It Was a Dark and Stormy Blog

THIS PAST SATURDAY, my wife and I had a special pleasure: we drove to Los Angeles to listen to my son teach his fellow graduate students. This weekend, Antioch University will grant Aaron an MFA in Creative Writing. As part of his two-year academic journey, he is required to deliver a classroom lesson based on one of his critical papers. He chose to teach about first lines. It was a fabulous lesson and Aaron’s interaction with the class made his papa proud.

Being there reminded me of two things. First, how much I enjoy being around other writers (even very secular writers like these grad students), and second, how powerful first lines can be.

Some time back, the American Book Review published its list of the “100 Best First Lines from Novels.” The list was the basis of my son’s lecture. Take a look at the lines. There are many things to notice. Some are short. Some seem entirely too long. All are memorable.

Let’s have a discussion this week. I’ll start it off with three questions.

1. What is one of your favorite first lines (from the list or elsewhere)? Feel free to use first lines from works other than novels.

2. What is the best first line you’ve written?

3. What do you learn from the ABR list?

 

Al Gansky

Comments

[Richard Mabry]

1. "The nun hit me in the mouth and said, 'Get out of my house.'"
---Try Darkness (James Scott Bell)

2. "Everything was going along just fine until the miracle fouled things up."
---winning line in Rachelle Gardner's "best first line" contest. (The rest of the first chapter is done, lying fallow on my computer waiting for another 80,000 words to spring forth and join it).

3. First lines are many things to many people, but all the good ones are designed to get you to read the second, and the third, and...

[Lochlanina]

1. "The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no one in the room but the corpse." - from War in Heaven by Charles Williams

2. I thought breathing became more difficult when you died, but air flows in and out of my lungs with the same ease it always has.

3. The best first lines create an unanswered question in the reader's mind.