{"id":562,"date":"2013-05-19T08:46:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T12:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=562"},"modified":"2013-05-19T08:46:59","modified_gmt":"2013-05-19T12:46:59","slug":"an-authors-handshake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"An Author’s Handshake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pondering?\"<\/a>
\nWhen you crack open a novel, you\u2019ve already committed to read at least a few chapters. Rarely would you abandon it after the first few paragraphs. Not so a short story. Its opening\u2014even its first sentence\u2014is crucial. First sentences \u201cestablish the authorial confidence that is absolutely necessary for successful fiction. If a reader is going to follow you, it\u2019s important that they know from the very first line that they can trust the story.\u201d It\u2019s the literary equivalent of \u201cYou had me from \u2018hello,\u2019\u201d the journalist\u2019s hook.<\/p>\n

The above quote is from an interview with author Josh Rolnick in the spring 2013 issue of Glimmer Train<\/i>.<\/a> He and the interviewer talk about the importance of \u201copening narrative space,\u201d which is an arty way of saying making the reader believe \u201canything can happen.\u201d One of the most memorable opening lines is, and we all know this one, whether we\u2019ve read Kafka\u2019s novella or not, \u201cOne morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin,\u201d although I\u2019m positive that in the translation I read an astonishing number of decades ago, those last two words were \u201cgiant cockroach.\u201d Kafka never exactly says. Whatever. You absolutely can\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

Examples of short story first lines I think compel further reading:<\/p>\n