“There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It's tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don't think conceptually while I work on a first draft -- I just write. To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar. But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.” ThinkingKnowsWantShouldWritingTryingFirstsLittlesIdeasStoriesLinesOne ThingTheoryReaderToughOpeningInvitesTrickyJarsMoonbeams Author:Stephen King
“Talking Taboo is a groundbreaking book. This chorus of bold female voices is presenting the church with an opportunity to engage real but all too frequently avoided or unseen issues impacting countless Christian women today. Their candid essays cover a wide spectrum of perspectives. Readers will resonate with some and be shocked by others. Talking Taboo took courage to write. Reading taboo takes courage too. So buckle up and brace yourself for an eye-opening but vitally important read!” WritingImportantBookRealEyeTodayChristianReadingOpportunityVoiceChurchTalkingIssuesPerspectiveReaderFemaleWideOpeningShockedUnseenEssaysAvoidedSpectrumTabooPresentingChorusCandidBracesEye OpeningBucklesGroundbreakingChristian WomenFemale Voice Author:Carolyn Custis James
“Reading [poetry], you know, is rather like opening the door to a horde of rebels who swarm out attacking one in twenty places at once - hit, roused, scraped, bared, swung through the air, so that life seems to flash by; then again blinded, knocked on the head - all of which are agreeable sensations for a reader (since nothing is more dismal than to open the door and get no response).” KnowsSeemsReadingDoorsAirReaderTwentiesResponseOpeningSensationsRebelFlashAttackingBlindedHordeSwarmsReading PoetryNo Response Book:The Essays of Virginia Woolf, Volume 5: 1929 - 1932 Source: The Essays of Virginia Woolf, Volume 5: 1929 - 1932
“To what or whom does Lizzie Harris direct the imperative title of her startling first book, Stop Wanting? To the reader, the narrator, to desire itself, or to lack? This is a work of complexly, ambiguously layered narratives and identities. The opening poem asserts I want to say what happened / but am suspicious of stories. These lines become an ars poetica for the whole of this painful and exceptional collection in which the unspeakable is stubbornly confronted by a searing eloquence. This is a commanding debut.” WantFirstsDoeBookWholeStoriesDesireLinesHappenedIdentityReaderDirectPainfulOpeningNarrativeTitlesCollectionsExceptionalImperativesSuspiciousEloquenceUnspeakableDebutNarrators Author:Lynn Emanuel
“I myself discovered many authors through school reading lists and through school anthologies. The positives are: young readers can find the world opening up to them through books they study. The negatives may include bad experiences kids have - if they don't like the book or the teacher, or the way the book is taught.” IfsWorldWayMayBookKidsSchoolYoungReadingStudyTeacherTaughtReaderListsOpeningOpening UpAnthologyBad Experiences Author:Margaret Atwood
“I really want readers to put themselves into the shoes of each character. So the opening lines are an orienting technique: this is where you are, this is who you are. Go.” WantCharacterLinesReaderWho You AreShoesTechniqueOpeningWhere You Are Author:Alissa Nutting
“My focus is on the reader and that the poet's job is not to inspire himself or herself. The poet's job is to inspire some future reader. And so, as a reader you have a task to do in finding those bottles and opening up the messages and experiencing what's in them inside of yourself.” JobsFocusInspirePoetReaderFindingsMessagesTasksOpeningBottlesOpening Up Author:Edward Hirsch
“I would not want to forget the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. I would never want to forget that! That was so magical to me, and that was a real eye-opening experience. I was probably 11 when I read that and already a reader, but I think that book really showed me how you can be transported and how your imagination can take you to a whole other place.” ThinkingWantFirstsBookRealWholeEyeImaginationForgetLordReaderFirst TimeRingsOpeningEye OpeningReal Eyes Author:Sharon Cameron
“I don't think a novel's main donation, main gift, is the document. The document is there, but a novel goes beyond documentation. It goes into opening a new vista, opening a new perspective, showing familiar things in an unfamiliar way, and making the reader reconsider the documentary facts which he or she may have known before.” ThinkingWayMayFactsKnownNovelPerspectiveReaderFamiliarOpeningDocumentsDocumentariesUnfamiliarDonationVistasDocumentationNew PerspectiveFamiliar Things Author:Amos Oz
“[Michael] Chabon is arguing in favor of what is at the same time an old-fashioned and very forward-thinking opening up - of taking off the class associations with those labels, because we grew up, or I certainly grew up, feeling that, "Oh, there's literary fiction, and beneath that, there's these other things." He's actually saying that they're all of equal merit, and in many cases, that work in the genres, or work that draws from the genres is more entertaining for readers, since it is our job to entertain people.” PeopleThinkingFeelingsJobsFictionClassCasesGrewReaderEqualGrew UpDrawsArguingFavorsOpeningLabelsGenreMeritAssociationEntertainingOld FashionedOpening UpGenre IsForward Thinking Author:Emily Barton