小说的开头通常是定下叙述基调最重要的起点。不论语气、人称、观点、情绪都可以在这个地方定出调性。一部好小说一定要有一个很好的开头,就像一个好电影一定要有一个能与之匹配的片头一样。有些小说开头是在屋顶上发生的事,有些则是望着窗前对往事的娓尾回想。我必须承认一直梦想写一个有很牛b开头的小说。
《指环王》的开头,是这样写的:
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
硬汉派侦探小说《长眠》(The Big Sleep)的开头是:
IT WAS ABOUT ELEVEN O’CLOCK in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.
都不够牛b,但却充满镜头感。