You hold in your mind an entire tale. Millions of facts and details sit there, waiting to be written down. You want to share all this with your readers, who know absolutely nothing about your tale before they begin to read.
Openings create a work s theme music and provide the first information readers receive.
They should be wonderfully interesting and should raise questions in your readers minds. Once you ve aroused their curiosity, they ll keep reading. To decide what those questions should be, there are questions you must ask yourself. When you can answer that in one sentence, you understand your plot. If you begin with something that inspires their belief in their ability, they re likely to read on.