It’s Romance Weekly time!
Welcome to all those joining me from the awesome Dani Jace’s blog, author of White Doe.
This week’s question came from Sarah Hegger and was about opening lines:
A great opening line draws the reader in, makes them want to know more and compels them to read further. Share a great opening line, can be a classic or a more recent novel, tell us why you like it and then share the opening line to your newest WIP.
I was going to go the classic Pride and Prejudice route, because, well, it’s a classic and it’s one that pretty much everyone will have heard.
But, when I thought about it, there was another one that struck me.
It’s actually from a book I haven’t finished reading, and started years ago.
‘Burn this book.’
A striking line, right? 😀 It’s an opening that really caught me because of it’s sharpness, and has made me remember it for years, even if I never finished the book (which I will at some point!).
It’s from Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker.
As for the opening line of my newest WIP, well, as I stated last week, I have restarted it. So, this is very, very much a work in progress!
“Tut tut, Dr Murphy, nobody likes a coward.”
This won’t be the final version, but it’s something written so as the first page isn’t a stark blank page! 😀
So, there you have it!
Now hop along to Fiona Riplee’s blog and see what opening line catches her attention!
Is there an opening line you remember? What’s your WIP’s current opening line?
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Progress Report:
Status of sixth manuscript: Planning.
Word count: Eh heh…
Books read towards goal: 1/50
Currently reading: The Creative Writing Workbook by Matthew Branton.
A Writer's Life For Me. 
I’m excited to learn more about your WIP 🙂 I hope it’s going well
It certainly is going well now, can’t wait to get out of the planning stage and onto the proper writing 😀
Great opening line Mishka! 🙂
Thank you so much! 😀
‘Burn this book’ now that’s a whammy of an opening line! My mind is conjuring all kinds of images for that one – I like Clive Barker, but I haven’t read it. Something tells me it will be appearing on my list 😉 I’m glad progress is going well on the WIP – I love the sarcasm in the opener…it speaks of an intriguing character.
It certainly was a hell of an opening line, and I am determined to finish the book this year, so it’s going on my TBR list too 🙂
Thank you so much for the compliment! I’m glad the sarcasm came across well 😀
Love your opening line already. I’m intrigued! I haven’t heard of Mister B. Gone but “Burn this book” is definitely a great line to reel you in.
I’m glad you like the opening line, haven’t really got much past that, can’t wait to get out of the planning stage and start writing on this book properly 😀
That is a whopper of a first line – both yours and the one from Mister B. Gone. Good luck with your new WIP and can’t wait to see what your final first line is. 😉
Thank you for the encouragement, really excited about getting started on the real writing for this story now 😀
burn this book – bam! I’m there. I thought yours was great, too. It makes me ask why and who and that’s all you need
I think first lines are pretty difficult, especially because writers always want to catch a reader’s attention with a few words! 😀
They’re both very striking lines. Grab the attention in a hurry.
That’s the point of a first line, right? 😀 Just sometimes it’s hard to actually pull it off!
I’m intrigued…who is the coward? The Dr? or the speaker? or someone they’re talking about?
I’m glad it was intriguing! I wasn’t going to have this as my first line, but after the comments I’m tempted to work around it 😀
HHAHAHAHAA I love anyone who writes or says “tut tut”.
It’s such an awesome expression, and tells a lot about the character saying it I think 😀
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
I love the fun implied in your first line, Mishka. 😀
It’s always good to create an opening with impact, so I’m hoping the first line will do that! 😀
I’ve been meaning to read Clive Barker. Love that line! And yours was awesome too. I want to know more, so get to writing. 😉
This makes me want to read more. 🙂
Mishka, Read your previous post about rewriting the WIP and my heart broke for the 50K words. So much time. It’s great you knew to step back and identified the area that needed to be addressed. That can be a challenge: determining what part of the whole needs to be reworked. I wish you lots of luck with the rewrite and Love your first line! Have a great one.