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First Words

There can be something—and I think should be—enchanting about the first lines of a nov­el. Peo­ple have called them “win­dows,” “doors,” “words of mag­ic,” “an invitation.” 

Here are some famous ones: 

“It is a truth uni­ver­sal­ly acknowl­edged, that a sin­gle man in pos­ses­sion of a good for­tune, must be in want of a wife.”  Pride and Prejudice 

“Call me Ish­mael.” Moby Dick 

“In my younger and more vul­ner­a­ble years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turn­ing over in my mind ever since.” The Great Gatsby

“All this hap­pened, more or less.” Slaugh­ter­house-Five 

“All chil­dren, except one, grow up.”  Peter and Wendy 

“Mar­ley was dead, to begin with.” A Christ­mas Carol 

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Moby Dick

As some­one who has writ­ten a lot of first lines, I know how hard it is to cre­ate them. In truth, I spend a lot of time, with many, many revi­sions, attempt­ing to get them right. To be hon­est, some­times I just stum­ble on them after writ­ing and re-writ­ing them mul­ti­ple times try­ing to get them right. 

I should point out such lines are not just vital for the read­er. Good open­ing lines can help the writer cre­ate the voice, mood, even the cen­tral ener­gy of the sto­ry. I admit it is some­what mysterious. 

I’ve writ­ten my share of weak ones, but there are some I’ve com­posed that pleased me and, I hope, my readers. 

These come to mind: 

“Just before dawn—that moment when time itself seems to stand still, when the whole world teeters on the edge of possibilities—a man, look­ing like death’s own shadow—came scur­ry­ing down a bluff toward the tiny vil­lage of Kilo­n­ny in Ire­land.” Beyond the West­ern Sea

“Have you ever been struck with light­ning? I have.” Gold Rush Girl 

“The first time Uncle Char­lie came to live with us he was alive. The sec­ond time he came, he was dead.” School of the Dead

“This is the strangest sto­ry I ever heard.” Some­thing Upstairs

“The phone rang three times before Andy picked it up. “Hel­lo,” he said. A voice replied, “I just killed some­one.” Wolf Rid­er

“The way I see it, I stopped being a kid on April 12, 1951” Catch You Lat­er, Trai­tor 

“Not every thir­teen-year-old girl is accused of mur­der, brought to tri­al, and found guilty. But I was just such a girl, and my sto­ry is worth relat­ing even if it did hap­pen years ago.” True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle

This all comes to mind because I’m work­ing on a new book.  I’ve rewrit­ten the open­ing lines about thir­ty times. Don’t have them yet. 

Let’s hope I get there. Before the last line is written.

3 thoughts on “First Words”

  1. I have always liked that first line of “Wolf Rid­er”, it gets the read­er inter­est­ed right away. The whole book is fast paced, its hard to put down. Is there any chance of a sequel to it? It would be neat to fol­low up with Andy.

    Reply

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