Just how do great authors begin their immortal novels? How do their opening lines become so celebrated? What is it that aspiring novelists like me should learn in order to seduce readers? As always, one must turn to the New Yorker magazine -- the Bible of budding English-language writers -- for guidance. This blogger discovered whole new tricks of "opening lines" perfected by the magazine in its long 82-year history. But confessions first - it is not my discovery. I was tipped by an American friend!
Perhaps a careful New Yorker reader is already aware of certain "New-Yorkerish" opening keywords popular among the magazine writers: "One night…"; "In the fall of 2001…"; "During the cold evening of…"; "In the seventeen-seventies…"; "After three decades of exile…"; "In 1947…"; "Recently..."; "In the summer of 1956…"; "Following the day after May 9, 2003…"; "In the cool, sunny day of…"
Here are opening phrases quoted from the published articles archived in the magazine's website:
Dept. of Popular Culture
Banksy Was Here; by Lauren Collins
May 14, 2007
"Around 1993, Banksy's graffiti began appearing on trains and walls around Bristol …"
Dept. of Archeology
Fragmentary Knowledge; by John Seabrook
May 14, 2007
"In October, 2005, a truck pulled up outside the National Archeological Museum in Athens ..."
Annals of Communications
Critical Mass; by Ken Auletta
May 14, 2007
"On a blustery, overcast day early this year, P.R. representatives from Sprint and Samsung stopped by the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal…"
Profiles
The Conciliator; by Larissa MacFarquhar
May 7, 2007
"Begin in farm country, late last summer, no particular day."
A Critic at Large
In the Territory; by Hilton Als
May 7, 2007
"November 29, 1967, a tart, sunny day in Plainfield, Massachusetts, some thirty miles north of Smith College, in the Berkshires..."
Books Briefly Noted
The Last Mughal
May 14, 2007
"In 1857, after a number of high-caste Hindu sepoys rose up against their colonial masters..."
Article comments
1 - Gordon L Hauptfleisch
Enjoyable article, Mayank--thanks.
2 - Christopher Rose
In the early afternoon of a fine Spring day, I left a comment indicating approval of this article...