What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?

I’m stuck.

So I have a title for my book – hurrah! – but I’m stuck at the opening chapter. Did I say chapter? I meant line. I’m stuck at how to kick this sucker off.

I don’t think has happened to me before. With my first two novels the beginning just sort of came to me. The right sentence literally fell from my fingers. But this time … I’m feeling a bit “ugh”.  And when I have the right opening sentence I always know. You just feel it.

But maybe I’m putting too much importance on the first sentence? Who am I kidding? I often decide whether or not I’m going to buy a book based on that first line.  The question is, do most writers always have a great opening line in their first draft?

One of my favourite first lines is from Venero Armanno’s Firehead: “She used to sell her kisses for caramels; her lips went for long licks of licorice and her touch for tangerines and tutti frutti” ( At least I think that’s the first line).

Then there’s “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Or “They shoot the white girl first”.  Toni Morrison, Paradise.

Perhaps I just need to write “a shitty first draft” (to quote Anne Lamott). Or do I hold out for perfection? Or do I go eat some chocolate and hope the answer comes to me?

Yeah.  Think I’ll go for the chocolate …