One Liners

Progress on Silver Heat, the next in the Silver series, is coming along well. The outline looks good, several plot points have intricately woven themselves together for a happy narrative, and key scenes have been fleshed out. But, my happiest victory of late is the fact that I've constructed the all-important first sentence. I don't jump into a fist sentence haphazardly. I usually wait until I'm better acquainted with the story. I prefer to know exactly how the opening scene is going to unfold before I wring my hands over that first phrase.

The thing I love about constructing the first few paragraphs of chapter one is that it's accompanied by that optimistic enthusiasm that I will actually keep these sentences, that I won't find myself toiling over them and rewriting them dozens of times. It's refreshing, like a great first date when you can think the person is nearly flawless.

While I don't tend to judge a book by its first line or even its first chapter, here are some recent favorites:

"The man billed as Prospero the Enchanter receives a fair amount of correspondence via the theater office, but this is the first envelope addressed to him that contains a suicide note, and it's also the first to arrive carefully pinned to the coat of a five-year-old girl."

- Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

-Stephen King

The Gunslinger

"You bitch, you killed me. You suck!"

-Christopher Moore

You Suck: A Love Story

I'd love it if you'd share your favorite first lines with me.