Read any good first sentences lately? How do writers create such great first sentences?

How do writers create such great first sentences?

I've pondered this question for the last couple of weeks because I wanted to blog about it. When I start to write, I usually have a few ideas and points I want to cover. But rarely do I sit down and immediately write a magical first sentence. One of my friends from my writer's group knew his entire novel before he sat down to write it. Well, my mind doesn't work like that.

When I put my fingers on the keyboard, I sometimes have no idea how to begin the first sentence. Most of the time I write all of my ideas in a narrative form or I type an entire paragraph which I know will be in the piece, but I don’t know where it flows into the story yet. This can go on and on for hours, days or weeks.

Once I start to edit my work, I tie loose ends together. During editing, I typically uncover underlying meanings which I use to add to the essence of the story. This step helps me to flesh out the first draft. Often when I reread what I have written, a sentence in the middle or the end usually hits me WRITE to the Heart of the Matter and I cut and paste it into my opening line. Other times, the final sentences reveal to me what the first line should be. At that point, I go back to the beginning, add the first line and, with revisions to a few key words, I tighten the entire story.

Blogs in particular work this way for me. I have some ideas I want to share and I simply start to type it out, refining it as I click the keys, backspace, insert and delete. Which, I just did right now. This doesn’t sound pretty but it is how my mind works through the creative process.

Last Sunday I wrote an email to Lev Grossman after I published my blog about the first sentence of The Magicians. I wanted to make sure he was okay that I used his book as an example of a good first sentence. I didn't expect an immediate answer, so I was surprised when he replied within twenty-four hours.

Not only did he approve, but he shared with me how he wrote that first sentence. Grossman said:

"Glad you liked the first line. Oddly enough it was one of the last lines that I wrote -- I finished the book and then I went back and added that to the beginning."

He is a writer after my own heart. Now back to that first sentence.