For Dialogue openings, start with a catchy piece of dialogue, either spoken or internal.  The opening dialogue often conveys conflict.

Be careful not to fall into the confusing type of dialogue opening that puts titillating dialogue first, but the sentences that follow are so convoluted/confusing that they aren’t easily read.

A sign of a gimmicky beginning is when the remainder of the sentence or paragraph is so convoluted as to make it hard to understand, just so the shocking words are up front.  An example might be: “In the nude?”  Jane’s mouth hung open in reaction to my revelation.

Examples of dialogue openings:

• The Landry News, Andrew Clements
• Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Ally Carter (also Philosophical)
• Eggs, Jerry Spinelli
• Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White  (also a question opening)
• The Clique, Lisi Harrison

Question Openings: Dialogue openings sometimes start with a question, but  openings can also be a question that isn’t dialogue.  (I couldn’t find an example of one of those, though.)

Examples of question openings in dialogue:

• Beardance, Will Hobbs (also dialogue)
• Charlotte’s Web (also dialogue)

Tomorrow:  Mood/Setting Openings