Inspired by a slightly different thread I thought it might be fun and interesting for everyone to lay out the first line of their manuscript. Here's mine... “You know they’ll kill me Áoife… we can’t be too careful,” said Lórcan pulling off his shirt.
I didn’t see the police cars until the last minute – two of them double parked, lights flashing, at the corner of Placid Road, my street.
Demons they called us, titans of a different god. We were the means to an end to them, and we liked it.
There’s history for a reason and it’s the same reason there’s fine scotch, good cigars, and a few virtuous women left in the world.
A good friend once told me that only truth can lead to redemption, and as I stand upon the white sand of Barbados gazing into the endless blue, I now know that these words are in fact the truth.
They say I was both conceived and born under a blood moon. Well that's the working first line at the moment.
various opening lines: Here I am, lying on her grave as he fucks me and trying really hard not to cry. A broken string of plastic pearls lay abandoned in the gutter. As the plane banked sharply my hands clamped the side of the seat. Small bare feet stormed through Van Gogh’s self-portrait. It was the radiator hose.
Interestingly, Jimmy Breslin entitled his memoir of undergoing neurosurgery for an aneurysm I Want to Thank My Brain For Remembering Me.
She smiled, with the idea that the whole town will be talking about her, sighed as if it was the end of the best orgasm and slowly walked towards the gravelled track.
I occasionally see lists titled best opening lines from literature and think the article has an incorrect title. A lot of good books have boring opening lines. Anyway, here's mine. On his green door the brass number 5 burns red.
His teeth were so far apart that I reckon he could fit a whole sausage through there. That's incredibly rich.
So true. It shits me that they judge the line by looking at the book as a whole. Those articles should read: 'opening lines from great books', NOT 'best opening lines'. Some really bad books have great opening lines. The line itself should stand on it's own merit. The opening line to Moby Dick usually tops those lists, but it's shit.
Here's a handful of my first lines - Once a decade, Sharber asked, "How were we made?" - Moon Grubs Lost. Ike hated to admit it. - House of Cadre &%^%#^%$ … Data error. I'm not pink. - Not Pink Number one Sweet Baby be gone! - Untitled Deep in the pit, the prisoners could hear the elevator from the surface rumble near. OR They don't throw you into the Pit, you walk in. - Both possibles from In The Pit. Hands lowered Tetty into the walled garden - The Worms of Wicher Woo. Not sure if I'm satisfied with any but first lines have never sold me on a book anyway. My favorite opening line from a novel - Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. And one of my favorite novels which has a rather boring opening line - Harriet was trying to explain to Sport how to play town. - Harriet the Spy.
