‘It was a cold, bright day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ Hartley, The Go-Between.
‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
‘‘’Oh, sod this!’ Barry ground to a halt.’’ McCarthy, Barry.
You see? Work at it long and hard enough and pure talent will shine through. Just three words into my debut novel and there’s an exclamation mark which I now wish I’d left out. At a guess, I think I wrote that first line, that first chapter, in about 2007. It was to be several years before I embarked on Chapter 2, and started to enjoy the writing process.
That first chapter really summed up all that I wanted to say at the time. A middle-aged ex-runner gone to seed, attempting a comeback. It was at the end of that chapter that I began to realise that there was more to this writing malarkey than I might have imagined.
Then it began to dawn on me that I could write anything, that there were no boundaries. I could go off on tangents, introduce new elements, unrelated storylines which came together. New characters who were different from the somewhat one-dimensional Barry. For example, Barry’s daughters Lauren and Michelle. It was my first self-taught lesson in characterisation. Obvious now maybe, but here I found an opportunity to differentiate between two sisters. Chalk and cheese, but with common ground.
And with this gradual realisation of possibilities I began to enjoy writing, and that has continued ever since.
But a few more famous first lines:
‘Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk.’ Lewis, Elmer Gantry.
‘It was the day my grandmother exploded.’ Banks, The Crow Road.
‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’ Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
‘He looked at his watch – 7.33am.’ McCarthy, A Jersey Midsummer Tale.
They just keep coming, don’t they? Have you got a favourite first line? What is one you’ve written yourself?
Back On The Rock 
Now you have me curious Roy…why so long between writing Chapter 1 and that second chapter?
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At that time I had no real idea how to write Jill. I’d written what was at the front of my mind and then blanked. It was only later, in adversity, that I found how to get creative.
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Mine is the opening salvo from The Book Thief. They are not cheery lines but they were unlike any I’d seen:
First the colours.
Then the humans.
That’s how I usually see things.
Or at least, how I try.
*** HERE IS A SMALL FACT ***
You are going to die.
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Certainly different Kristine. Generally that looks like a book I ought to read.
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I love Orwell’s first quote but I don’t think I like any of my own. You are great at getting the reader to follow on from the first page.
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In my case I think it’s people saying ‘God it must get better than this.’ 🙂
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First sentences are delicious. It immediately lets me know whether to sink into my chaise for a long period of reading — which is exactly the response I always hope for.
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No I’ve never considered opening with a bang, like all the advice says. In fact the first page of ‘Tess’ is dreamy and gentle in the extreme. Maybe some like that 🙂
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All great lines, including yours, Roy! My current favourite first line is from Beartown by Frederick Backman. ‘Late one evening towards the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barrelled shortgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to some else’s forehead, and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there.’
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That sure gets the attention all right 🙂
Yes it’s important to grab the reader’s attention early in a story. There are many books I’ve given up on early in disappointment. I’m not sure it needs to be the first lines though.
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