lettered | I want to talk about opening lines!

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I want to talk about opening lines!

Whenever I think of first lines I think of Melanie in the Gone With The Wind movie. At one point she starts reading David Copperfield, and it goes something like this: "To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I am born."

That's actually the second line. The actual first line of David Copperfield is this: "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

I bring this up because one of my actual favorite first lines is: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probablywant to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." Which is from Catcher In The Rye. I quite like Catcher, but it is not my favorite book. But I do love this line, and remember very distinctly picking up the book in the bookstore and reading this line. This was my reaction:

1. I did not know you were allowed to start a book in that way!
2. He said crap!
3. Geez I really want to read this now.
4. Geez, I also really want to read David Copperfield.

. . . I was a conflicted child.

Anyway, here are some questions I thought up, because I'm interested in first lines, and want to know what first lines people think of when they think of first lines, and what first lines people like!

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like?
What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you remember off the top of your head?
What's your favorite first line you've written?
What's the first line you've spent the most time on?
What's your least favorite first line you've written?

Also, here is a first lines of English "classics" quiz!

There are more similar quizzes for other genres here. Which ones did you pick? How did you do?

Here's text to put in comments so you can answer more quickly:

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I think my favorite has to be the opening of Anna Karinina: "All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion." Because it's SO TRUE. (Also, I prefer the older translation to the newer one.)

For my own fic, I don't have a favorite opening line. But I do have a favorite closing line, from Sense Memory: "...like a pearl under the pile of mattresses where the princess sleeps, restless and bruised, dreaming of morning." I mulled that one over for a long time before I got it just right, and I probably spent more time on it than any other one I can think of. In general, I spend more time on closing lines than openings. I like the gut-punch endings. :)

Hm, I wonder what translation I got.

We got that first line at trivia night, and I had actually JUST started reading Anna, so it was really familiar, but at first I couldn't think of what it was from! At first I thought it was Dickens, but then I decided it was too depressing, and therefore must be Russian :o)

I was just reading somewhere that first lines are second-most in importance only to ending lines. The one from Sense Memory is awesome.

Not sure I believe it about the importance-thing though--first lines aren't that important to me at all. It's the second or third line that's important, because I will ALWAYS read past the first line. I won't always past the second ;o)

I love the opening line of William Gibson's Neuromancer: The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

It's funny, because what that means has changed in the past 20 or so years. It's also funny because people riff on that line/kid around with it all the time.

Oh, that's interesting. I hadn't heard that one before.

I love that opening line too!

Oh, I loved David Copperfield. It feels like the most personal of the Dickens books.

I love it too! Although I've never really read any other Dickens.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like?
LIT:

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. [Middlemarch]

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. [The Hobbit]

FIC:

Grief should be ugly. It should pull all the beauty out of people and leave them withered and ugly and deflated. That’s what it did to Giles. It made him old. It made Anya brittle and cold and unreachable. It made Willow and Tara drawn and hollow. It made Dawn small and faded.

But it made Spike beautiful. It softened his hard lines and made dead eyes alive with pain. Grief made him shine, and it made me want to soak it up like the heat from a raging bonfire, made me want to stand too close and get burned. [29 Linear Moves by yin_again]

Angel and Spike are race car drivers. Stop laughing.

Angel and Spike are race car drivers. No, listen.

Angel and Spike are race car drivers and neither of them have figured out that the track is a loop.

And so they go on. [Race by Dodyskin]

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you remember off the top of your head?
I suck at remembering (verbatim) first lines from either lit or fic. I'm better with standout lines, such as: "And now the old story has begun to write itself over there," said Carl softly. "Isn’t it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes for thousands of years." from O Pioneers! or, you know, that thing about medals and eyes and hardness.

What's your favorite first line you've written?
Almost *all* of my stories begin in the middle of something, typically in the middle of a conversation or an argument. I like opening the story with the reader being thrown off balance, having to catch up. That's great until you're me and you do it EVERY time. But I love this one, possibly my favorite single opening line of all time:

Xander opened the door to a trio of mismatched party hats. Looking into the shame-filled faces to which they were attached, he did what anyone would do the morning after a forgotten birthday. He opened his mouth to offer a stinging, day-late, cake-short rebuttal. Unfortunately, that simply allowed the straw from the beer-hat he was wearing to plop onto his chest and bleed his t-shirt into a deeper shade of orange. [Better Together]

What's the first line you've spent the most time on?
Oddly, this little bit of Spike/Angel from ...There's Fire. It was originally heading straight for purple-prose hell:

“Been a while since I’ve seen you do that,” Spike said as his fingers left his lips, sending streams of smoke to twist and spin, blending in the air with Angel’s. He dipped his head, his lips curling slightly. “Sure the soul’s okay with it?”

