In the beginning…there’s only the opening sentence to your story, be it novel, short fiction, or even picture book. Your opening sentence is second only to your closing sentence. And a reader will never get to your closing without being invited in by your opening.
The stakes are high, and it is worth spending time to find the elements that create a story beginning that will cause it to come to life.
IT’S IMPORTANT , AT the outset, to suggest you not get hung up on “the perfect” opener, though. You can begin the work with a placeholder – anything, really – and move on to the second sentence. Like the first chapter in a
