McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
The first line
Ursiel:
--- Quote from: seradhe on October 17, 2007, 04:47:17 PM ---OK, something that has been bugging me since my creative writing class way back my first year of college. Figured I'd ask it here.
How much weight do you think the first line of a book carries?
Jims books have never failed to have a seriously awesome first line/paragraph that locks me into the book until it's done. and my Teacher in Creative Writing was practically a nazi regarding the first line (in fact the only reason I passed the class was she liked my first lines)
in the spirit of the topic, I subject a few the the first sentences from my stories....
"It is a little known fact that dragons like to snuggle."
"What the h#!! is it with Vampires and S&M clubs?!"
"At what point does the human mind break?"
"One would think magic coming back into the world would be a great thing."
"I would not think that, waking up this morning, that today would be the last day of my life on earth."
thoughts/suggestions? maybe toss a few of your first lines out?
--- End quote ---
I love the first line to Proven Guilty "Blood doesn't stain a warden's cloak" or whatever. I'm not really good in the first line department though...
Sample of my suckish talent: Who would've thought that pigs could fly.
Oh yeah, I jsut thought of that while I was typing. NEVER TOOK A CLASS IN MY LIFE :DDD XD I know I suck >_> But I guess it never fails to try.
Torvaldr:
I've always liked, "It was a dark and stormy night..."
Ducking, running, dodging, and laughing my head off....
Really yes I liken the first line of a book to the first line of a song. If you don't like it you stop listening. Here are some of the first lines of my most popular songs. (I'm a self published singer/songwriter/storyteller)
"It's the second month of Viking, there's one more month to go."
"Young child, watching, do you understand?"
"Far o're this world I wandered, seen lands of ancient fame."
"The white rose stand for purity, it's petals brilliant white."
"From the shores of Jotenheim where giants walk the land."
"Sing to me oh cold north wind, of the lands that I know well."
meg_evonne:
The yellow rose says goodbye, its yellow petals tears of saddness of times that could have been.
Craz:
I like to think that I can write an all-right first sentence. To me, it's not crucial, but I know I should spend more time on it.
Here's the first one I've done, for a Star Trek series I write.
--- Quote ---Captain Jason M. Craz, on a normal day, would have completely tolerated the gossips of his friend Olis Neemar.
--- End quote ---
And then there's a work-in-progress piece I have that's, well, a tribute to Butcher and the Dresdenites I know.
--- Quote ---As I watched as the first black ball of hellfire streak by me, my first reaction was to wish I’d believed in something with a happy afterlife.[/i]
--- End quote ---
pj:
Here's one from a mystery I just finished:
--- Quote ---Maybe, at some point before all this, I’d wanted to be the kind of reporter who toppled corrupt governments. Back there in the long ago when I’d been bushy haired and thought my couple of inches in the campus rag would change the world.
--- End quote ---
And another.
--- Quote ---A big fat vampire wanted to hire me, and who was I to disagree?
--- End quote ---
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