Pick my new novel's opening line! 👈

Where I react to your feedback on my book’s opening line

I have always been a character-driven reader. I read to connect with characters — to understand their innermost thoughts, their contradictions, their emotional arcs — and much of my approach as a developmental editor involves making sure characters are believable, layered, complex, and authentic.

I recently announced that I’m (tentatively, quietly, anxiously) toying with the idea of starting my own novel. And naturally, what came to me first was the main character.

To help me flesh out the idea and get the creative juices flowing, I posted a YouTube video asking viewers to help me choose the opening line for my novel.

And I was incredibly surprised by the responses!

In case you missed it, I drafted five different opening lines, each using a different strategy to (hopefully) grab the reader’s attention. Here they are:

1. Matt is on hold with Delta trying to push our flight home by two days, and all I can think about is the dog.

2. Every morning before Matt wakes up, I check his phone to see how many unread texts he has.

3. Our complimentary bottle of champagne is gone.

4. The resort boasts the most gourmet on-mountain cuisine in the Alps and the fewest deaths per year.

5. Marriage is a delusion.

As you can see, the first two are more character-driven, and the latter three are not. I honestly thought that the first two would be the most popular, but the votes proved me very, very wrong…

Here’s a chart showing which opening line came out on top, by a huge margin: