For the others I've been trying to get the opening for a novel right. I'd written a draft of the first four chapters and the basic outline is pretty well decided, but I found the opener needed a lot more work before progressing.

No sense continuing until the opener can hook readers more consistantly. But no sense trying to finish the hook if the first couple of sentences turns people off entirely.

One of the directions to go would be to open with a core psychological conflict before getting to the complexities of setting and action. I don't need an opener which shrieks "Romance" too loudly for male readers but I need one which opens with raw POV. This is the line.

"I married a man who did not love me though I had been bound to him from my earliest childhood memory."

Yes, a lot of that has to do with the differences in what men and women are likely to mean when they say "love". Even more so the differences between what children and adults are likely to mean by the term.

Reading this, I'm instantly prepared to deal with a POV character who thinks she's so empathic that she knows what men are feeling. And thinks that feelings are very important. Therefore, as the judge of human feeling, she's quite the important person, isn't she?

Frankly, I'm probably wrong. But that is my initial reaction to the line. Not that I would instantly stop reading. I've read enough "woman's fiction" to be used to it. To the point that I don't need to be told certain things in the first line.

If I were you (which I'm not, so take what I say with a grain of salt), I would just write the story, and then go back and worry about these kinds of fine details after the first draft is finished. Maybe, in the course of writing the story, a natural voice will develop before you get to the end of the first draft. If so, that's a good indicator of what style opener you should use. Or maybe not.

As far as the line itself is concerned though, it works as a hook for me, and it doesn't make me think, "Oh brother, chick-lit. I'm done with this."

That aside, you are getting some excellent advice here. Complete the novel, then worry about the opening. Constant redrafting of a partially-completed work is one very effective way of never finishing it.

I have to control the impulse to fiddle with my opening ad infinitum, so I have to agree with wetwilly's advice (and remind myself of it constantly).

Don't bait the hook until you've got it tied to the line, the line spooled on the reel, the reel mounted on the pole.

Edited to correct the original source of the advice. Sorry, wetwilly, I always check it, but sometimes still get it wrong.

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I married a man who did not love me . . .

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This is a wonderful turn of phrase. The POV character is doing the marrying, the man is not doing the loving. It grips the reader with clarity, emotion, and cadence.

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. . . though I had been bound to him from my earliest childhood memory.

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The style in the second half of your sentence is exactly the opposite of the first half. "Though" is and instant brick wall. It forces the reader to anticipate that what follows will be a reason the man should love the character. But the phrase doesn't do that, it explains why they married, not why he should love her.

"Though" also spoils your nice cadence. It is one chewy syllable that takes six letters, most of them silent. The first half of your sentence used crisp lyricism like "married a man", the second half uses chewy words like "though" and "earliest."

I suppose that's what happens when you encounter any line completely devoid of context. Just like the biblical quote in that one opening, which even if you know that scripture by heart still seems ludicrous when taken out of context like that.

I married a man who did not love me; I had loved him from my earliest childhood memory of the time I was given to his family.

Playing with this voice to see its limitations in the dimensions of active vs passive, bold vs timid, mature vs childish, confident vs fearful, stoic vs histrionic has been an awakening experiance. I think that establishing the voice itself will determine whether this is a major or minor conflict and how its consequences will be large or small.

It is good advice to finish the story, but in defence of dithering the last story was written from the POV of a teenager who had been shot and left for dead. This story will never work if his and his wife's voices bear too much resemblence.

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I am a woman, but I hate romances, so if that's essentially what it is...

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Reading that line, I'd know the book wasn't for me--and I'm male. That doesn't mean it wouldn't appeal to some male readers, or even most. I can't vouch for them. The reason I don't like it is because it's too romantic, and that's what you feared. But don't let that stop you. Write the story, then go back and figure it out (as others have said).

Anyway, where was I... oh, yeah, chick books. An ex of mine turned me on to Jane Green. The packaging is like a million chick books that the London publishers churn out. I roll my eyes and avoid them. However, I humored my ex and gave her a try - the book, not the ex! . And, man, but I was gobmacked when I read her first novel Straight Talking (1997) . I thought, wow, if this is what 'women's' books are like now, then bring it on!

So, back to keldon:

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"I married a man who did not love me though I had been bound to him from my earliest childhood memory."

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It's the word 'bound' that, for me, jars the rhythm of the sentence. As for those feeling the first half of the line works, but the second doesn't, then perhaps turning it into two sentences will work better:

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But "because" and "though" have nearly opposite meanings....

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One of the directions to go would be to open with a core psychological conflict before getting to the complexities of setting and action. I don't need an opener which shrieks "Romance" too loudly for male readers but I need one which opens with raw POV.

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"I married a man who did not love me because I had been bound to him from my earliest childhood memory."

This does that. Simple. Clean. Any further clarification can be made in subsequent sentences/paragraphs.

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Well, if you end up making the first sentence say the opposite of what the author intended, it's sure going to need a lot of clarification later on.

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You have a point there, but it's not really clear in the unaltered version what the author intends. Does she love him? Is this binding an emotional one from her perspective, or a more ritualistic, cultural thing?

'Though' is her POV as she never developed the same kinship misperception. Much of the first chapter works on the active/passive dichotomy. She's not lying, but how that occurs is rather complex.

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The reason I don't like it is because it's too romantic, and that's what you feared.

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I'd just go with. "My husband didn't love me though I'd been bound to him from my earliest memory."

But then again, I wouldn't go and try to decide, based on a single sentence, what genre a book is in. I'm much more likely to look at the back of the book or just go browse in the section I'm interested in. Is this in the scifi section? Great. Then all this first sentence tells me is that your main character has personal problems. It also tells me she's a woman, which unfortunately turns some men off, but as an author I've dcided to deal with that by ignoring it.