Some great lines here.

Grinder,

Alas, I've heard that mentioning the weather is a big no no as well. And how does my novel start...

"It was Harmattan season: storms in the sahara blew sand down over the city, staining the skies over the city of Ilaju a nicotine yellow."

Balls.

Oh well, I haven't started sending it out yet, so there's time to change.

Cheers

Harry

Whoops. That first 'city' is supoosed to be 'country'

This has all set me wondering if the opening sentences of the following chapters can/should echo the first one, for some deliberate purpose: making the structure explicit, or re-inforcing themes, or something.

In TMOL, the first sentence of the novel is by the 1819 narrator, Stephen:

Had I not been there, no account, no print, no evidence of witnesses could have made me believe what I saw that day.

and the first sentence of the 1976 narrator, Anna, is dated 2006:

I don't need it in front of me to believe what happened - that I was there - any more than I need my photographs, convincingly young and clumsy though they are. Or even Stephen's letters.

The similarity between those two is deliberate, but after that none of the chapter-openings are particularly related to each other. Does anyone consider their chapter-openings as a group?

Emma

No not really though I do think I have a habit of making the character look in from the outside before entering a scene - not necessarily physically but like a camera view - and then move into it?

I try for an effect of immediacy - this instant now, this is happening - often a chronological jump from what has gone before?

And yes, echo effect sometimes.

Sarah

I read somewhere that mentioning the weather in the first line is a bad thing.

Maybe that’s why mine never got published.

Does anyone consider their chapter-openings as a group?

No, Emma, I don’t. It would feel like an unnecessary constraint and, if not done well, could look very contrived. I really like the way you’ve linked those two sections; the second one will strike an echo of the first but, beyond that, each chapter should have the opening it needs to lead the reader into it – which I'm sure yours does. Personally, I find them hellishly difficult.

Dee

You sometimes see chapter titles which are all in the same form - days, or times, or quotations or something, or the ones for Friends. Chapter titles when they exist are in a way opening lines, I suppose. I don't use them, so I don't know what I'd do.

Emma

I try to use song titles for chapter headings, although if I can't think of one or find anything relevant in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, I make something up, 'cause I can always pretend it's a song the character wrote! Sometimes the title itself is relevant, sometimes the subject matter of the song. And I'm not saying there's a recurring theme in my work, but I've used 'Shotgun Wedding' twice!

Julie

Harry. Don't scrap this because of some supposed 'weather rule'.

It was Harmattan season: storms in the Sahara blew sand down over the country, staining the skies over the city of Ilaju a nicotine yellow.

This one worked for me and followed the only first sentence 'rule' that there should be: 'The first sentence should make you want to read the second sentence'.

Chris

'The first sentence should make you want to read the second sentence'

An excellent rule, which only needs the rider that there should prove to be some connection between the two. I've known first sentences that were so obviously there purely to be striking, with no other reason for existing, that I was thoroughly irritated by the author before I'd reached the bottom of the page.

Thanks, Chris.

And I agree with Emma, that's an excellent 'rule' to have in mind.

Cheers

Harry

Has anyone been turned off by a first line? I mean, to the point of abandoning a book? I thought it might be an interesting experiment to see how this tenet works in practise.

The book I abandoned recently was Time Traveler's Wife'. I'm sorry, but after three chapters (I know it's not the same thing) I couldn't take it anymore. I've shoved my unread copy on a top shelf somewhere as after a while, I couldn't even bear to look at it. I don't even know why, exactly. It just gave me a horrible bland sensation - like eating mushroom soup after having a Rogan Josh.

First line aversions though? Hmmm.

JB

Has anyone been turned off by a first line?

Frequently and by some very good writers.
My personal opinion is that people often think too much about the fireworks and forget that the first page has to be readable too.
Yes, it has to grab your attention, yes, it has to suck you into the plot. But if it tries to be too clever ...
The strongest example I can think of was a book by McCabe, very strong, very potent story about a drug-induced psychological collapse of a genuinely screwed up guy. One of my favourite reads in a long time; I nearly threw it away after the first paragraph of absolutely unreadable artiness.

<Added>

PS: A good opener for a reference book (history of music, I think);
"In the beginning, we must assume, there was silence."

Lol!

Edward Bulwar Lytton prize is awarded every year to the author of the worst possible opening line of a book. This has been so successful that Penguin now publishes five books-worth of entries.

Here are a few recent winners:

10) As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the sound chamber, he would never hear the end of it.

9) Just beyond the Narrows the river widens.

8) With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description.

7) Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the east wall: “Andre creep ... Andre creep... Andre creep.”

6) Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back-alley sex-change surgeon - to become the woman he loved.

5) Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from seeking out a living at a local pet store.

4) Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.

3) Like an overripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor.


2) Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn’t know the meaning of the word “fear,” a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death - in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies.

AND THE BEST OF ALL:

1) The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog’s deception, screaming madly, “You lied!”

There is hope for us yet. Remember that all of these have been published.

JB

These are bad opening lines? I think they're terrific! 'Just beyond the Narrows the river widens' - though stating the obvious, how poetic this is.

F

They're bad according to Penguin. Though funny, I don't think they're deliberately so? I quite liked the one about Stanley the penguin.

JB