May 30, 2022
“The first sentence has to have a solid punch.” — Steve Berry from “Twisty Business” Let’s talk about it.
To quote Snoopy and others “It was a dark and stormy night…” (Yes, I’d love to insert a Snoopy comic strip here, but won’t because it would be copyright infringement.) The entire sentence, written by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1830, is: ″It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.″
Then there’s this one penned by Stu Duval of New Zealand, winner of the 2021 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, honoring the most atrocious opening lines of the year. “A lecherous sunrise flaunted itself over a flatulent sea, ripping the obsidian bodice of night asunder with its rapacious fingers of gold, thus exposing her dusky bosom to the dawn’s ogling stare.”
Are you still with me? You didn’t nod off reading those sentences?
Compare those to this one from American Book Reviews 100 best first lines “Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash.” — J. G. Ballard from the book Crash.
I don’t claim my first lines match either the worst or the best, but I work hard on them. Here’s the opening line for my WIP. (untitled) “The rubber-tipped cane thunked as it hit the blacktop.” At least it’s better than the opening line from my first book, Wolves’ Pawn: “The spring rain had left puddles in the dirt road but she no longer tried to avoid them.”
Face it, readers need to get sucked into the story immediately. There’s no time to create a background story or a beautiful scene. They have their choice of thousands of stories to pick from, and if the first line doesn’t grab their attention, they may not move on to the second.
That first sentence should include hints about the genre, although it may not be immediately clear. (The cover should do that.). A mystery should be different from romance or fantasy. There’s a rule somewhere that the story shouldn’t begin with dialogue, but there are lots of examples of that being successfully broken.
It’s tough to do it right. I don’t know how many times I wrote and rewrote that first sentence for my newest book. Or how many times I may revise it again!
I’ve often said the first chapter is the hardest one to write, and the ‘right’ first sentence is tougher. I wonder if the other authors on this hop agree with me? Just follow the links below to find out.
As always, please stay safe until the next time.
May 30, 2022
“The first sentence has to have a solid punch.” —Steve Berry from “Twisty Business” Let’s talk about it.
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