over their ears and did their best to go back to sleep - that was a mistake that they would cause them suffering for a long time.