There is something that has always been and will always be very intimidating about the first page of anything you may ever write. Be it an essay, research paper, novel, or emo-angst rant in your blog--it's frightening to look at a blank page (or screen, for those of you who are especially tech-savvy) and think--no,
know--that
you are the one who has to fill it. Geez...talk about being nervous-making! Perhaps the only thing worse than that thought is the one that you've got to find someway to start it off with a bif! bam! kapow! BANG! It has to be something totally stunning and completely BRILLIANT with sparkles and glitter and just the right amount of
pizazz! Not only do you have to properly convey the tone and theme of your writing (which will, no doubt, be absolutely
brilliant as soon as you can actually
start it), you've got to do it in a way that captures your audience and keeps them captivated to the very end. It's not exactly easy. Why else would there be so many authors that aren't published? It's not that they aren't good--they just can't get that one hook down at the very start.
Says Scott Westerfeld,
There is a mini-cult of first lines among us writers. The first line is sort of like the lobby of the book: the first thing you see, coloring all subsequent impressions. It’s one place where you’re truly allowed to show off.
He, of course, is famous for such great first-liners as:
"Getting dressed was always the hardest part of the afternoon." (Pretties)
"We are all around you." (So Yesterday)
"I think New York was leaking." (The Last Days)
"The five small craft passed from shadow, emerging with the suddenness of coins thrown into sunlight." (The Risen Empire)
And, my personal favorite:
"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." (Uglies)
Let's face it--the first line of any sort of piece of writing, be it prose or poetry, is the very essence of the words that follow it. So, without further ado and for your consideration, some first lines (can you guess who wrote what?):
- "The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school was because no one understood."
- "All children, except one, grow up."
- "We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our reat gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun."
- "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again."
- "At the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows and no birds ever sing excepting old crows...is the Street of the Lifted Lorax."
- "I am the people--the mob--the crowd--the mass."
- "I taped the commercial back in April, before anything had happened, and promptly forgot about it."
- "The Adventures of Captain Proton!"
- "Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys an wherefores thereof." (what a doozy!)
- "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."
- "I remember where I was and what I was doing when Bonnie Prince Charlie was killed."
- "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes."
- " Unhappy with a new treaty, Federation Colonists along the Cardassian border have banded together."
- "Marley was dead, to begin with."
- "One dollar and eighty-seven cents."
- "It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes."
- "Once upon a time there was a pair of pants."
- "It was a dark and stormy night."
While we're here, what are some of your favorite first lines?
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