{"id":599,"date":"2011-05-29T17:26:06","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T17:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/?p=599"},"modified":"2011-05-29T17:26:06","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T17:26:06","slug":"first-lines-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/29\/first-lines-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"First Lines Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Write a more compelling first line and I’ll read your article!” was one Facebook comment on my post about first lines<\/a>. Point well taken.\u00a0 Could I have spruced up my first couple of lines? Certainly.\u00a0 Do I intend every blog post to be a fine crafted work of art and a juggernaut of intellectual persuasion? Nope. Ain’t got time. I’m too busy trying to write fiction.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, readers did have things to say about this list.\u00a0 But first, here are the answers for my previous post<\/a> on first lines.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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  1. \u201cNo! I don\u2019t want the mangosteen.\u201d Anderson Lake leans forward, pointing. — The Windup Girl<\/em> \u2013 Paolo Bacigalupi<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. The first thing I can remember in this life is my father driving his white ox, Endurance, to the sky burial platforms. — Green<\/em> \u2013 Jay Lake<\/a>
    \n <\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Veldt to scrub fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from the earth. — Perdido Street Station<\/em> \u2013 China Mieville<\/li>\n
  4. Call me Dodd.\u00a0 — It Came from Del Rio<\/em> \u2013 Steven Graham Jones<\/li>\n
  5. I\u2019d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked in the bar. — Dead in Dixie<\/em> \u2013 Charlaine Harris<\/li>\n
  6. The great revelations of my adult life began with the shouts of a lost soul in my neighborhood breakfast joint. — A Dark Matter<\/em> \u2013 Peter Straub<\/li>\n
  7. Manfred\u2019s on the road again, making strangers rich. — Accelerando<\/em> \u2013 Charles Stross<\/li>\n
  8. Dammit, he was nearly out of gas. — Night of Demons<\/em> \u2013 Tony Richards<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. \u201cHere they come!\u201d — Fires of Freedom<\/em> \u2013 Jerry Pournelle<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I picked nine books at semi-random, meaning that I thought they would give a broad spectrum to look at, from authors relatively new like Stephen Graham Jones all the way to Grand Master Peter Straub. I should reiterate that I haven’t read any of these books yet. So let’s start there.<\/p>\n

    Based on the strength of these first sentences, which would I pick up and read first?<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The great revelations of my adult life began with the shouts of a lost soul in my neighborhood breakfast joint. — A Dark Matter<\/em> \u2013 Peter Straub. This one has scope, character, poignancy, and location, all in one sentence. Great revelations, lost souls, and breakfast joint build immediate intrigue.\u00a0 This one was a favorite with other readers as well.<\/li>\n
    2. I\u2019d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked in the bar. — Dead in Dixie<\/em> \u2013 Charlaine Harris. Sounds like a pulpy noir vampire novel coming, implying persistence and grit in the narrator.<\/li>\n
    3. \u201cHere they come!\u201d — Fires of Freedom<\/em> \u2013 Jerry Pournelle.\u00a0 Could be a battle coming! Whatever is happening, whoever ‘they’ are, it sounds dramatic. I’m in.<\/li>\n
    4. Dammit, he was nearly out of gas. — Night of Demons<\/em> \u2013 Tony Richards.\u00a0 An immediate problem that must be resolved.\u00a0 Tension from being out of gas.<\/li>\n
    5. The first thing I can remember in this life is my father driving his white ox, Endurance, to the sky burial platforms. — Green<\/em> \u2013 Jay Lake. Intriguing for its sky burial platforms and an ox named Endurance.<\/li>\n
    6. <\/em>Manfred\u2019s on the road again, making strangers rich. — Accelerando<\/em> \u2013 Charles Stross.\u00a0 My personal preference is always skeptical of present tense, but there is a certain tension or resentment in Manfred.<\/li>\n
    7. Call me Dodd.\u00a0 — It Came from Del Rio<\/em> \u2013 Steven Graham Jones. Short, sweet, punchy, but lacking much dramatic hook.<\/li>\n
    8. \u201cNo! I don\u2019t want the mangosteen.\u201d Anderson Lake leans forward, pointing. — The Windup Girl<\/em> \u2013 Paolo Bacigalupi. We have a character, and an unusual fruit (at least in the U.S.), but turning one down is not particularly dramatic. I hope more is coming.<\/li>\n
    9. Veldt to scrub fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from the earth. — Perdido Street Station<\/em> \u2013 China Mieville. A pretty description, and Mieville is known for his lush prose,\u00a0 but I don’t get much drama here.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Again, I haven’t read any of these yet.\u00a0 Some of them are authors I love; some of them are authors I want to try.\u00a0 Some of these books have been nominated or won major awards. Some of them friends recommended to me.<\/p>\n

      The thing to remember is that novels have a little more leeway.\u00a0 Readers don’t expect to be hooked until after a page or two. But every story has to start somewhere.<\/p>\n

      Tell me what you <\/em>think.<\/p>\n\n\n