"I don't think it's a bad thing to want to write a first sentence so idiosyncratic, so indelible, so entirely your own that it makes people sit up or reach for a pen or say to a beloved: Listen to this. A first line needn't be ornate or long. It needn't grab you by the lapels and give you what for. A first line is only a demand for further attention, an invitation to the rest of the book."
"Rules It might be helpful to believe in absolutes when you're first writing fiction. You can't have more than one point of view in a story. Novel chapters should be a uniform length. The present tense brings the reader in. The present tense is shallow as a dime. Epiphanies are how we understand life. Epiphanies are false, flimsy. These absolutes should be as small and solid as training wheels; like training wheels, you can easily take them off later."
A first line should be singular and demand attention, functioning as an invitation to the rest of a book. A first line can whisper or bellow, be polite or meant to repel interruption, but it should provide pleasure through beauty, mystery, humor, bluntness, or crypticness. Generic openings that merely state time or weather tell nothing and ask nothing. Flat, orienting openings can set up later disorientation and allow brightness to be projected. Absolutes and rules can serve as temporary training wheels for beginners but should be removable. A book should come from the heart and feel uniquely personal.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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