Importance of the Opening Sentence?

Question:

Importance of the Opening Sentence?

It has always been stressed that you only have so long to grab the reader before they put the book down. While I agree with this statement, I'm looking for opinions of just what we're supposed to tell.

I've heard from "Just grab the reader's attention", to "You have to tell them everything, and at the same time you can't tell them anything." As far as I've understood, the latter means something along the lines of telling them what the story is about, yet don't give away any of the mysteries.

Tips are welcome as well, thank you to all responces!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Opening sentences are always important, in fiction or in non-fiction. It's like when someone walks up to you and says "Hello." Does their breath stink? Are they dirty? Do they seem like an interesting person and make you want to continue the conversation?

The sophistry of "Tell them everything while revealing nothing" is OK for the opening paragraph, perhaps, or the first couple of pages, but there's no real way to do that in the first sentence. Here are some famous first sentences of books that are classics, immortal works that millions of people have read and will read in the future.

"My name is Ishmael." - from Moby Dick

"You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter." - from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

"The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as 'The Styles Case' has now somewhat subsided." - from The Mysterious Affair at Styles

"In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing." - from Don Quixote de la Mancha

First sentences have to hook the reader's interest, and that means that your opening sentence will have to be as different as there are different people out there--an impossibility. So, you go for your target market.

Are you aiming for the reader who likes quirky stories? Then maybe you want to say something as offbeat as "He had never seen anyone use a coconut that way before."

Maybe you are shooting for the reader who likes the shocking and grisly story, so something like this might work: "The mangled leg landed in the water just a few feet from where Henson was fishing."

There is no one answer to your question because there is no one formula for writing a good book, save for this one: Write well and clearly, and with passion.

If you can do that, you will have captured the reader, even if your first sentence is something like, "The event that came to be known as The Pulse began at 3:03 p.m., eastern standard time, on the afternoon of October 1." - opening line of Stephen King's novel, CELL.