Opening Lines: Hooks, Grabbers, and Zingers – Reader Candy

What’s in a powerful opening line? 

Everything. Tone. Voice. Character. The promise of the story.  Everything.

Example: I only need to repeat the phrase, Call me Ishmael, and you will automatically breathe salty air, feel wet wooden deck beneath your feet, and visualize the irascible Captain Ahab and an illusive whale named Moby Dick. First lines tell us whether we’re sitting down to a fudge brownie sundae, or a lobster slathered in lemon butter.

Like most readers, before I consider buying a book, I peruse the first lines. If the author doesn’t have me at hello, they won’t have me ever.

Here are three of my favorite opening lines:

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
– THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER / C. S. Lewis

Bartholomew Lampion was blinded at the age of three, when surgeons reluctantly removed his eyes to save him from a fast-spreading cancer; but although eyeless, Barty regained his sight when he was thirteen.
– OUT OF THE CORNER OF HIS EYE / Dean Koontz

On the second Thursday of the month, Mrs. Dombrowski brings her dead husband to our therapy group.
– STORYTELLER / Jodi Picoult   #1 bestseller of 2013

Strong first lines really are reader candy. If there is a chocolaty, taste-bud -extravaganza in the first few lines, I’m sold. Why? Because those first lines convince me there will be more deliciousness deep inside the book.

Share your favorite opening lines with us. We'd love to hear.

Here are some yummy first lines from the Plotting Princesses for you to sample: