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Great Opening Sentences

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LyndaD View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LyndaD Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 1:58pm
It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Silverlock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 2:13pm
Originally posted by LyndaD LyndaD wrote:

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.
The Scorpio Races

This one depends entirely upon the last word for its effect, although once that final word hits, the autumnal connotations of "November" retroactively gain additional force - even if the promised death is neither natural nor seasonal.
"The third is the maker's drink, no bottom limit to quality guaranteed, and no top specified."
-- Silverlock by John Myers Myers
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote halium Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 4:21pm
Originally posted by Draiglas Draiglas wrote:

I've always enjoyed this from a contest for worst opening lines (non-existent):

Gerald began – but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him 10 percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a 10-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them “permanently” meant the next 10 minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash – to pee

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest! LOL

There's also one called Lyttle Lytton that featured gems as such: The red hot sun rose in the cold blue sky.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Silverlock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 4:49pm
Originally posted by halium halium wrote:

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest! LOL

There's also one called Lyttle Lytton that featured gems as such: The red hot sun rose in the cold blue sky.

If we're going with classic examples of terrible writing, I have my (apocryphal) favorite:

"John and Mary had never met.  They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."
"The third is the maker's drink, no bottom limit to quality guaranteed, and no top specified."
-- Silverlock by John Myers Myers
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kimberly June Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 6:47pm
Originally posted by bdemoney bdemoney wrote:

Some of my favorite opening lines: 

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." The Lovely Bones


"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home." The Outsiders


"Here is a small fact: You are going to die." The Book Thief


“This is the story of a man named Eddie and it starts at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It may seem strange to start a story with an ending, but all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.” The Five People You Meet in Heaven





Yes! Outsiders!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Avalon23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 6:58pm
My favorite:

"You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy."

- Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney

I love this because you learn everything you need to know about the narrator in these few lines.  That he sees himself one way, that his actions are not in accordance with that self-impression.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TheGlamWitch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 7:27pm
Originally posted by Silverlock Silverlock wrote:

A common piece of advice for aspiring writers (particularly novelists) is that your book needs to have a really great opening sentence.  I believe this necessity is exaggerated: a few minutes in a bookstore will confirm that most published books do not have remarkable opening sentences.  Nevertheless, a good opener is a plus, and I did my best to start strong in the current challenge.

What are some of our favorite opening sentences from novels or stories?  Below are a few off the top of my head.  There are, no doubt, thousands of worthy entries.

"If I had cared to live, I would have died."
-- Silverlock by John Myers Myers

"I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why."
-- At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft

"An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money."
-- Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

"Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls."
-- Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

[slightly cheating]
"OK.  Don't panic.  Don't panic.  It's only a VISA bill."
-- The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

A great opening scene is more important than an amazing opening line.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fioOxf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jan 2023 at 8:05pm
It might have been mentioned, so apologies if this is a repeat, but my favourite opening line is:
It was the day my grandmother exploded.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2023 at 1:30am


Beat this one!

Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
                                      God
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