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Sunday, January 12, 2020

Sunday Writing Tip: Add Tension to the First Line of Every Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Each week, I’ll offer a tip you can take and apply to your WIP to help improve it. They’ll be easy to do and shouldn’t take long, so they’ll be tips you can do without taking up your Sunday. Though I do reserve the right to offer a good tip now and then that will take longer—but only because it would apply to the entire manuscript.

This week, look at the opening line of each scene and chapter and make sure it has enough tension in it to draw readers into the scene.


We’ve looked at our scene openings before, but this time, let’s pat particular attention to the first line. Even if the scene itself has a hook, does the opening line have enough tension to get readers to that hook?

For more on crafting tension in your novel, try these articles:

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