How to craft a memorable opening line
BY Discoveries
11th Dec 2025
CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and Audible to run Discoveries for a sixth year. This unique writing development prize and programme offers practical support and encouragement to aspiring female novelists of all ages and backgrounds, from across the UK and Ireland. The prize accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction, with entrants invited to submit the first 10,000 words of their novel and a synopsis.
Your opening line will help readers at every stage of the journey (from literary agents and competition judges to readers on the bookshop floor) decide whether to read on or put your book down.
The first line of a novel should invite readers to enter the world of your story. A really great opening sentence should do one of three things:
- Introduce us to a protagonist.
- Tell us when and where the story is happening.
- Set the tone for the novel and show us what genre we’re in.
These are not hard and fast rules, some authors choose a more experimental approach to their opening, and some manage to do all three things at once!
To inspire you further some of the Curtis Brown Creative and Curtis Brown Discoveries team members have collated unforgettable opening lines from the books that have stayed with us this year. Keep reading to discover the book openings that hooked us and the reasons why these first lines are so successful.
Anna Davis, Founder & Director of Curtis Brown Creative
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
- 'It wasn’t ideal, navigating the Zagros Mountains on a freezing September night, wearing a trouser suit and ballet flats.'
What a terrific opening line! The idea of someone picking their way over an Iranian mountain range in very difficult conditions in such incongruous clothing is instantly absurd and comical – but it also immediately gets you thinking, why is this happening? And you quickly sense that this situation must be much darker than the jaunty tone of the narration …
This comes from Fundamentally, by former CBC student Nussaibah Younis, who was shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and who is on our Discoveries judging panel this year!
Read our interview with Nussaibah
Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown literary agent
Hekate by Nikita Gill
- ‘The Universe was on fire. And the reason for this burning was a family at war with itself.’
This is one of the best openings I’ve read in a long time. In just a few short words, the stakes of the novel are immediately established – a family at war, a family so powerful that the universe is ablaze. It’s a striking way to begin a story, and the voice carries both weight and confidence, assuring the reader that they are in for a tale of epic proportions. Immediately, we find ourselves asking: Who is this family? What is the root of their disagreement, and how has it led to such catastrophic consequences?
Viola Hayden, Curtis Brown literary agent
The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
- ‘It would be easy to say that it all started with the murders, but actually it began when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister.’
You’re really out of the blocks with this one. ‘It would be easy to say’; a lovely, conversational voice. ‘Murders’; you know you’re in for some sort of crime (or crime-adjacent) fiction, and there’s a very good chance there’ll be a mystery to unravel. ‘But actually it all began when Margaret Thatcher became prime minster’; subverts your expectation, surprising you from the get-go, sending you towards a new horizon of possibility. Margaret Thatcher becoming prime minster is also a neat showing-not-telling time stamp for the slightly period setting.
Jennie Godfrey is a former student of CBC flagship Witing Your Novel course.
Read our interview with Jennie
Jess Molloy, Curtis Brown literary agent
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
- 'On my fourth birthday, I plucked six severed fingers from the shower drain.'
What a punchy opening! We know we are immediately in the depths of a tale of gory, bone chilling horror, but the casual, detached tone also implies a narrator who is numb to it, despite clearly being shaped by abnormal circumstances. This sentence delivers shock, but also establishes voice. It hints at trauma and plants a gripping central question, pulling the reader into a mystery that begs to be explained, slamming innocence and horror together in an unforgettable image. It also immediately helps a reader know whether this is a book for them or not!
Lucy Rose is a former CBC mentee.
Lucy Morris, Curtis Brown literary agent
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
- ‘The bed is empty.’
Four words that launch you straight into the opening scene, repeated at the end of the first paragraph for a one-two punch as we complete the circle around the cabin with the camp counsellor, frantically counting children. Beds tend to contain people, so if it is empty that means someone has gone missing. As a reader, it’s just that half-second of putting the pieces together before the horror dawns on you, too. And you’re hooked!
Catriona Paget, agent assistant at C&W
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
- ‘I only ever really talk about Dr Byrne with James Devlin, and so I always assumed that, were he to ever come back into my life, it would be through him.’
This opening dives straight into the messy relationships which make this novel so moreish. Rachel introduces us to James Devlin and Dr Byrne, and the way she does this tells us a lot. She’s clearly still in contact with James, as they still talk about Dr Byrne, whereas Dr Byrne has clearly been out of the picture for a while. Dr Byrne is also referred to by his title, which makes him feel even more removed, and introduces a potential power dynamic. We immediately want to know, who is Dr Byrne? And what happened that made him someone they talk about but aren’t in contact with? If it wasn’t through James, how did he come back into Rachel’s life and what were the consequences?
Katie Smart, Senior Marketing & Sales Manager at Curtis Brown Creative
Hemlock and Silver by T Kingfisher
- ‘I had just taken poison when the king arrived to inform me that he had murdered his wife.’
This is a brilliant and arresting opening line with T Kingfisher’s signature dry and dark humour. A perfect introduction to our poison expert protagonist and a great set up for the mysterious plot at the centre of the narrative. When you go in knowing that this is a Snow White retelling it is also a great opener because T Kingfisher immediately subverts the most well-known version of the tale in which it is the King the who dies at the start of the story and not his second wife.
Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2026. We’re so excited to read your work!
The books linked in this blog can be found on our Bookshop.org shop front. Curtis Brown Creative receive 10% whenever someone buys from our bookshop.org page.