{"id":737,"date":"2019-11-11T15:31:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T15:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/?p=737"},"modified":"2019-11-14T14:05:20","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T14:05:20","slug":"opening-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/2019\/11\/11\/opening-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Page Breaks: Opening Lines (Wed 13 Nov)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen King is one of the authors whose work we encountered in our <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/2019\/10\/09\/works-loved-halloween-edition\/\">Halloween Works Loved<\/a> session. This week we&#8217;ll discuss his advice on writing a compelling opening sentence. As you&#8217;re reading King&#8217;s suggestions and examples, you may also think of opening lines that have drawn you into a text &#8211; if so, please bring them along to share with others!<br \/><!--more--><\/p>\r\n<table style=\"border: solid 1px #fff\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"border: solid 1px #fff\" width=\"300px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-739\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2019\/11\/fairbarn-quote.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2019\/11\/fairbarn-quote.jpg 936w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2019\/11\/fairbarn-quote-300x292.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2019\/11\/fairbarn-quote-768x747.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/td>\r\n<td style=\"border: solid 1px #fff\">\r\n<blockquote>&#8220;There&#8217;s one thing I&#8217;m sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.&#8221; &#8211; Stephen King<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":5} \/-->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:quote \/-->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:heading {\"level\":5} -->\r\n<p><strong>Text: <\/strong>&#8220;Why Stephen King Spends &#8216;Months and Even Years&#8217; Writing Opening Sentences&#8221;\u00a0(2013) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/entertainment\/archive\/2013\/07\/why-stephen-king-spends-months-and-even-years-writing-opening-sentences\/278043\/\">LINK<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Time and Place:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;font-weight: 400\">13:00-14:00<\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;font-weight: 400\">Wed 13 Oct 2019 <\/span><\/li>\r\n<li>Arts 439 (Shackleton Room, 4th floor of the Arts building)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Please contact <a href=\"mailto:d.butchard@bham.ac.uk\">d.butchard@bham.ac.uk<\/a> if you have any difficulty accessing the readings. You may need a Birmingham ID and password to download\u00a0 PDFs.<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<h3><strong>About the Postgraduate Seminar:<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>This is an informal weekly reading group within the Department of English Literature. There will be tea, coffee and biscuits and you are very welcome.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Find out more:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"tnvbM90nQ0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/page-breaks\/\">Page Breaks: Postgraduate Seminar in English Literature<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&#8220;Page Breaks: Postgraduate Seminar in English Literature&#8221; &#8212; Postgraduate Research in English Literature \" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/page-breaks\/embed\/#?secret=tnvbM90nQ0\" data-secret=\"tnvbM90nQ0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen King is one of the authors whose work we encountered in our Halloween Works Loved session. This week we&#8217;ll discuss his advice on writing a compelling opening sentence. As you&#8217;re reading King&#8217;s suggestions and examples, you may also think of opening lines that have drawn you into a text &#8211; if so, please bring &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/2019\/11\/11\/opening-lines\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Page Breaks: Opening Lines (Wed 13 Nov)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,3],"tags":[155,154,16],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2019-20","category-page-breaks","tag-opening-lines","tag-stephen-king","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/englitpostgrad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}