It’s been a hard day, and maybe, one day I’ll tell you about my volunteer work, but, if you want to keep up with that…go check out/subscribe to my Holistic Health site. I try to keep the realms separate, but it doesn’t always work.
You’ll have to deal with a somewhat split personality…sorry…..
For THIS post? No, I don’t mean a pick up line, well, unless your character is trying to pick someone up in the first line of your story….(you put a pick up line in the comments, I reserve the right to kick you, seriously.) The funniest pickup I had (cause let’s be real, I don’t get a lot of pickup lines..pffft, feelings hurt here LOL)? “Oooh, I love the way your hair lays over that jersey.” From a musician who had been picked up by Niko from the train station. I promise…I was so uber polite in my response….well…maybe.
No. Back to our focus.
I want your BEST opening line to your BOOK.
Or hell, if you’re NOT a writer, then your favorite opening line of a book you love!
There’s a great list here of famous ones. You know, a few of my favorites from the classics…
- “Call me Ishmael.” ~Herman Melville, Moby Dick
- “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” ~George Orwell, 1984
- “Mother died today.” ~Albert Camus, The Stranger
And, a few of my more recent favorites….
For the record, I had to go thru a LOT of books I love to find opening lines I loved….I’ve bought books for the covers, the blurbs on the back, friends recommendations, and the opening paragraphs, but OPENING LINES?….much harder to snag my attention…So, here…is what I found in my shelf hunt.
- “Simon Japp was damn tired of running.” ~Joss Ware, Embrace the Eternal Night
- “Your father is guilty.” ~Julie McBride, The Protector
- “I knew it was going to be a lousy day when I woke to a woman screaming in my ear that I was a fucking pervert, but I think the real highlight came when I fell five hundred feet and smashed my skill into a half dozen pieces.” ~Cat Marsters, Almost Human
- “I’d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.” ~ Charlaine Harris, Dead Until Dark
- “Jaxon Montgomery snapped the clip into her handgun and glared at her partner.” ~ Christine Feehan, Dark Guardian (I have to add, I skipped A LOT OF prologue to get to that first line…)
- “Ian St. Ives sprang from the snow-covered rocks, spread his arms wide, and for an instant seemed to hang suspended in the crisp morning air.” ~Cinnamon Burke, Ring of Fire
- “Layel, King of Vampires, hated son of Atlantis, fought so fervently against his chains that the metal cut past skin and muscle, nearly slicing into bone.” ~ Gene Showalter, The Vampire’s Bride
I admit…I’m more a cover art, blurb, recommendation reader…I have been known to pitch a book across the room out of sheer irritation.
No, I won’t name names or titles.
Let’s just say, it’s been done. Several times. And, hell, if I could have pitched some of MY writing across the room without killing a computer…it might have been done for my writing as well. 
I’m not biased here.
Well, maybe I lean to the romance side of things…maybe
So, post up! Share…I will.
- “Crunch. Crack. Bones split.” – Latest project
- “Tiara Burke’s chunky white-heeled tennis shoes whispered along the sidewalk as she strolled towards the school’s double doors.” – YA paranormal – not so enticing with THIS line…see, write….LEARN
Drat..in reading, my writing is one of those…you must read the whole first paragraph idea….
Ok, so spill it. I did. Share a few of your OPENING one lines. 
I reserve the right to delete mean comments….play nice.
“I was barely eight years old when they came for me.”
Leah….I’m so intrigued with that one! I love it!
Is it paranormal? romance? YA?
Yes, I’m like a cat, curious and want the details
It’s the first line of the completed book I’m querying right now. There’s an excerpt on my blog http://leahpetersen.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-your-entertainment.html
Leah, OMG, I love the prologue, and usually, even in my OWN, I don’t count those as ‘first sentences’.
NICE!
“The platform stank of exhaust and urine.”
Fantastic, opening line, Leah!
Sybir, that’s for including me! I admit I was kind of proud of AH’s opener. But my personal favourite is from my second-ever published title, Blue Moon:
“Magda liked to think she was a reasonably stable person who didn’t often go around licking strangers’ balls, but today was really testing her theory.”
From one I’m still shopping around:
“Eve Carpenter was having a bad enough day even before she fell through the hole in the world.”
And from the short story I wrote the other day:
“Today is the anniversary of the day I died.”
I think this shows you I’m maturing
Thanks Kate and Sybir.
Sybir, my favorite thing about that prologue, is that it came from my MC. I had no plans to put anything like that before the story, but as I wrote the last chapter, it became so obvious that he wasn’t the kind to share stories of his life easily or leave anything behind that sounded like excuses or explanations.
That’s one of my favorite things about writing, when the characters write things you things you never expected.
But back on topic, Kate reminded me, one of my favorite opening lines I’ve written was in a flash fiction piece:
“It really does look like a penis.”
http://leahpetersen.blogspot.com/2010/04/short-story-theo.html
“In the summer of 1980, our rock and roll caravan set out for southern California.”
I’m like you – I’m more of a first paragraph gal, rather than a first line. This one is from my novel, “Sparks Fly Sometimes: Confessions of a Rock Princess.”
Those are some great beginnings. I did love Kate’s Almost Human beginnings. Really got me in with the WTF??? Did I just read that correctly? Charlaine Harris was great as well and so subtle in tone. I loved it! (BTW: Can’t wait for the new season next weekend. Whoo hoo!)
Here are couple of my favs:
Interview with a Vampire
“I see,” said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room to the window. (It’s funny because now that there are so many vamp books that humanizes the vampires, this line doesn’t seem as strong as when first I read it … gasp … nearly 20 years ago.)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (a book that is on my to-read list)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. (that is just hilarious)
Jen, too funny with the Zombies. I haven’t read that one yet. I might have to.
Deb, still can’t wait to read yours! I’ve been reading Charlaine Harris’ work this past week and have fallen in love with first person POV.
Kate, definitely see the changes in your style and evolution. Yours always makes me want to read more, but like Jen said…did I really just read THAT?
I love evoking a ‘Did I just read THAT?’ response. LOVE IT.
Jen, I think what resonates with that kind of line is that vampires were being seen for the first time not as monsters but as people. Or maybe slightly monstrous people. But not just wholly as soulless beasts. It’s kind of odd from a modern POV to think that we take the vampire-as-tortured-hero concept as normal–even as a romantic hero. Imagine that before LeStat and friends!
I’ve really got to read the P&P&Zombies book.
Stacia, after I get the book, I’ll give it to you after I finish it and we’ll pass it over to Kate!
Kate, it’s so true that Anne Rice really helped pave the way for humanizing vampires and turning them into romantic heroes and antiheroes. Before Interview with a Vampire, I doubt that any of the current vampire romances would be around. Except in a fetish sense.
Even so, it took until the 1990s for Buffy (and even Forever Knight and Kindred among others) to break the mold and then romances didn’t feature vamps until the late 90s.
I spent a lot of time thinking about my opening line. I originally wanted something classic and powerful, but ultimately decided on something simple, thematically appropriate, and organically tied with the opening paragraph. That said, here it is:
Lucy stared intently at the fire.
Kind of blows your mind, doesn’t it?