Paul Volponi's Blog - Posts Tagged "opening-lines"
Famous First Impressions
Growing up, I would walk into the public library nearly every day (seemed like the library was open more back then). I'd take one book off the shelf, read the first page and then put it back.
My goal was to read one page of every book there. I became fascinated by how writers worked to instantly gain our attention from their first few words.
That passion probably had a lot to do with the conception of my new book published today Famous First Impressions: The Power of Perfect Opening Lines (Bloomsbury).
Somehow, I now have 24 published books.
What's Famous First Impressions about?
Aimed at teens (young adult) and preteens (middle grade), it takes the greatest opening lines from novels, plays, songs, raps, poems, films and speeches, and examines what makes them great.
Right in line with the short attention span of many young readers, the book explores themes such as crime and punishment, sports, dystopian landscapes, identity, science fiction, and the natural world.
The lyrical insights of Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift discussed alongside the poems of Maya Angelou? The introduction to Star Wars and Star Trek discussed alongside George Orwell? You Bet!
Famous First Impressions features individuals such as Toni Morrison, Adele, Edgar Allan Poe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pink, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, Anne Frank, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., introducing readers to new genres and writers while also providing fascinating insight into those they already love.
You can read the opening two chapters of Famous First Impressions at paulvolponibooks.com.
If you like it, ask your local public library to acquire it for their collection. That can be done either in-person or on-line.
Here's a short taste of what's inside:
Dark and Stormy
Okay. We’ll start with something completely non-threatening and fun. And who could fit that bill better than Charles M. Schulz’s bookish beagle named Snoopy, a beloved character from the comic strip Peanuts with some very distinctive ties to literature.
You see, Snoopy is a writer, with one of his many personalities being that of “World Famous Author.” His favorite place to write is sitting upon the roof of his doghouse, tapping away at the keys of a typewriter. (And yes, I do believe that Snoopy will one day move on to using a computer keyboard, perhaps even a wireless one.)
Snoopy’s go-to opening line as a writer is, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Kudos to Schulz for providing us with such a riveting opening, especially since it’s almost all we ever see of the cartoon canine’s stories. The line provides us with instant setting and tone. After all, it is “dark” and “stormy” outside, and our imaginations are certainly ready to fill in the blanks as to whatever might happen on such a “night.” Nothing too scary please. This is Peanuts with Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt, not the start of a teen horror flick.
From where did the line “It was a dark and stormy night” originate? Snoopy first typed it in 1965. But three years earlier, author Madeline L’Engle used it to begin her famed young adult fantasy book A Wrinkle in Time. Her narrator, a character named Mrs. Whatsit begins, “It was a dark and stormy night. In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind.”
Nearly a century and a half earlier, English author Edward Bulwar-Lytton wrote a novel entitled Paul Clifford (1830). The novel’s rather long and winding opening line? “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Over the succeeding decades, the opening, “It was a dark and stormy night,” despite its spot-on description of a time and place, became a phrase often criticized by reviewers, especially when many novice writers used it to begin their work. It was called an example of “Purple Prose,” meaning something overly ornate in its use of language, taking undue attention away from the story.
And by the way, our bookish beagle is also a fan of Russian author Leo Tolstoy, reading his masterpiece War and Peace at a rate of one word per day. Just so you know, it’s an exceedingly long book—587,287 words to be exact. At that pace, it would take Snoopy, who turns 75 in 2025, more than 1,600 years (human, not dog years) to finish. So don’t complain about the length of any reading assignment your teacher ever gives you.
My goal was to read one page of every book there. I became fascinated by how writers worked to instantly gain our attention from their first few words.
That passion probably had a lot to do with the conception of my new book published today Famous First Impressions: The Power of Perfect Opening Lines (Bloomsbury).
Somehow, I now have 24 published books.
What's Famous First Impressions about?
Aimed at teens (young adult) and preteens (middle grade), it takes the greatest opening lines from novels, plays, songs, raps, poems, films and speeches, and examines what makes them great.
Right in line with the short attention span of many young readers, the book explores themes such as crime and punishment, sports, dystopian landscapes, identity, science fiction, and the natural world.
The lyrical insights of Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift discussed alongside the poems of Maya Angelou? The introduction to Star Wars and Star Trek discussed alongside George Orwell? You Bet!
Famous First Impressions features individuals such as Toni Morrison, Adele, Edgar Allan Poe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pink, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, Anne Frank, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., introducing readers to new genres and writers while also providing fascinating insight into those they already love.
You can read the opening two chapters of Famous First Impressions at paulvolponibooks.com.
If you like it, ask your local public library to acquire it for their collection. That can be done either in-person or on-line.
Here's a short taste of what's inside:
Dark and Stormy
Okay. We’ll start with something completely non-threatening and fun. And who could fit that bill better than Charles M. Schulz’s bookish beagle named Snoopy, a beloved character from the comic strip Peanuts with some very distinctive ties to literature.
You see, Snoopy is a writer, with one of his many personalities being that of “World Famous Author.” His favorite place to write is sitting upon the roof of his doghouse, tapping away at the keys of a typewriter. (And yes, I do believe that Snoopy will one day move on to using a computer keyboard, perhaps even a wireless one.)
Snoopy’s go-to opening line as a writer is, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Kudos to Schulz for providing us with such a riveting opening, especially since it’s almost all we ever see of the cartoon canine’s stories. The line provides us with instant setting and tone. After all, it is “dark” and “stormy” outside, and our imaginations are certainly ready to fill in the blanks as to whatever might happen on such a “night.” Nothing too scary please. This is Peanuts with Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt, not the start of a teen horror flick.
From where did the line “It was a dark and stormy night” originate? Snoopy first typed it in 1965. But three years earlier, author Madeline L’Engle used it to begin her famed young adult fantasy book A Wrinkle in Time. Her narrator, a character named Mrs. Whatsit begins, “It was a dark and stormy night. In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind.”
Nearly a century and a half earlier, English author Edward Bulwar-Lytton wrote a novel entitled Paul Clifford (1830). The novel’s rather long and winding opening line? “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Over the succeeding decades, the opening, “It was a dark and stormy night,” despite its spot-on description of a time and place, became a phrase often criticized by reviewers, especially when many novice writers used it to begin their work. It was called an example of “Purple Prose,” meaning something overly ornate in its use of language, taking undue attention away from the story.
And by the way, our bookish beagle is also a fan of Russian author Leo Tolstoy, reading his masterpiece War and Peace at a rate of one word per day. Just so you know, it’s an exceedingly long book—587,287 words to be exact. At that pace, it would take Snoopy, who turns 75 in 2025, more than 1,600 years (human, not dog years) to finish. So don’t complain about the length of any reading assignment your teacher ever gives you.
