Put Blood in Your Opening Lines and Keep Your Readers Hooked Forever

09 May 2025 #writing

People have short attention spans, and shorter for boring things.

That’s why our job as writers is to keep readers moving from the first sentence to the next and to the next…

I learned from James Altucher, one of my favorite writers, to study the opening lines of the books I read to write my own.

Following that advice, here are some of my favorite opening lines:

Genesis by Moses

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

That’s the opening line of the Bible, Genesis 1:1. It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not, those 10 words hook you right from the start.

If you read it for the first time and with fresh eyes, you can’t avoid asking:

• Who is this God?
• “In the beginning”…Was there anything before?
• How did He do that?
• And more important, why?

We’ve been trying to answer that for years.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

I didn’t read One Hundred Years of Solitude until the end. Sorry!

That’s one of the required books in my Spanish classes. I was too young. Too many members of the Buendía family that I got lost.

Even though I didn’t read it until the end, for some reason, I memorized that opening line in Spanish, its original language. It’s way stronger and more memorable in Spanish.

“Many years later,” so it doesn’t start right at the beginning.

“The firing squad,” what did this colonel do?

Before getting shot, of all things, he remembers his father taking him to discover ice? Wait! Was ice that new? When is this happening?

Choose Yourself by James Altucher

I was going to die.

Five words that hook you. You can’t avoid asking how and why.

To add more drama, he continues:

I was going to die. The market had crashed. The Internet had crashed. Nobody would return my calls. I had no friends. Either I would have a heart attack or I would simply kill myself. I had a $4 million life insurance policy. I wanted my kids to have a good life. I figured the only way that could happen was if I killed myself.

He answers the “why” by giving three causes: market, internet, and no friends. So is he an investor in internet companies? He doesn’t give a full answer to make us keep reading.

This guy is so miserable that he wants to take his own life just to leave the insurance money to his kids. How did he end up there? You can’t avoid empathizing with him. You just want to keep reading.

Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher

It was all over for me once again.

Wait! When was the last time? And why is that happening “again”? And what is “all”?

To keep building up drama, he goes on:

It was all over for me once again. Marriage was over. My bank account going down. Nobody was publishing any more of my books. Nobody was giving me any more opportunities.

If you have read James Altucher’s previous books and heard his stories, you know he’s referring to one of the multiple times he went bankrupt. That explains the “again.”

After that drama, you want to keep reading to know what he did to get back up. It’s a book about reinvention. He got back up, right?

Parting Thought

Are there any patterns in those opening lines? Yes.

• Thought-provoking or controversial statements like in Genesis.
• Intriguing stories like in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Rising drama and tension like in James Altucher’s books.

James Altucher teaches about powerful opening lines. And he walks the talk in those two books by building up drama.

A good headline is like a welcome sign. Controversy, curiosity, blood, and drama in the first line create the first impressions in your writing. Remember, you only have one chance to give a good first impression. So, put blood and drama in your opening lines and hook your readers until the end.