First Lines

[Culhwch]

Okay, this was just a quick thought of mine, a speedy little workshop exercise that might prove some fun. It's as simple as this: give us a first line. No more than that. Something catchy, something that hooks us in. Something intriguing, something disturbing, something amusing, something depressing. Something, anyway. Who knows, it might spur you to write a story you never knew you had in you.

So, have at it!

One of mine, and one that came to me out of the blue and that I've since used to build a story around:

His mother died on a Monday.

 

[ice.monkey]

The night I threw down four aces to beat the devil at his own game had been balmy and clam.

 

[Culhwch]

I knew she was something from the moment I saw her - I just didn't know if it was trouble, or big trouble.

 

[Culhwch]

The night I threw down four aces to beat the devil at his own game had been balmy and clam.

Should that be calm, or clammy? I'm assuming it's not plain old clam...

 

[Talysia]

The beast looked as if it had come straight out of the books of legend she had read as a child years ago.



(Great idea for a thread, Culhwch!)

 

[mosaix]

He stared down with a morbid fascination at the thin blade that had pierced his chest between the fourth and fifth ribs.

 

[Talysia]

That's a good one, Mosaix!

(Bit of a cliche for my second attempt, but...)

Looking at the meteor looming in the sky, no-one was really surprised when the news broke that the end of the world was imminent.

 

[ice.monkey]

Should that be calm, or clammy?

Always a typo when you least need it. Should've been calm!

It had been a truly insignificant thing, a typo, that had finally tipped him over the edge and set him on his murderous rampage.

 

[Duchessprozac]

He had travelled over 400 miles to be here, and as the wind whipped the dust up around his feet, he knew there would be trouble.​

 

[Commonmind]

"I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Mr. Mephistopheles," said the hostess, smiling widely.

 

[Sapheron]

Poop, not again.

(Someone did it in their school essay once, I can't remember who, and it got my attention immediately. Just too silly.)

 

[Saltheart]

"When I was in eight grade, two life-changing things happened to me."

From the rough draft of my current novel, The Nerd Club.

 

[Aes]

Good idea for an exercise. These starting lines are always the hardest for me to come up with, because I'm always trying to get them just right:

"Get a load of the local color that comes out this time of year," he smirked, motioning over to an akward looking, flamoyantly dressed man who was scrambling after brightly colored juggling balls as they went bounding off in random directions.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

He knew it would be his worst day ever when he opened his front door and found a dragon on his doorstep.

 

[Green]

"Nuts," she said. "Those were my last pair of clean pants."

 

[Talysia]

"And now," blared the television, "we'll bring you every last event leading up to the end end of the world. You'll see it here first."

(That one sort of grew out of the one I posted earlier.)

 

[Culhwch]

'Good morning, Mr. President,' he said, and squeezed the trigger.

 

[Pyan]

Something felt wrong to Jack when he saw the poster for "Beatrix Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

 

[ice.monkey]

The last space-cruiser silently exploded into a beautiful, blue ball of flame and the Kolamians breathed a collective sigh of relief, for the threat homo-sapiens posed to the galaxy had finally been extinguished.

 

[Pyan]

"Oh my God" gasped George, as he stepped out of the time machine into Trafalgar Square and looked up at Napoleon's Column!