Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Once Upon A Time…

The first sentance of a novel is the most important. It’s the first thing a reader is going to look at. And if it sucks, there is a good chance your potential reader wont make it to the second sentance. Here are a few opening lines I enjoy. What is your favorite opening line?

The guy walking towards me is good-looking in an obnoxious way, like he’d play the hot jerk in a TV movie about why drunk driving is bad or how it doesn’t pay to cheat on the SATs. (Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten)

By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. (The Evolution of Capernia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly)

So she tells me, the words dribbling out with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee. (Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson)

I lie all the time. (Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan)

Some memories are slippery. (Sweethearts by Sara Zarr)

My plan was to focus my senior year on information I could use after graduation when I set out for Planet Earth from the Pluto that is Trout, Idaho Population 943. (Deadline by Chris Crutcher)

Oh crap. (How to Not Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler)

If things had been different, I’d be called Nataliya or Natasha, and I’d have a Russian accent and chapped lips year round. (Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin)

They call me King Dork. (King Dork by Frank Portman)

My sister Cass ran away the morning of my sixteenth birthday. (Dreamland by Sarah Dessen)

“That’s the worst idea I ever heard.” (Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols)

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling)

It was 7 minutes after midnight. (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon)

Snowman wakes before dawn. (Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood)

Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. (If I Stay by Gayle Forman)

The secret is how to die. (The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown)

It’s hard to imagine what my parents were thinking when they decided to name me Shakespeare. (Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner)

The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World. (Going Bovine by Libba Bray)

I’ve never been to a funeral until today. (I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder)

I was born with water on the brain. (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie)

I had two goals that summer; to get the lead in the camp play and to get to third base. (Camp Life by Me, yet to be published)



Joke of the Day
A Fruadian slip is when you say something but you mean your mother.

2 comments:

MC Howe said...

Those are all great. I can never come up with a good first sentence. Probably why I've rewritten mine 937 times.

I gave you an award on my blog.

Mariah Irvin said...

I really like the whole first chapter of Going Bovine. Can't put it down from the start!

I forgot about the first sentence of Harry Potter... it's still as awesome as the first time I read it.