First Lines

[Chel]

I am a god; a god without power or presence, but you will help me get that back after you read this story. All you need to do is believe in me.

***

The bus entered the tunnel, but this time the tunnel didn't end.

 

[Interference]

(your first is probably true, y'know - really like the second, too.)

"Chew on this," he said and pushed the muzzle of an antique revolver into my mouth.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I like that one, inter!

 

[Michael01]

Very nice first line, Inter.

'Kay. Haven't done this in a while. I'll add one. Style's a little different, I suppose, since it has the main character (in first person) speaking directly to another character (in second person):

You sit there staring at me like you wished I'd disappear.

 

[Interference]

(Thank you both - and very evocative, Michael)

 

[Langadune]

I knew I was going to die today, but I was a little disappointed it was going to be like this.

 

[Boneman]

I like that, Langadune! Do you have a harley?


Killing him seemed like a good way of avoiding my responsibility for his upbringing.

 

[Michael01]

More good ones! And thanks, Interference.

This is is maybe not quite as interesting but:

Grandfather Oak let the pores in his leaves open, searching for signs of his offspring.

 

[chrispenycate]

Once upon a time, twice upon a time, many times and many settings, the eternal, unwinnable combat between good and evil, and the competing forces defining those words, came to a head; and the Heralds totted up the butchers’ bill.

 

[Langadune]

I like that, Langadune! Do you have a harley?

Thanks!

I do have a Harley. It's a 2002 Fatboy.

 

[Interference]

Grandfather Oak let the pores in his leaves open, searching for signs of his offspring.

Nope, I'd say you got another "interesting" one there all right


I suppose I knew it all along and, looking back, it was obvious he'd been behind me the whole time.

 

[J-WO]

One winter's night I saw a face in a tree.

 

[reiver33]

There's a revolution in my head, making me the most wanted man alive.

 

[Talysia]

It all started when I opened that email, something I now wish I'd never done.

 

[Interference]

It's only called paranoia when it's unfounded.

No food since April. The water had run out soon after that. None of us could think of a single reason why we were all still alive.

And still the Doc was smiling as if she'd been keeping something from us. Damn. Now it was happening to me, too. Suspicion and mistrust. Paranoia.

Isn't it only called paranoia when it's unfounded?

 

[Nik]

"Hi, Uncle Joe !" Sue's voice held a bright, breezy note which meant she had another problem, and was about to make it mine...

===

It all began with another 'local difficulty' in Central Africa.

===

I've joked my clients came in every shape and form, but a bespoke DV-ROM was something new.

===

With thirty degrees axial tilt, and 10 Bar plus three hundred degrees of dirty carbon dioxide, 'Nova was indeed a nice place.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Here's one that I started a story with many years ago, which I just found again recently--the title was "Dear Gwen":


I have to hurry--I don't know how much time I have left. If that mirror is right, I'm going to die before tomorrow morning. It's been right so far.

 

[Interference]

(Definitely wanna know more )

"I really ought to turn over a new leaf," he said, picking his teeth with the Bowie knife that had been stuck in the messenger's back a few minutes earlier.

"We should turn over this page-boy first," I suggested.

 

[Michael01]

Amanda wheezed as Doctor Landry tightened his fingers around her throat. Gray sideburns framed empty eyes and froth formed at the corners of his mouth. Laughter filled her ears, coming from the cameraman by the window and the maniac on the television screen.

 

[Precise Calibre]

As a person moves through this world, they carry with them the thread of fate which binds them to all other things. To be but a single strand is lonely and frightening; many simply resign themselves to following the weave of others. But there are threads among the meek who refuse to conform to the grain. They are the ones who will shape the world in which we live, the ones who will bring about times of peace or times of ceaseless bloodshed, the ones who will decide the fate of thousands. They must be learned from. They must be watched.