As I inch closer to finishing the first draft of my next novel, (a psychological Meet Joe Black x Canterbury tales, set in a retirement home), in between thinking about the Roman Empire, I’ve been thinking a lot about opening sentences. Recently J.K Rowling’s first lines in the Harry Potter series were voted the best opening lines of all time:

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privett Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

Sure, it’s pretty memorable, and invites the reader to want to find out more, but really, among the best openings of all time?

The opening sentence is supposed to intrigue the reader, enticing them to continue forward beyond the first page. It’s an opportunity to showcase your writing style and introduce the main characters, or an incident that triggers the protagonist forward into the plot.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” From George Orwell’s 1984 immediately sets the tone for the dystopian world in which the story takes place.

My draft opening line from my WIP is pretty brief:

“If Eddie Malone had been born anyone else, he probably wouldn’t have liked him much either.”

Perhaps one of my all-time favorites is:

“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end – began, so far as I know, or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper, floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”

What in your view makes a grand opening, or indeed, would be your vote for your favorite opening line of all time?