Using a different POV just for the opening line
I'm currently working on a short story with a dramatic "twist" ending. I use the quotation marks because, unlike a conventional plot twist aimed at surprising the reader, the intended target of the twist is the protagonist.
The intent is for the reader to be able to figure out the "twist" themselves before the protagonist does. In order to increase the odds of this happening I'm planning on making sure the reader has various advantages that the protagonist does not.
However because the story is being written from a third-person limited POV (and the protagonist is the only POV character) I'm finding myself rather limited in what clues I can feed the reader without the protagonist "knowing" them too.
So I'm contemplating inserting a single statement in the first person as the opening line. I've got the line written and it will give the savvy reader a great deal of additional context for the clues that the protagonist doesn't have allowing them to read much more into seemingly mundane events and work things out ahead (particularly genre-savvy readers might even get 80% of the twist from the statement alone)
Now swapping narration perspectives mid-story would feel wrong in this case and would break the immersion I'm building in the protagonist's POV - but does using the opening line in this way do the same? Or am I risking reader confusion by presenting something from a perspective that I never actually return to during the story?
1 answer
Yes, it's fine.
I would set it off though. Italics might work. Or an indented blockquote style. Or a divider between that line and the rest of the story.
You might also make it a fake quote. Like many authors do (with either real or fake quotes) for story or chapter headers.
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