“We’ve talked so much about the reader, but you can’t forget that the opening line is important to the writer, too,” he once explained. “To the person who’s actually boots-on-the-ground. Because it’s not just the reader’s way in, it’s the writer’s way in also, and you’ve got to find a doorway that fits us both.”” (Scott Campbell, Stephen King’s Essential Rules for Writers)
Writing Exercise: “The Doorway That Fits”
Key Techniques to Practice:
Character Voice as Access Point: Crafting a compelling opening line that anchors you in a character’s voice, emotional state, and worldview. Intentional Tone Setting: Using the first line not only to hook the reader but to cue your own immersion in the world—establishing rhythm, perspective, and stakes. Mutual Orientation: Constructing an opening that simultaneously orients both reader and writer—emotionally, tonally, and narratively—toward the same entry path.
Writing Prompt (500 words):
Write the opening scene of a short story in which a character confronts a moment of private, unspoken crisis. The story must begin with a single sentence that acts as a “doorway” for both you and the reader—a line that immediately anchors tone, emotional stakes, and the unique voice or attitude of the protagonist. Then continue the scene, staying tightly within the emotional gravity of that line. Choose one of the following suggested tensions to explore, or invent your own:
– A parent receives a phone call that shouldn’t come for another ten years.
– A man rehearses a breakup while attending a funeral.
– A woman watches her dog bark at a locked drawer she has never opened.
This exercise must be written in a single session, using the opening sentence as your compass. Don’t revise the line until after the full 500 words are complete. Then, and only then, reexamine that first sentence. Does it still hold? Has the story outgrown it—or grown into it?
Evaluation Criteria:
– The first line is distinctive, charged with emotional undercurrent or psychological tension, and specific in voice or diction.
– The rest of the scene flows from the DNA of the opening, building on its tone and emotional trajectory.
– The character’s internal state is evoked implicitly through action, subtext, or detail rather than exposition.
– The writing avoids generic or placeholder openings; it resists inertia and opens a live door.
Follow-Up Workshop Questions:
– Does the opening sentence still feel vital after reading the full piece?
– In what ways does the scene fulfill or contradict the promise of the first line?
– Does the character’s emotional state evolve in a way that feels earned from the initial tone?
– Are there moments where the writer loses connection to the character’s inner world and slips into summary or authorial distance?
Recommended Reading:
Excerpt from The Road by Cormac McCarthy (opening paragraph). McCarthy’s first line—“When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.”—is an emotional and tonal doorway: immediate, bleak, intimate. The story unfolds directly from it, with the voice and gravity never breaking.
Strong vs. Weak Response Examples:
Strong:
Opening: “She had three minutes before the casserole burned and her daughter asked if monsters could open doors.”
This line fuses domestic realism with quiet dread, creating a tonal framework that supports an emotionally tense, tightly observed scene about a woman covering up a trauma during dinner prep.
Weak:
Opening: “It was a cold Tuesday morning, like any other.”
Flat, generic, emotionally detached. The line doesn’t provide a doorway for the writer or reader, and the scene that follows meanders without tonal direction or character insight.
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