The first line

[seradhe]

If you can stomach it, you can have it with my blessings. I simply exude that kind of junk.

Thanks!

Gotta love when inspiration hits you right between the eyes. *goes off and begins writing*

[Dresden]

Personally the last line doesn't bother me as long as the book ties up everything in the story.  But that only applies if it's a stand alone novel.  If it's like The Dresden Files for example then I know what is covered in one book mightn't apply until further down the road.  So for your answer no it doesn't bother me if the last line is amazing or not.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

My favorite ending line in a book is "In the Dawn of a new world, Damien Vryce smiled". Mucho Brownie points to anyone who knows the book.

C.S. Friedman's Crown of Shadows, and how many Brownie points do I have to save up for a Brownie, or can I just keep collecting them and go straight for the Girl Scout ?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Personally the last line doesn't bother me as long as the book ties up everything in the story.

To each their own. I can't stand endings that are unrealistically neat; unless you kill everybody, some characters will be going on and having more to their lives, and it works a lot better for me if that's clearly a real life with real issues rather than a happily-ever-after now that everything's tied up.

[meg_evonne]

First liners are for all readers and drop byers, but last lines....  Ahh last lines, however, are an author's cherished gift to his/her reader.  Those I expect to be incredible. 

First lines are appetizers---last lines are the perfect dab of chocolate or single spoonful of a mouth watering desert delight.  Those, I think an author should agonize over. 

[Ursiel]

OK, something that has been bugging me since my creative writing class way back my first year of college. Figured I'd ask it here.


How much weight do you think the first line of a book carries?

Jims books have never failed to have a seriously awesome first line/paragraph that locks me into the book until it's done. and my Teacher in Creative Writing was practically a nazi regarding the first line (in fact the only reason I passed the class was she liked my first lines)

in the spirit of the topic, I subject a few the the first sentences from my stories....


"It is a little known fact that dragons like to snuggle."
"What the h#!! is it with Vampires and S&M clubs?!"
"At what point does the human mind break?"
"One would think magic coming back into the world would be a great thing."
"I would not think that, waking up this morning, that today would be the last day of my life on earth."

thoughts/suggestions? maybe toss a few of your first lines out?

I love the first line to Proven Guilty "Blood doesn't stain a warden's cloak" or whatever. I'm not really good in the first line department though...

Sample of my suckish talent: Who would've thought that pigs could fly.

Oh yeah, I jsut thought of that while I was typing. NEVER TOOK A CLASS IN MY LIFE :DDD XD I know I suck >_> But I guess it never fails to try.

[Torvaldr]

I've always liked, "It was a dark and stormy night..."

Ducking, running, dodging, and laughing my head off....

Really yes I liken the first line of a book to the first line of a song. If you don't like it you stop listening. Here are some of the first lines of my most popular songs. (I'm a self published singer/songwriter/storyteller)

"It's the second month of Viking, there's one more month to go."

"Young child, watching, do you understand?"

"Far o're this world I wandered, seen lands of ancient fame."

"The white rose stand for purity, it's petals brilliant white."

"From the shores of Jotenheim where giants walk the land."

"Sing to me oh cold north wind, of the lands that I know well."

[meg_evonne]

The yellow rose says goodbye, its yellow petals tears of saddness of times that could have been.

[Craz]

I like to think that I can write an all-right first sentence. To me, it's not crucial, but I know I should spend more time on it.

Here's the first one I've done, for a Star Trek series I write.

Captain Jason M. Craz, on a normal day, would have completely tolerated the gossips of his friend Olis Neemar.

And then there's a work-in-progress piece I have that's, well, a tribute to Butcher and the Dresdenites I know.

As I watched as the first black ball of hellfire streak by me, my first reaction was to wish I’d believed in something with a happy afterlife.[/i]

[pj]

Here's one from a mystery I just finished:

Maybe, at some point before all this, I’d wanted to be the kind of reporter who toppled corrupt governments.  Back there in the long ago when I’d been bushy haired and thought my couple of inches in the campus rag would change the world.

And another.

A big fat vampire wanted to hire me, and who was I to disagree?

[Dante Inferno]

Please, God, do serial killers drive Fords after midnight?

[seradhe]

Please, God, do serial killers drive Fords after midnight?

Just when you think the thread's gonna die...

[THETA]

Lines 3 and 4 are wonderful, but 5 is really cliche.  Cliche in the bad way too, not classic, but overused in a sense that too many crap writers use it, thus making it something less than desirable for an audience even if it is a good writer.

For the one story i've been actually developing is...

"Kill them!"

[Guardian 452]

For me, a good first line is a bonus, but it isn't a hundred percent necessary.  Mind you, a bad first line can kill things right off!

Oh, and for favourite first lines, why hasn't this one appeared yet?

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

[seradhe]

Oh, and for favourite first lines, why hasn't this one appeared yet?

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

I think because we're all on the same page that Dresden Files books all have great opening lines. though that one does rock.