What's your least favorite first line you've written?
I thought I was SO clever, opening the sequel to Rodeo at the end of sex scene. Cliché! Cliché! It's soooo been done:

Xander’s hands fisted in dirty white sheets, his body shuddering as he heard Angel groan and fall against him, their skin pressed warm and close. Then a rough hand was pressing down on his back and Angel was rolling away.

*sigh* All of my fic is so old. Hi, you!

Bless your sweet heart. *loves*

I obviously need to read some of those fics!

I also need to read Middlemarch. It's on my list for this year.

HEE. The medals and hardness line is THE BEST.

I do love that O Pioneers! line! Awesome.

Don't think I've read Better TOgether. Obviously I need to!

I like when things start in the middle. I HATE when stories start all Sound of Music-y, with random nature shots, and then finally a zoom in to one little person. It's all very well for movies and graphic novels, but in text it makes me want to throw things. I do forgive classics, though, for starting that way. I think it's because I think about the Brontes on the moors, and how they probably didn't have access to internets and libraries full of books. Whatever books they got were precious, and read, and they were not always assaulted by millions of things to read. So a gradual introduction was like being sucked into that world. But now, because I always feel like there's a constant barrage of things to consume, I want to be IN IT ALREADY, so I can decide whether I like it or whether to chuck it. I used to never chuck anything I had started, which made it worse, because I'd start a book and not even know what it was ABOUT 50 pages in and know I had to read it anyway.

Well, *I* like the opening line to Rodeo ;o)

Hi hi hi! I'm so glad you're coming to Seattle! Lemme know your plans, and we can totally have some fun times.

My favorite first line ever?

"The magician's underwear has just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami."

Tom Robbins "Another Roadside Attraction"

HEE. Been meaning to read Tom Robbins.

Gonna do the meme later but I just wanted to say that whenever people talk about first lines that's just what I think about too! I grew up with Gone with the Wind and when I first picked up David Copperfield I was like "what what?"

Just wanted to say that.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

Hm. Funny thing but as important as they are, I don't usually remember first lines. Neither others nor mine. I know I used to agonise a lot about how to start something. Now I only agonise about how to finish something because that's where I have far less experience than in the first. ^^

I don't really remember them either, but I think it's interesting how famous some are. Everyone knows, "Call me Ishmael", even if they've never read Moby Dick.

I just recently read somewhere that opening lines are the second most important thing after closing lines.

See when I think of beginnings I just think of "lets start at the very beginning..."

I'm going to try and stick to the point from now on!

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like? Oo! There's a book called "Le bonheur des ogres" (the happiness of ogres) which starts with a description of a Santa's grotto in a shop and ends something like "ah yes, the screams of children as they are forced onto a stranger's knee, the essence of Christmas". The book is very dark and very funny, and I love the way the writer plays with expectations. And of course "The pipe under the sink was leaking again. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that Nick kept his favorite sword under the sink.", because it is everything that Urban fantasy is in one sentence.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you remember off the top of your head? It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
I know, I know, me and everyone else!

What's your favorite first line you've written? I've written a lot of drabbles where the first line has to work so hard. I tend to just go into the action straight away. But the fic I wrote for Havemercy that starts with "The city is ringing with the sounds of victory, shouts and bells and the occasional groan from someone who has overindulged in the celebratory wine." is my favourite, just cos its one of the few longer things I've written where I actually put a lot of thought into it!

What's the first line you've spent the most time on? Something that isn't fic actually, and because its a story cobbled together from plot bunnies I've been thinking about since I was about 13, it's the oldest by years! And I still don't really like it...

What's your least favorite first line you've written? "When he had been a little boy Draco Malfoy had run away every time he was brought to Diagon Alley." It's from something that isn't finished and I keep editing away at, but I haven't got round to the beginning yet. Its just a bit dull and the grammar is a bit clunky.

So cutting all the tangents out of this took about half the time again. You're right, it is difficult!

Edited 2009-02-07 15:24 (UTC)

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like/that you remember off the top of your head? (Combining your first two questions because the answers tend to be the same.)
Who's there? - Hamlet (that is the best first line in the universe.)

