Spotlight on.... Opening lines

It's been four long days since my last post but what have i been upto? Well I have another chapter drafted and ready for editing, chapter 5 is complete and it was one of the most difficult chapters so far. Why was this you might ask? Well I knew what i wanted to write and I knew how i wanted to write it, but i just could not get going. My best chapters which flow straight from brain to fingers to laptop are the ones which have an excellent opening line. As long as I have a good opening line i have very few problems in writing as everything else just comes to me.

But how do you write a good opening line?

If i knew the answer to that question I don't think I would have had problems coming up with one. Most of the opening lines I have written for my chapters so far have varied depending on what's in the scene. The prologue (once written) will be a quote from the character on perceptions of truth, Chapter 1 sets the scene with an landscape description, chapter 2 depicts the change in time, chapter 3 is what my character can hear, chapter 4 is the weather and chapter 5 was my characters emotions.

So I have: Weather, landscape description, thoughts, feelings, and the senses, all forming the main basis of my opening lines.

From other novels I have read I have also come across opening lines which are quotes and dialogue. I do intend to do some dialogue opening scenes later but I find those type of openings dramatic and believe they should be used sparingly where they can be truly effective.

I have recently joined the NaNoWriMo community and am enjoying the conversations that take place in the forums. I expect these to really help inspire me not only with my novel but also with this blog for post ideas.

For those of my readers who are not familliar with NaNoWriMo, this is a novel writing challenge due to start on 1st November. The aim of the game is to write 50k words during the month of November. Now whilst it is true that i have already started my novel (5 chapters down another 20 or so to go), I am expecting it to be well over the 75k mark, and by setting myself the target of 50k for november that will really motivate me to get the novel hopefully finished by the end of november.

So wish me luck.... and for any of the NaNoWriMo Community who are reading this Good Luck to you too x