a while, and that's the truth, the whole truth. (Freak the Mighty, Rodman Philbrick) When I opened my eyes I knew nothing in my miserable life prior to that moment could possibly be as bad as what was about to happen. (The Black Book of Secrets, F.E. Higgins) When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere. (The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham) Then, I simply ask them: 'Which is the best opening line to a story?' There has yet to be a class that has all come to the same answer. Some love the funny ones; others are interested by the violent ones. Overall, it creates a great discussion. The next stage is to explore what makes them so effective. As a class we come up with a rough set of rules: Refer to something as 'it' or 'they' to create mystery and hide the identity of person or creature Suggest something bad has happened or is going to happen Use a narrator Describe something ordinary and make one thing odd about it Raise lots of questions Students then create their own on a post-it note and we read them all out. Thankfully, it stops that annoying 'How do I start it?' phase of story writing. Plus, it gives students a range of sentence structures to copy or adapt for their own writing, saving us from some pretty dull writing. Depending on the rest of