The Beginning of Your Story: How to Make Readers Turn the Page
Kirsty Schumacher
8/24/20266 min read
The beginning of a novel has an enormous job.
It has to make someone want to keep reading.
Your reader may give you only a few paragraphs before deciding whether they want to continue. If you're submitting your manuscript to an editor or publisher, the stakes can be even higher: if the opening doesn't capture their attention, they may never discover how wonderful the rest of the story is.
So how do you begin?
Start with a bang.
But that doesn't necessarily mean explosions, murders, dramatic revelations, or someone running for their life.
A good opening creates a reason to keep reading.
Don't Worry About Getting It Right the First Time
There's something important to remember when you're writing your first draft:
The beginning you write first probably won't be the beginning you eventually publish.
In fact, it may not even be close.
When you first start writing a novel, those opening paragraphs are often written primarily for you, the author.
They're helping you find your bearings.
You're figuring out who your character is, what kind of story you're telling, what the world feels like, and where the story might be heading.
Think of those first paragraphs as a compass rather than a destination.
You don't necessarily need to know exactly how to begin the finished novel. You simply need somewhere to start.
Once you've written more of the story, you understand your characters better. You understand the themes. You know what happens.
And suddenly, you may realise:
“Oh. This is where the story should begin.”
That's completely normal.
When Should You Worry About the Opening?
Don't spend hours agonising over your opening paragraph before you've written the rest of your book.
If you're three pages into your novel and you're still rewriting the first sentence, you're probably not making much progress.
Write the story.
Get the first draft down.
Then come back to the beginning.
Once the draft is complete, the opening becomes much more important.
You now know what the story is actually about. You know your characters. You know the ending. You know which themes matter.
That gives you everything you need to create an opening that draws the reader into the story.
So don't confuse writing the beginning with perfecting the beginning.
They are two different jobs.
What Does a Good Opening Do?
A strong opening paragraph usually does more than simply sound interesting.
Ideally, it serves a purpose within the story.
It can:
create curiosity
introduce a character
establish a setting
establish a mood
raise a question
introduce a conflict
hint at something larger
create emotional resonance
You don't necessarily need to accomplish all of these at once.
But you should give your reader a reason to continue.
Curiosity Is Not the Same as Shock
Here's an important distinction.
You want your opening to make the reader curious.
But there's a difference between making someone curious about a situation and simply describing something remarkable.
Imagine opening with:
A woman woke up to discover that her house had disappeared.
That's certainly unusual.
But if the next paragraph simply explains exactly how it happened, the reader may no longer have a reason to wonder.
The more effective question is:
What does the reader still need to know?
Perhaps:
When Anna woke that morning, the house next door was gone.
Now we immediately have questions.
Why is it gone?
Where did it go?
Who lived there?
Why does Anna seem to be the only person who remembers it?
Curiosity is created by leaving something unresolved.
You give the reader enough information to understand the situation—but not enough to stop them wondering what happens next.
Four Ways to Begin a Story
There are four broad ways you can approach an opening sentence.
You can begin with:
1. A Character
Introduce someone immediately.
Anna had never trusted the sea.
The reader instantly has a person to follow.
Who is Anna?
Why doesn't she trust the sea?
What happened?
2. A Time
Place the reader within a particular moment.
On the morning of her eighteenth birthday, Anna disappeared.
Now we know when something happens—and we're immediately wondering why.
Time can also establish a particular period:
In the winter of 1943, the trains stopped coming.
Suddenly, the reader has a sense that the timing matters.
3. A Place
Take the reader somewhere.
At the end of the village stood a house nobody entered.
The setting itself becomes intriguing.
Why does nobody enter?
What's inside?
Who owns it?
A place can establish atmosphere before we've even met a character.
4. Direct Address
Speak directly to the reader.
You should never open a letter addressed to someone who died twenty years ago.
Now the reader is being personally addressed.
It creates an immediate sense of intimacy—and perhaps a warning.
Pay Attention to Your First Word
Even the very first word of a sentence can influence the feeling of an opening.
Different kinds of words create different effects.
A proper noun or personal pronoun
Starting with a character can immediately put a person at the centre of the story.
Anna opened the letter.
She had been waiting for it for years.
The reader immediately knows who they're following.
A preposition
Beginning with a preposition can place the reader directly into a scene.
Behind the house stood a field of dead sunflowers.
Under the floorboards, someone was breathing.
Beyond the mountains, the war had already begun.
Prepositions such as behind, beneath, beyond, under, inside, and across can be particularly effective because they immediately make us imagine a physical space.
They can also create atmosphere.
A pronoun or adverb
These can create a more confiding, intimate voice.
You probably think you know what happened.
There was something strange about that house.
Perhaps I should begin at the beginning.
They can make the narrator feel as though they're speaking directly to us.
A noun defining a period
A noun can immediately establish a time or historical context.
Winter came early that year.
Christmas was never the same after that night.
Childhood was something Anna remembered mostly in fragments.
The reader is immediately given a sense of when—or what stage of life—the story occupies.
Try Starting with a Preposition
One particularly useful technique to experiment with is beginning your opening sentence with a preposition.
Why?
Because it can drop the reader directly into a scene.
Compare:
The old house stood at the end of the road.
with:
At the end of the road stood an old house.
The second version immediately gives us a sense of place.
Or:
The children found something beneath the floorboards.
versus:
Beneath the floorboards, the children found something.
The preposition gives us a location before we even know exactly what's happening.
It creates a tiny question:
What's beneath the floorboards?
And that's exactly what you want.
Not confusion.
Not information overload.
Just enough curiosity to make the reader take the next step.
Your Opening Is an Invitation
Ultimately, the first sentence and first paragraph aren't there simply to show off your writing.
They're an invitation.
You're saying:
Come in.
There's something here I think you'll want to see.
You don't need to explain everything.
You don't need to reveal everything.
And you certainly don't need to have written the perfect opening sentence before you begin your first draft.
Write your way into the story.
Discover what your story is really about.
Then, when you've reached the end, return to the beginning.
Ask yourself:
Does this make me curious?
Does it make me want to know more?
Does it introduce the world of the story?
Does it establish the right mood?
And most importantly:
Would I turn the page?
Because that's the real job of your opening.
Not to tell the reader everything.
To make them want to find out what happens next.
David had never trusted the sea.
At the end of the village stood a house nobody entered.
on the morning of her eighteenth birthday, anna disappeared.
You should never open a letter addressed to someone who died twenty years ago.
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