Great First Lines

The snow is coming down as I write this, looks like four or five inches so far.

The First Line – So much has been written about getting a book or short story getting off to a great start with a first line hook.  I am not sure the hook or great line needs to be in the first line, but it certainly needs to be in the first paragraph. Is a great hook or line necessary, not always? Fiction seems to do best with a great start, but nonfiction and often short stories do not necessarily need a great line to keep readers engaged.  

My all-time favorite is the Charles Dickens start to his classic, A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

In contrast, I have never understood why Herman Melville’s line, “Call me Ishmael,” is so widely considered the greatest opening line in history. You might ask why I don’t like that line, well, I do, but it starts chapter three, not one, and is some eighty paragraphs into the book.  Off the subject a bit, but for all of my author readers, Moby-Dick, now a worldwide classic, sold only a few over 3,000 books before Melville died in 1891, forty years after Moby-Dick was published.

 First Lines from two of my Eleven Books –I spend a lot of time on the openings of my books, often changing the opening a dozen times before I like it. Here is how I started two of my books, the first from book one of my kid's chapter book series, Melvin the E-Street Ghost. “As a kid, I lived on a red brick street in a very big white house. Not unusual considering, everyone I knew lived in a white house on a red brick street.”

From the second of my Blade Holmes western mysteries, The Ghost Dance is this line. "The man riding alone on his horse should have heard the shot, but he was already dead."

First lines never make a decision for me to keep reading or not read on, but a few pages, or a chapter in, will hook me, or send me off looking for another read.

From the Old West – A man who ain't got an idea of his own should be mighty careful who he borrows 'em from.

Backyard wildlife

What Am I Working On? Nothing much. What kind of an answer is that?  I just returned from the State School Boards Convention, and this post is the first thing I have written since Monday. But the rest of the day, and tomorrow, I will continue on the edit of my fourth chapter book. I might also do some research for my – in-progress – nonfiction book if I have the time.

 Photo of the Week – 

From a nice warm weather hike earlier this week

 

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Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

& 

Have a wonderful weekend.

 My newest book - Under Christmas Skies