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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35826
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There is much advice out there on "how to write a killer opening line". Usually these blog posts or how-to-write book chapters list examples of first sentences from recognized masterworks or group them into categories [such as](http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/7-ways-to-create-a-killer-opening-line-for-your-novel):

1. A statement of eternal principle
2. A statement of simple fact
3. A statement of paired facts

and so on.

Using that advice, I can come up with a hundred intriguing opening sentences, _none of which fit my book_. Because what none of the advice out there tells me is:

How to write a killer opening line _for my book_. Not just some random opening for a non-existent book, but one that **opens _my_ story**.

To find a first sentence for a story I have plotted, I cannot simply use the advice to write "a statement of eternal principle". A sentence such as "The sun rises in the east" does not fit many books, although it is a statement of an eternal principle.

So there has to be something more to writing an opening sentence. There has to be some way to _find_ the opening that is _inherent in your story_. Some way to boil down your story until the first sentence remains.

So what proven methods are there to derive an opening line from a story?

* * *

This question is not about _beginnings_, which I have asked about [here](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/35807/how-to-open-a-novel).

Original score: 19