: Re: Slow openings: What is it about this Neil Gaiman opening that pulls the reader in? I was blogging about opening lines the other day, and looking for examples. I came across the opening to

@Hamaas631

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I think it's three things. First, the accessible writing style, with its informal language that matches how regular people think and talk, is helpful but not sufficient. Second, the character's acceptance of the situation, which he appears to have accepted from the beginning, is unusual; we expect convicts to be hardened, angry people, and this is not that at all. Third, and probably related to the previous, is that we don't expect a criminal (he never protests his innocence here) to be a sympathetic character, yet this one seems to be.

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