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. -- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (perfection is simplicity.)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife. -- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (my sister read this for high school English, and remembers a boy who was loudly certain he was going to hate girly old JA, until they read the first pages out loud together in class, and he cracked up at line one and didn't stop laughing through the whole book. she got the kid for English literature hook, line and sinker.)

— Serve him right he got his muthafuckin face fuck'd, shudn't b callin me a Paki, innit. -- Londonstani by Gautam Malkani (I was hook-line-and-sinkered by this guy's prose.)

His two girls are curled together like animals whose habit is to sleep underground, in the smallest space possible. -- Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (ditto.)

To begin at the beginning:
It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. -- Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

(I think separating lit and fic is spurious, but it was easier to hunt down links to the linkables all in a row. So:)
There's someone in the bed with him. -- A Howling in the Factory Yard by

synecdochic (not technically the first line; the story opens with an excerpt from a mission report. this is the first line of the main narrative, and, in context, creepy as fuck.)

The fifth stall in the men's washroom at King's Cross station had had a "Closed For Repairs" sign on the door since 1973. -- Transfigurations by

resonant8 (I adore Res' dry, conspiratorial humour.)

"I’m laughing so hard I think I’m dribbling a little," Malfoy said from under the table. -- Drop Dead Gorgeous by Maya (because it's hilariously potent characterization -- that Malfoy would say that out loud gives you quite a lot of information about Malfoy --and it neatly sets up a good opening question (what's so funny?).)

"Sooner or later, you have to face reality."

"... no I don't." -- Walked Right Out of the Machinery by

rydra_wong (this is the entire opening section. after the line break, the narrative restarts. I found it a brilliant, almost epigraph-like hook, and was further floored by the fact that I could tell exactly who was speaking, with absolutely no context other than knowing the fandom. Rydra's character voices are that inevitable.)

What's your favorite first line you've written?
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" bellowed Spike, and burst into flames. -- Armadillo (it makes me laugh.)

What's the first line you've spent the most time on?
When the Midsummer sun sank down behind the tower, behind the mountains, the revellers lit strings of lanterns by the lawn, the feast tables and the dancing floor, but when they called upon the king and queen to lead another Elvish bransle, the newlyweds were nowhere to be found. -- The Still Point (gah, and I don't even like it; it's purple as hell. I couldn't figure out where to start the story, and defaulted to the most conservative location possible.)

What's your least favorite first line you've written?
Buffy didn't say much about Spike right after he died. -- So This Is How They Are (it's mild and one-track and correctly predicts an insignificant little story by a sad little Buffy fan trying to prove how much Buffy really did love Spike no matter what mean old Joss said so there. I should have let myself give Dawn a snappier voice, but I was brand new to the fandom (only my second, and coming off of Tolkien of all things) and clamping the reins too tightly.)

My favourite meta on the subject is Bear's:

The first line in a book is the second most important line. (The most important line is the last line.) I like the idea you mention, of reading a book with that first sentence as a lens through which the whole thing can be focused.

For me, I have a list of oughtas. (I don't do shoulds, in writing, but I do do oughtas.)

A first line oughta do all these all things:

1) illuminate the theme of the book. This justifies its existence.
2) raise a question. This provides narrative momentum, and brings the reader into the story through the hook of his curiousity. (I theorize that this is the actual mechanism through which a "hook sentence" works. It gets you asking something. Please note, this does not have to be a direct question.
3) begin to develop setting, character, and/or tone.
4) hold the keys to resolution. By which I mean, provide the foundation for circularity or closure.
(http://matociquala.livejournal.com/1027629.html)

As much as I adore 19th century literature, I am not particularily thrilled with sweeping, first-person narrator first lines. I love to be thrown into the story without much of a preamble.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like?
It was dolphin weather, when I sailed into Piraeus with my comrades of the Cretan bull ring. Mary Renault, The Bull From The Sea
It was the first time he had ever heard the clock strike ten at night. Mary Renault, The Charioteer - I am a total sucker for Renault's first lines.
Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. J.K.Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - You knew that one was coming - it's an awesome first line!
Our house did not have a name until I was nearly five years old. Storm Constantine, The Bewitchments of Love and Hate.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you remember off the top of your head?
Call me Ishmael. Herman Melville, of course, Moby Dick.
Have you ever tasted a Whitstable oyster? Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
124 was spiteful. Toni Morrison, Beloved

What's your favorite first line you've written?
You can see it from afar. Summer of the Dragonfly

What's the first line you've spent the most time on?
An der unverwechselbaren Mütze mit dem Karomuster erkennt ihn heute jedes Kind. "Das Bild in der Kutsche" (published Holmes/Watson fic, only available in German ;-).) It doesn't show, but this one went through literally dozens of changes.

