Prompted by Go Teen Writer's posts on first lines, I looked through all my books and wrote down the first lines, trying to figure out what makes a stellar first line. I found, that while may great books had amazing first lines, it wasn't necessarily essential for creating a great book. For example, the Book of Names by J. Barkley Briggs starts like this. "In short order, the afternoon sky cooled room blue to marbled grey." Not incredibly gripping, right? And yet, it worked, while it didn't immediately pull you into the action. But here's the next couple of sentences. "Strange clouds teased the senses with a fragrance of storm wind and the faint, clean smell of ozone. Invisible energy sparkled like moonlit dew, mostly unseen, but felt. It was damp. A perfect day for magic." See, now that raises questions, whereas the first line didn't. What is strange about the clouds? What kind of magic? Et cetera. So is it essential to be in the first sentence? Or can it be in the first paragraph? Or even the first page? It doesn't even have to be adventure. This line pulls you in, "Ramona Quimby hoped her parents would forget to give her a little talking-to." That's from Ramona, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. It doesn't start with action, or adventure, or anything incredibly exciting. It just raises questions. What did she do to deserve the "talking-to?" So, maybe it just needs to raise questions. "The midsummer moon hung in the cloud-scattered sky like a free-floating, pale, yellow bubble." New Kid in Town by Janette Oak. Now, this one really doesn't raise a question, but many times calm hints at the fact that this perfect world is going to get shattered. I actually haven't read this book, so I don't exactly know what happened... "Cantor straddled the thick tree limb suspended less than three feet over his favorite fishing hole." One Realm Beyond by Donita K. Paul. In this one, a question really isn't raised until page 3. And yet, it's still a good story. It does take a little longer to get into, but...Many writer's believe in setting the scene in the protagonist's ordinary world. So, here's my theory. It's best to pull your reader in within the first paragraph, the first sentence if at all possible. At least raise questions, to keep your reader reading. I've picked up books before where they lost me on the first line. But, it is acceptable and not necessarily wrong to open up when nothing's happening, setting up the character's world. I'd say, though, to keep from losing your reader's attention, you should at least hint at the trouble to come. I know, for me at least, I tend to look through books right after I've read another really, really good book. And to me, everything always seems to be dull and boring in comparison to the previous book. So, if the writer doesn't capture me within the first couple of paragraphs, I give up on it. You want your book to feel worth reading to someone who's skeptical of every single book that passes by them. That's my little opinion. Hope I didn't bore you to death. Here are a couple of my favorite first lines that never made it into the examples. :) I'm the daughter of earth, sown and rooted in the soil of the land of the dead. Does a corpse care how loving hands lay her in the ground's embrace? Tears are salt. "Mardon, I know you don't enjoy being dead." "Hello!" My sweat smells like peanut butter. Fifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds. That's how long I have to live. The last thing I wanted to do on my summer break is blow up another school. There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently. I run through the dark woods. And I see her smile.
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About Me!Hannah writes to satisfy her imagination. She's written six books so far--five of which need to be rewritten--and is working on a seventh. She ranges through a variety of genres, but favors contemporary YA, fixing broken characters. She wants to use her writing to change people and bring hope. She's currently going to college for Nursing and that takes up most of her writing time. She's a rather stereotypical writer, talking to imaginary friends, eavesdropping on people at the store, secretly being nosy, stashing herself away in her room with a paper and pen and chocolate and her teddy bear. She loves Jesus, the way the morning smells, her family of seven (four siblings), old movies, fairy tales, candles at night and helping people. She writes on another blog at nerdywriter.blogspot.com to hopefully build her chances of publication. My Author Site:Archives
December 2016
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