Famous First Lines

    

When I was in college, I collected the first lines of books. I had a journal to hold my collection and, whenever I came across a particularly good first line, I wrote it down. My two favorites were the openings lines of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book, Love in the Time of Cholera:

“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier:

“Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

    I had these lines memorized and would trot them out during late night literary discussions with my fellow literature major friends. I cringe when I think of my younger self doing that, but you know she was on to something because now that I’m trying my hand at writing, I’m realizing that opening lines are my superpower. At least I know how to start story.

    Recently, I read an article about Shirley Jackson’s opening paragraph to We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and instead of just scribbling it into a journal as part of my collection, I used it to make my short story, The Canoe Trip, better.

    I’ve been struggling with The Canoe Trip for a while. I wrote the first draft a few months ago and then lost interest. I just couldn’t get the storytelling right. But then along came Shirley Jackson and her brilliant first line and I decided I would try to reinvigorate my short story by rewriting the first paragraph.

Here’s Jackson’s opening paragraph, in which she grabs us at once:

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.”

And here’s my new opening paragraph for The Canoe Trip:

“Cat and Gwen are six and three years old, respectively. They like Barbies, playing with dolls, macaroni & cheese, and each other. They do not like being cold, liver & onions, too-tight ponytails, or Stacy Smithson-the daughter of their parent’s friends. This is unfortunate because right now they are standing, shivering in the cool mist outside the ranger station, with ponytails pulled so tight they already have headaches, as Stacy stands across the dock glaring at them.”

    Previously, the story was told in first person, but I changed the point of view to third person in the sections about the children’s viewpoint. Here’s the original opening paragraph, told in first person of the mother in the story:

“It had been a cool and wet week a typical northern Ohio spring and today was no different. The girls’ ponytails high in their heads and clasped with colorful plastic balls with air bubbles floating in the orbs,  were damp to the point of dripping. I regretted not bringing hats for them. Their slight bodies shivered in their thin red windbreakers as they skeptically watched Ted pay for the canoe rentals.”

    See how a first line can change everything? How important it is to read, voraciously, if you want to write a book? By studying Shirley Jackson’s work, I was inspired to rewrite my first line which then changed the point of view I was using, which led to changing the entire structure of the story.

    So that’s all great and good, but guess what? I can’t write a decent ending if my life depended on it! Time to start collecting last lines of books!

Your Turn

Tell me one of your favorite first lines of a book.

Learn More

Read or Watch We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Watch Shirley, a movie about Shirley Jackson’s life.