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Hello Brain! Thanks for tagging me! Sorry about the delayed response though, I’ve been busy with work work and work here at home…

Anyway, I am still in the process of plotting out my suspense novel, but I have had this opening line thought out for months. I haven’t told it to anyone so it might be absolutely awful on paper rather than in my head.

“I hate that feeling. The feeling that this is happening, that this is real. The feeling that everything you’ve ever worked for, everything you’ve ever protected, is lost. I thought about this as I stared into the large crowd in front of me. It was hard for me to look at the few faces I recognized- my mother, my sister- the faces I would never see again. I also thought about the ones whose footsteps I was following in- my father, Nick’s, the baby. I had let them down. All of them. I sighed as the guard brought me to the center of the platform. “I’m sorry,” I whisper as I close my eyes to prepare myself for the pain, the torture, and finally, my death that was to follow. Of course, I never could’ve been prepared for what happened in those few moments after I closed my eyes…”

I’m not sure if I should start the book like that or if that should be a prologue. What do you think?

And I guess I should probably answer your question XD I tend to like to read and write relatable stories. The feeling she mentions at first we have all had, and we normally all hate it. I thought it would add to the suspense if it started out being relatable then showing what’s going on in the character’s POV. This (at least what I’m hoping) gets the reader thinking What could’ve possibly happened to this girl? 

Another method I use is just saying random things (that are related to the story, of course) while being overly dramatic inside my head when coming up with these types of things. If you act like some really mysterious movie announcer when creating your first sentence, it will make everything seem suspenseful and thrilling and it has helped a lot. Obviously, not everything you come up with will work but it’s pretty easy to figure out what is good and what is bad when coming acting super dramatic. Here is a completely random example, but you have to use a very dramatic voice when reading these:

“Poison. I could taste it. This whiskey, unlike the others, sent a burn down my throat. I would recognize the signs anywhere. The burn, the chalky taste, the sudden swelling in my throat.  Someone was trying to kill me. ”

“I took another shot. Only this one, tasted off. Really off. The chalky taste set the alarm off in my head. Someone had poisoned my drink.”

These would both work I guess, but in my opinion the first one is better. I completely made these up right here so they are both pretty bad XD

I hope this helps you! Feel free to ask questions if you’re wanting to discuss more 🙂