First Line of a Book

[ellekaldwin]

I’ve been thinking a lot about first lines of novels, short stories, or really anything. They can be an instant hook, or a tasty little preview of the opening paragraph that locks in the tone. But I also feel like that puts so much pressure on me to nail the perfect first line, the one that conveys exactly what I want it to, right away.

I always think about Sally Rooney’s Normal People, which opens with: “Marianne answers the door when Connell rings the bell.” It’s such a simple sentence, but it immediately hints at the dynamic between them and the kind of story you’re about to get.

Another favorite of mine is C.S. Lewis in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” How clever is that? It’s funny, effortless, and it tells you everything you need to know about him, without actually telling you anything beyond his name.

Anyway, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I’m curious: what are your favorite opening lines or passages? And do you think first lines are as important as people say they are?

 

[Madman Starryteller]

For me openings aren't very important. I did not begin reading Hyperion for the first line, I can't even remember it. I pick books based on genre, mostly. I pick books that I have already read a little about or whose blurb/backside text interest me. I like knowing what I'm going to get in the full package (without spoiling anything). And I'm very picky, because I'm an iceberg snail slow reader.

Interesting thread, I do wonder what people will answer. And I also wonder how important the first line is to the general consumer?

Edit:
Since openings aren't important to me, personally, I also don't tend to overthink them in my own writing.

It's also important to note that people have widely different opinions and preferences, so a line that may work for one person, may be a bad thing for another. One has to find the middle ground or be confident about what they want to write.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

The perfect first line is a kind of game that either one enjoys playing or one does not. Witness over 40 years of the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest. The run, alas, ended last summer, but it was glorious while it lasted. I have too many favorites to list, including one by our own JLT, but the link to past winners is HERE

I do care about opening lines, not only for novels, but for each chapter of a novel, and for every feature article I've ever written. If a story starts with any version of waking up in the morning or the sun rising in the east, I immediately wonder if the rest of the book will be equally mundane and unimaginative.

Favorite first lines from books I've read:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)

It was a pleasure to burn. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. Frances Hodgson Burnett

Favorite first line from a book I intend to read because I like the first line:

It was the day my grandmother exploded. Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road (1992)

 

[Hammer]

I am an opening lines advocate; it will either draw me in or I'll walk on by. Lots of opening lines on the first three sentences thread. Write a few. See what people think.

I was given a card game for Christmas - someone picks a card which displays the title of a novel - you either know the opening/closing line or make one up and then players decide which it is - points for knowing, points for fooling. I have yet to find the right people to play it with, but am looking forward to it immensely!