Beginnings

Give your story a strong beginning to draw your readers in. Here are some you may recognize:

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor.  If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.

The knife and done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

Neil Gamain’s The Graveyard Book

There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road.  A small calico cat.  Her family, the one she lived with, has left her in this old and forgotten forest, this forest where the rain is soaking into her fur.

Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath

Many, many, many, many, many years ago, there lived a boy.  His name was Ugh.  A good boy, Ugh lived with his two brothers and two sisters in a small cave by the sea.

Al Yorinks’ Ugh

Stand her with me on the shores of New London, Connecticut.  Feel the cool breeze of the Atlantic Ocean on your face.  Feel the dirt beneath your feet; this land is far from ordinary.  It was here, upon this very spot, that Joseph Cinque set foot in America, bringing with him a group of renegade slaves and leaving his mark on history.

Veronica Chambers’ Amistad Rising