Weekly Writing Exercise: First Lines

From my book: Writing through the Fog

First Lines

We authors fret over a novel’s first sentence like no other. We desperately hope that if we can hook readers with an exquisitely crafted opening, they won’t be able to stop reading. With that in mind, visit a library or bookstore and choose a book by an author you’ve never read, a book about which you know nothing. Crack it open and copy down their first sentence, the sentence they worked so hard to create, then close the book and put it back on the shelf. Now, take that sentence and begin writing from it. See where it takes you. After you’ve finished, you can open the book back up to see what path the author took.