“She’s got a body like a bag of hammers and a face like a can of angry worms!”
…is my favourite recent first line.
First line of fugue is: On Midsummers Day of 1830, he awoke to his fortieth birthday with a headache and an erection.
Quarter Square: I curled up in a foetal position and listened to rats scratching in the dark.
I love them. Love working on them to really bait the hook.
Let’s have a First Line Fest! What are your favourites?
timelady said,
July 25, 2008 at 10:23 am
Each man must kill the thing he loves…
Twas brillig…
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 10:57 am
Two great ones there!
Claire (aka Hoshikaze) said,
July 25, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Draft 2 of my Alt Romance:
Jake stared straight through the windshield, trying his best to see the road through the driving rain.
Draft 3:
Jake stood next to Sylvia in his own living room, arms crossed over his chest. Why the hell had she spent that much?
Though that’s not going to be the opening scene in the third draft, I changed the time line a bit and stuck what was previously a flash back scene in the beginning for the time being. I only have a few pages of the third draft so far (not that draft two was a complete edit pass by any means, only about 6k words or so maybe).
First line from a story starting to take a bit of form:
Once humanity could no longer survive in the open practices accepted for centuries suddenly became treason; funny how that worked.
Something more SF, that actually came with a first line. It may be a short story, or a novel, haven’t thought about it enough yet.
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Your sf one is great, Claire! Definitely pulls you right into the story.
Viki said,
July 25, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I’m going to be greedy, because dependingon genre, I have a few! Plus I’ve had too much time to think about it, as I wanted to find something a bit more original to say than the opening line to a Tale of Two Cities…
So here are my very favourites:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Pride & Prejudice – because it makes me laugh and once you’ve read the whole book you realise that the line really did set the tone for the whole piece.
————
“Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.”
Dante – the Divine Comedy, Inferno
“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13. ”
George Orwell 1984
I love both of these because they are strange, you are immediately in unfamiliar territory from the first line and know the books are going to play with your perception of ‘normal’.
———-
Two households, both alike in dignity
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean
Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet
This is one of the best openings to any play ever! Not only because of the words, but the rhythm, it really draws you in line by line by line.
——–
Sorry for any mis-quotes, and for nabbing so many – I guess the theme with my favourite opening lines, is those that really set the feel of the book to come.
E.Boyce said,
July 25, 2008 at 2:14 pm
The first draft first line for Reconciliation (Regency romance):
Isabelle Jocelyn Fairfax Lockwood, Duchess of Monthwaite, accepted a hand up into her saddle.
I’m not terribly fond of that, and the entire beginning is probably going to move several pages in, but you asked and that’s what it is. :p
The first line for Hearthstone (fantasy):
The thief stood in the shadow of a great tree.
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Hi, Viki.
You have some wonderful opening lines, there. And I’m with you on the themes.
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 2:58 pm
“Isabelle Jocelyn Fairfax Lockwood, Duchess of Monthwaite, accepted a hand up into her saddle.”
and
“The thief stood in the shadow of a great tree.”
…lead me precisely where you want me to go. They’re definitely scene-setters!
Cath said,
July 25, 2008 at 5:30 pm
From Substance of Shadows. Not a life changer, this one.
Erasmus Klarion wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, brushing away the sweat from the blistering sun.
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Another one that drives us straight into the atmosphere of the story, Cath.
Dawn said,
July 25, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Love your openings, David. fugue promises something interesting, that’s for sure. I have lots of projects going on, but these are my favorite first lines for the moment:
SF Short Story: As a healer, Anise accepted death with reluctance; murder however, she didn’t accept at all.
SF/F Short Story: Ashelle’s holy armor weighed her down as if the Sunlord himself stood upon her shoulders.
F Short Story: Maura felt gazes searing into her flesh; two pairs of inhuman eyes that hungered for her.
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Yours are good, Dawn, and I love the Maura one! I would so be there, reading hungrily past that opening.
Dawn said,
July 25, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Thanks David. I had to laugh at myself though for posting short story first lines when this place is about novel writing. But that’s what I’ve got right now. Novels aren’t working with the wee one(s). But I’ve promised myself that one the younger one’s first birthday, I’m going to give it another try.
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Hey, whether or not you’re working on one at this very minute, you’re a novelist!
Annie Overton said,
July 25, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Interesting…
David Bridger said,
July 25, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Hello, Annie, and thank you.
Erin Kendall said,
July 26, 2008 at 3:57 am
The dead could be persistant sometimes.
That’s the first line from Pirouette, my recently completed novel that’s awaiting for revision.
Cheers,
Erin (aka CA)
David Bridger said,
July 26, 2008 at 7:41 am
That’s simply one of the best, Erin! No way I can imagine anyone putting that book down without reading further!
jamiemollart said,
July 26, 2008 at 8:01 am
abandon all hope ye who enter here is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the chemical bank…
american psycho, by Brett Easton Ellis, the most appropriate first line of any book I think!
David Bridger said,
July 26, 2008 at 8:06 am
Hi, Jamie.
Yep, that’s pretty strong!