That All-important Opening

by Courtney Pierce

I tend to agonize over the opening paragraph of my books, even more so about the very first line. I’ll spend hours ruminating over that first sentence, which is such a waste of time. I end up squeezing out whatever gets things going, and then I go back to rewrite it later, maybe after fifteen or twenty chapters. My writing car needs a thorough warm-up before its engine purrs.

The coaches I’ve had over the years have given me great advice about the importance of those first fifty pages. If we authors don’t adopt a grab-and-go momentum by plopping our characters into an action scene, then our books will fall to the floor with a snore and a thud. Since I don’t write thrillers or espionage stories, a sharpened hook can be a challenge. The first lesson drilled into me was to never start a book with the main character getting out of bed in the morning. That’s boring and amateur hour.

A book's genre dictates how readers expect the story to begin. My previous trilogy about the Dushane Sisters had an element of light humor, so I opened with my protagonist’s major personal dilemma and quirky character traitsꟷgood and bad. The stage was set for launching the five Ws: who, what, where, why, and when. How comes a bit later. 

Before I even type the first word of a new book, I invest quite a bit of time to thoroughly understand my characters strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits. I need to know them better than the reader, and intense outlines give me the ability to transform them into real people. After all, I have to live with them for many months.

While many of those intimate details never end up on the printed page, they do shape how my characters respond to situations. Little things mean a lot to help create conflict, like favorite foods, allergies (that can make it super interesting), irrational childhood fears, obsessions, and what they find humorous. Also, what happened their er past affects their moral decisions going forward.

In my new book, Big Sky Talk, I’m departing from my usual opening technique to jump into the incident that kicks off the storyꟷa crime scene. Since this book is going to be more dramatic with a love story attached, a quick grab is required to start the show. I introduce the love interest first, who happens to be the Sheriff of Flathead County in Montana. A killer is on the loose, and that fugitive is a grizzly bear. 

Here's my draft of the opening paragraph:

Sheriff Russell Knowles studied the nude body on the metal table. He’d never seen a chest wound so deep, and he'd arrested this guy before—a poacher—but now he’d been rendered nearly unrecognizable. Just one of the gaping wounds on the victim’s chest would have killed the man, but the animal had obviously kept attacking after the fatal swipe. Who was the victim here, anyway?

My protagonist is introduced in the second scene. Aubrey Cenderon is sixty-two, a professional photographer, and has just moved to Montana after having lost her father. She’s divorced, likes her wine, loves the outdoors, and she has just moved to the rural community of Many Lakes in Kalispell, Montana. 

Then BOOM! Something happens in the first twenty pages to yank Aubrey out of her comfy little world. And it plays right to the heart of her internal conflict. This is “the hook” and my character’s raison d’être. The hook is one of my favorite moments to write, because it’s power-packed with unexpected emotions: fear, joy, misunderstanding, insecurity, and anticipation. From this moment, life looks very different to my character.

But back to that first paragraph. I’m actually writing three options for the first scene: a crime scene, Aubrey moving into her new home, or Aubrey with some backstory of why she has moved to Montana. Personally, I want the crime scene, but I’ll pick which one sticks after I get some opinions. Unlike many authors, I have a family that won't dance around when offering suggestions, and their instincts are usually right.

The beginning scene is so important because it also determines how the story concludes three-hundred or so pages later. In author land, it’s called “bookending.” The story ends in the same way it begins, with the protagonist returning to her life, enlightened as a result of the experience she has endured. The character comes full circle. And as an author, I, too, come full circle.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

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Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and

windtreepress.com 

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Available Now!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, available now. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will family intrigue get in the way? Ride along for the wild trip that starts in a New York auction house and peaks in a mansion on Boston's Beacon Hill. 

The Dushane sisters finally get to the truth about their mother.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."