Quote
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
~Mark Twain
First Lines
"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
My all time favorite first line. Although it is several dialog lines, the entire opening of Tom Sawyer is essentially the first line. The first line should get the readers attention. Additionally, the first line either identifies the main character, or the setting.
"TOM" certainly does identify the main character. "What's gone with that boy, I wonder?" Sparks my curiosity. A question in the first line gives the reader a reason to wonder, and read on to learn "What's gone with that boy." One might say there is a hint of mystery in that question. And lastly, a student of linguistics may guess the "What's gone with that boy" is an antiquated form of southern speech. The setting is in the South in the 'old days.'
"In the summer of 1933, when Jem is nearly ten and Scout almost six, a peculiar boy named Charles Baker Harris moves in next door." ~To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee
"To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover. In the last part of May the sky grew pale and the clouds that had hung in high puffs for so long in the spring were dissipated. The sun flared down on the growing corn each day after day until a line of brown spread along the edge of each green bayonet. The clouds appeared, and went away, and in a while they did not try any more.". The Grapes of Wrath, the
opening of John Steinbeck's classic is more than one line, but it does make you want to keep reading, and the setting is clearly established.
"It was a dark and stormy night" is a joke among writers as a cliche first line. Actually, it is not too bad for establishing a setting. Better would be: Becky snuggled under the covers because it was a dark and stormy night on Halloween.
Read the first line of Murder in the Rockies. How did I do? Did I follow my
Do you have a favorite first line?
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
~Mark Twain
First Lines
"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
My all time favorite first line. Although it is several dialog lines, the entire opening of Tom Sawyer is essentially the first line. The first line should get the readers attention. Additionally, the first line either identifies the main character, or the setting.
"TOM" certainly does identify the main character. "What's gone with that boy, I wonder?" Sparks my curiosity. A question in the first line gives the reader a reason to wonder, and read on to learn "What's gone with that boy." One might say there is a hint of mystery in that question. And lastly, a student of linguistics may guess the "What's gone with that boy" is an antiquated form of southern speech. The setting is in the South in the 'old days.'
"In the summer of 1933, when Jem is nearly ten and Scout almost six, a peculiar boy named Charles Baker Harris moves in next door." ~To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee
"To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover. In the last part of May the sky grew pale and the clouds that had hung in high puffs for so long in the spring were dissipated. The sun flared down on the growing corn each day after day until a line of brown spread along the edge of each green bayonet. The clouds appeared, and went away, and in a while they did not try any more.". The Grapes of Wrath, the
opening of John Steinbeck's classic is more than one line, but it does make you want to keep reading, and the setting is clearly established.
"It was a dark and stormy night" is a joke among writers as a cliche first line. Actually, it is not too bad for establishing a setting. Better would be: Becky snuggled under the covers because it was a dark and stormy night on Halloween.
Read the first line of Murder in the Rockies. How did I do? Did I follow my
Do you have a favorite first line?