Focus on conflict in story's opening lines

Almost certainly the most important lines in a story are the first ones. They give the tale direction and set the mood and tone. With an opening sentence, a writer must push the reader through the looking glass into a new world that can’t be escaped from. 

One good way to do that is to ensure that the opening line suggests what the story’s main conflict is. Conflict, after all, is at the heartbeat of every story. Without it, the story becomes inert and purposeless. Consider these classic opening lines:

Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. – Franz Kafka, “The Trial” (Conflict: Will an innocent Josef K. go free?)

It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. – Paul Auster, “City of Glass” (Conflict: Can the main character overcome the problem created by the odd telephone calls?)

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. – Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man and the Sea” (Conflict: Will the old man catch a fish and by doing so become “young” again?)

An opening sentence can opt to focus on establishing the mood and tone rather than the main conflict (such as George Orwell’s It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen from “1984”), but is has to be fairly emotive to work. For example, imagine if Jane Austen had opened “Pride and Prejudice” by setting the mood and tone rather than suggesting the conflict (Can a man of a higher social class marry a woman of a lower social class for love?):

Conflict (original):
IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

“My dear Mr. Bennet,'' said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

Mood and Tone (my bad rewrite):
Mrs. Bennet stared out her window as rain ran down it, watching a soaked hired hand remove the "For Sale" sign from the Netherfield Park property. It is a truth universally acknowledged, she thought, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. "My dear Mr. Bennet," she said to him, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"

Ideally, the opening line establishes both conflict and mood/tone. Focusing on conflict, however, usually gives those first lines more energy. Mood and tone come naturally, as they flow from how the characters experience or react to the conflict.

And in a novel, unlike a short story, there's a little more leeway with the opening lines, of course. So long as you establish the conflict in the opening paragraph, readers should still get hooked and reeled into the story.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. Whether you come from a big city like Ogden, Utah, or a small town like Rake, Iowa, I can provide that second eye.