What's your least favorite first line you've written?
The sun was still on its way up behind the hills when Wils Longholes stepped out of the hole. Gardner in the Vineyard (LotR, Sam/Frodo, preslash) bOring ...

Oh, I never seem to remember first lines or lines period. That is why I keep journals full of favorite quotes, typically culled from the books that I've read, occasionally TV shows and quite a few song lyrics. I am currently on volume five. Although, I do always recall the incomprehensibility of the opening of The Sound and the Fury, and, of course, the opening of Pride and Prejudice because who doesn't.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like?
"The ghoul lady takes out her white linen handkerchief and uses one corner to dab at her watering left eye. It's an old wound, a relic of her spent and reckless youth, but it still bothers her sometimes, especially when the weather Above is wet." -- Daughter of Hounds, Caitlin R. Kiernan

It's actually that first paragraph that I love. I love the how it layers imagery, building this picture and atmosphere.

"Once upon a time, in a kingdom now swallowed by the earth, there lived a beautiful princess.

…

Two vampires walk out of an apocalypse.

…

This is not a story, because it has no beginning." -- All Ways,

kita0610

"There she is, at this convergence of realities, her face reflected back at her, lit red, by the control panel. Her eyes are stars, there, big and dark, cold and dying black dwarves. She ignores they way they say to her, "You've torn everything apart." - Pretend it Means Fate, Ellen Milholand

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you remember off the top of your head?
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife". Right off the top of my head, always. It's the only thing that I probably remember the actual words of and not just the general idea.

What's your favorite first line you've written?
That is damn near impossible to answer because first lines are my favorites and don't change all that much when I start writing. That said:

"Between dreams of Thanksgiving and Cordelia, the blood of his son on his lips and the snap of precious bones beneath his hands, Angel dreams of curious girls with sea-kelp tangled in their hair and large, seal-black eyes, shiny and round.">When in Dreams I See Her

What's the first line you've spent the most time on?
I spend almost no time on first lines. They're usually the one thing that I'm pretty sure of. However! The Light Before We Land, recently revised back to its original working title (One Thousand Kisses Deep) was worked and worked and re-worked numerous times, possibly to the detriment of the fic as a whole which was shaky to begin with: "The Sunnydale Quake of '03 was a blip on the map next to the sight of dragons over the steel and concrete L.A jungle."

What's your least favorite first line you've written?
"Wendy huddles into the warmth of Hook’s embrace, mesmerized by the rumbling bass of his voice and the bewildered tattoo of his heart beating frantically against her back." -- The Seduction of Wendy Darling: a tragedy in three parts Just never liked the line.

Hi! I found this post doing random midnight googling, and I though I would post answers and ask if its OK if I were to post this on my journal. With credit to you of course.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you like?

"She sings, "Here come I, the death watch beetle. Chewing away at the great cathedral." " Lamp In The Cooling Room (http://hdworldcup.onnedhiel.net/teamewe/lamp_in_the_cooling_room.html), Draco/Harry slash. I had this opening line stuck in my head like a song.

"The summer she was fifteen, Melanie discovered she was made of flesh and blood. O, my America, my new found land." The Magic Toyshop, Angela Carter. I'm not even saying this book was that good (I like her short stories far better) but these first few line are excellent.

What are some first lines to novels/stories/fanfic that you remember off the top of your head?

"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain/By the false azure in the windowpane" Pale Fire, Nabokov.

"I just want to touch you a little." Lethal, Joyce Carol Oats.

What's your favorite first line you've written?

"Fucking Weevil is a lot like fucking Logan." my inner poet loves a good BAM first line.

"Spike woke up feeling light." I love that little emphasis.

"Seeing her, perched on the cliff face above him like cathedral gargoyle, with that playful little smile, Spike could just rip out her fucking throat." Probably one of my better setting the stage first lines.

What's the first line you've spent the most time on?

"The reason she pauses:/that scent." Moths and rainwater. I spent hours agonizing over the entire thing, but this first line took me forever.

What's your least favorite first line you've written?

"Hers are everywhere." Desire Lines. I've written some mediocre lines in my time, but this one still bothers me. It didn't do what I wanted it to do, and I am still convinced I used 'hers' incorrectly.

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I want to talk about opening lines!

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