Famous First Lines

In today's world of information overload and the high level of competition in absolutely any field, your work has to stand out. If you are a new and as yet unpublished author or even a self-published author, you have to overcome enormous scepticism regarding your ability to write. I hear a number of published authors saying that this persists even after you've been published!

 So, how do you do this? How do you differentiate yourself from thousands of manuscripts that may be a writer just testing the water, or someone from the 'I have at least one book in me' legion?

Some of the ways to do this are:

• Start in the middle of the action. Readers will be gripped from the get go because it's all happening at once within those first few lines. Context, character and location can follow because now you have them hooked.
• Tell us something weird or strange about the character. Intrigue us into wanting to know more about him/her and why they are the way they are.
• Shock us. This always works well.
• Show us your unique voice.

Here are some famous first liners...

1. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife". - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

2. "Call me Ishmael". - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)  

3." It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair". - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

4. "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board". - Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

5. "You better not never tell nobody but God". - Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)

6. "Mr and Mrs Dursely, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say they were very normal, thank you very much".  - J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (1997).

7. "Violent death fascinates people." - Ruth Rendall, The Bridesmaid (2004)

There are authors who make this work over the course of a page or two, but make no mistake if your readers aren’t gripped for whatever reason, they won't stay with your book.

Have you come across any first lines in books you've read that really stand out to you?

I'd love to know. 

Gabi

Available on: Amazon.co.uk; Amazon.com; Smashwords