Classic First Lines

I probably should have posted this before everyone put up their first lines, but live and learn........

What makes a great opening line? What makes that first sentence pop out and grab your attention?

At random I pulled some books off the nearest bookshelf in my house and started cruising through. Looking at my favorites I see three things that stand out.

1) Brevity- Most opening lines are short (there are some exceptions).

2) Tone- The opening line sets the tone for the book. If the book is full of roses and purple prose, the first line usually reflects that. If the tone is dark and despairing the first sentence is not light and fluffy. The first hit to the reader puts them squarely where they need to be.

3) Questions- The first sentence does not give us copious back story. The first sentence doesn't tell you what is going on. The first sentence is calculated over many drafts to leave you asking questions. The one exception I found to this on my search was the YA genre. YA seems to start with telling you who the MC is and wandering on from there.

Examples:

The trawler plunged into the angry swells of the dark, furious sea like an awkward animal trying desperately to break out of an impenatrable swamp.
- The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum 1975

Kylarra Vatta came to attention in front of the Commandant's desk.- Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon 2003

In the middle of nowhere, along a quiet stretch of road, the diner dreamt of the hungry dead.
- Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez 2005

This is where the dragons went.- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett 1989

The King of the Enchanted Forest was twenty years old and lived in a rambling, scambling, mixed-up castle somewhere near the center of his domain.- Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede 1991

The cold air blowing in through the vents still carried a faint tang of overheated metal and burned equipment.
- The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell 2006

A surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by the vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.
- The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy 1905



Brevity seems the newest trend. Baroness Orczy and Mister Ludlum both dwell heavily on adjectives. I'm not sure those opening lines would survive modern agents and editors. I can imagine Miss Snark fainting in terror and the laundry list of "ands" that Baroness Orczy used in 1905.

Patricia C. Wrede, the lone YA writer showcased, does things a little differently. She sets the tone and the scene but doesn't leave you asking any question but, "Why do I care?" For younger readers this seems to work fine. They want to read and I know when I first read her book the idea of a rambling, scrambling, castle was enough for me. I didn't care why, I simply delighted in the idea.

Elizabeth Moon and Jack Campbell both have solid, no nonsense, opening lines in the fine tradition of military science fiction. They set a solid tone, they give you very little, and they force you to read the next sentence if you want to know what's going on. Jack Campbell is an excellent read for anyone studying hooks, he deliberatley ends books so you need the next one to finish the story. I haven't checked but I'm guessing his first sale wasn't a one book deal.

And then, Terry Pratchett, the Godfather of comedic fantasy... a short simple line that gives away nothing. His opening sentence tells you where you are, but not who or what is around. And he'll keep you scrambling through the rest of the book.

So....

With this little primer in mind (and done mostly for my own edification) it is time for me to do some line edits. :o)