I’m a patient reader. I don’t necessarily need for a book to start off with a bang. If it’s done right, I savor a slow build. Sometimes that build-up can take a few paragraphs or even a few chapters. As long as the story is enjoyable, the characters interesting and the pay-off satisfactory, I’m a happy reader. However, I do love a great first line, a hook that is so compelling or intriguing or hilarious, it draws me in with delicious anticipation.Here are some of my favorite first lines:
Helen woke up in the middle of the night wearing someone else's breasts. Not her own insignificant, almost nonexistent bumps, but huge pendulous, full ones.
The Sensualist
Barbara Hodgson
The small boys came early to the hanging.
The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
1984
George Orwell
It was the day my grandmother exploded.
The Crow Road
Iain Banks
Where's Pa going with that ax?
Charlotte’s Web
E. B. White
Anyone else have a favorite first line?
Amanda Stevens
I love this exercise, Amanda! I use it when I'm teaching writing to my junior high students--that first line needs to grab the reader's attention and draw him/her into the writing, as well as introduce the reader to the author's voice and story's tone. I would print out the first line to a dozen books, and you'd be surprised at how many the kids would recognize.
ReplyDeleteLike HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE...
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
Or the classic from A WRINKLE IN TIME...
"It was a dark and stormy night."
I personally like REBECCA...
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD...
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE...
"Not every thirteen year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty."
JANE EYRE...
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."
And ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS...
"Not long ago, there lived in London a young married couple of Dalmatian dogs named Pongo and Missis Pongo."
And that's not even getting into the first lines of my favorite romances--vbg!
Julie Miller
I know, Julie! So many good ones. Children's books have some of the best first lines.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned one of my all-time favorite first lines:
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
That is the loveliest, most evocative line ever.
"Being dead didn't make Jack Mercy less of a son of a bitch."
ReplyDeleteNora Robert's Montana Sky
Good one, Delores!
ReplyDelete