Here's what I've got as a beginning for this work in progress:
Sean Wakefield waved away a puff of charcoal smoke as he checked the hot dogs on the grill. Some things belonged together. The Fourth of July, veterans and grilled meat were a match made in heaven.
Since I have no extra brain waves, for this blog post I'm cheating and calling up the words of other, better writers who probably delighted their editors at every turn.
Let's talk about good first lines. Put the first lines of your work in progress or your favorite beginnings in the comments! Here are a few from the greats that I like...
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. —Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. —C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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ReplyDeleteLove these first lines, Cheryl, starting with yours. Had a laugh at Oscar Wilde’s....wish my revisions focussed on a single comma! The first line of my Aug 2020 release is: “It’s only a joke. Nobody’s gonna die or anything”. (Got it right this time :)) Happy Spring!
DeleteI love first lines, too, Cheryl and yours is making me hungry for summer grilling! I have to say that CS Lewis' line draws me in and makes me want to know more about why the name was almost deserved lol :). And Jane Austen's is brilliant and a reflection of the times for sure. A great one to think about given that yesterday's International Women's Day celebrated women. We've come a long way!
ReplyDeleteThe first line (or few bc they go together...forgive me!) in my current release is:
'Had Faye Donovan known she'd be a child kidnapper and fugitive by afternoon, she would have skipped her second double shot of espresso that morning. The extra caffeine had helped her survive grooming a 130-pound Newfoundland, who'd assumed his owner had created the muddy , busted water pipe disaster in his backyard just for him to swim in, but the residual buzz was doing nothing for her pulse at the moment. If it raced any faster, she'd have a heart attack before her crime was committed, and that simply wasn't an option.'
Oh, I love 1st lines, including yours. My opening from my latest non-Christmas Town release is: Steven Elliot didn’t lose many patients, especially young ones. This was why, in addition to gifted young surgeon, the term miracle worker got bandied about in journalistic circles. So did sexy blond ponytail, sexy dark eyes, and sexy lean build. Those were downright embarrassing, so he tried not to give them too much thought. Usually. Then there were the articles that had more to do with his sexual prowess than his surgical skill. He avoided them when they came out, but the fact that one of his sisters kept a scrapbook didn’t help that evasion tactic at all. Sometime, when he went home to Peacock, Tennessee for a weekend, that scrapbook was going to come to an abrupt and fiery end.
ReplyDeleteLiz! Okay, yes, hooked. When do we get to read this one?
DeleteLove everyone's first lines! Here's mine from Obsession. The January warm spell had definitely ended in South Mississippi. Emma Winters zipped her National Park Service jacket against the biting north wind as she hiked the quarter mile from the gate to the Mount Locust Visitor Center on the Natchez Trace. A hike that wouldn’t have been necessary if she hadn’t forgotten the gate key. Or the folder she needed to finish a report due by midnight.
ReplyDeleteSuch a fun post, Cheryl! (That Oscar Wilde quote makes me LOL.) Here are the first lines from my latest, Second Chance for the Single Dad: “HERE IT IS,” Anne McGrath called out, striding into her brother Rhys’s workshop. She stopped when she was a few feet away and held up a single sheet of notebook paper like it was a royal decree, one hand gripping the top edge and the other, the bottom. “The list.”
ReplyDeleteMmmm, hotdogs! Love all the first lines, Cheryl. Here's mine, from Alaskan Dreams.
ReplyDeleteTHE INVENTOR OF the showerhead deserved a Nobel Prize. At least that was Lauren’s opinion, as the muscle-melting, soul-cleansing water ran over her stiff shoulders and down her back, washing away the physical and emotional grime she’d collected. After six days on the road, sleeping in an ancient truck camper each night, a hot shower with adequate water pressure was bliss. Even if it was in a cracked concrete shower stall in the middle of a crowded campground.
Thanks for the post and all the first lines--they're inspiring. I just sent back final corrections (read: a second look extensive revisions!) on book 3 of the Back to Bluestone River series--every line is running together in one long word chain. Or word salad? Mixed up Scrabble letters, maybe?
ReplyDeleteI'm a first line junkie. I always read the first line of books to see if I want to go on.
ReplyDelete