Wednesday Writes: First Lines

The first line of a book is the most important. How many first lines can you remember?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man with a good fortune is in search of a wife."

"Call me Ishmael."

The first line helps draw the reader into your book. So, how do you deal with all of that pressure? Do you start with that zinger line? Or do you write everything else and let that first line be the last thing you write?

It depends.

That's not much of an answer--I know! Take for an example, the story I'm currently writing. It begins much in the fashion of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with a sentence similar to "Marley was dead to begin with." But my story starts with "I died on December 15, 1961." Did that bring you in? (Don't answer that... I don't really want to know... yet, anyway. But you're intrigued? Admit it.)

That's what a first line should do. It should pull you into the story. Make you want to read on. Now, if that means you start off with a fabulous line before the rest of your story progresses... well, my thoughts are, write the story. Do your best to get the whole thing down on the paper. The editing process is when you can let yourself find that PERFECT line.

But remember that you never know when or where that perfect line will come. Stephenie Meyer uses the climatic scene to start off every book in her Twilight series. As you write, let yourself be creative and eventually, that first line will come to you.

So--what are your favorite first lines from books? Why?