"First" of all...

Trying to find that elusive outstanding first line, I went in search of others.


There are the classics:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell, 1984

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...
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy - Inferno


There are the ones that slam you into the setting:

The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had ended.
Arthur C Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey


The well-written mood setter:

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
William Gibson, Neuromancer

We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall.
Louise Erdrich, Tracks


And the just plain clever:

It was the day my grandmother exploded.
Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road

Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shunyu.
Ha Jin, Waiting

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Stubb, and he almost deserved it.
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Zach Freeman woke out of a deep sleep to see his bum perched on the ledge of his bedroom window.
Andy Griffiths, The Day My Bum Went Psycho


And my personal favourite:

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

So, what makes it memorable? In my opinion, for a first line to be memorable it needs to throw the reader into the setting, tell them something in a way they've never read before, or make them laugh.

The first line is a promise that you're going to take the reader places they've never been before.

How about you? What's your favourite first line of a novel? What do you think it takes to make a great first line?

Thanks for reading.

Kym

The Anagnoretic Moment

I was recently fortunate to attend a 3 Day Feature Script Development Workshop presented by internationally recognised consultants Simon van der Borgh and Jonathon Rawlinson. They were very giving with advice and individual encouragement.

I learned every movie should have an anagnoretic moment – a moment that moves the audience and creates total empathy with the main character and we connect.

Eg. In the movie The Others it is the moment towards the end of the movie on the stairs, when Nicole Kidman hugs her children and is reunited emotionally with her daughter before they face the unknown together.

It got me thinking. If movies have it, why can’t books? Why can’t we, as romance writers embrace the anagnoretic moment and make sure every manuscript we write has one? Sure, you can have several moments that lead up to it, but the anagnoretic moment should be very clear.

I’m now aiming to have this moment in everything I write. I believe it will strengthen my stories and add a dimension that may have been lacking.

I encourage you to ask yourself the same question with your work once you have finished it – What’s your anagnoretic moment? If you can’t figure out which one it is, it isn’t strong enough. Make it one to remember.




Donna

The 'Scary Kisses' Book Launch

Last Friday night was the launch of the Scary Kisses paranormal romance anthology. It was also my first book launch, reading and book signing—a lot of firsts for one night, but very exciting.

Did I bring a pen? No. In my defense I couldn't have fitted one in my little handbag.

Fortunately the editor Liz Grzyb had brought pens for all of the four authors attending (Annette Backshall, Ian Nichols and DC White were also there for the launch).

The WINKgirls, my sister and author JD Cregan also came along. As I sat on the other side of the table it was great to see friendly faces in the crowd. And there was a crowd, it was standing room only and I’m sure they didn’t just come for the free champagne and red kiss cupcakes (which I hear were very good).

So what did I learn?
Bring a pen.
Bring friends, a friendly face in the audience is like gold.
Practice reading.
Smile.

And because this launch was so much fun, I’m having an online launch party at Bitten By Books for Boyfriend in a Bottle on June 9 2010.
Hope to see you all there!

Scary Kisses is available at Indie Books Online.

INFINITE CREATIVITY?

I had an epiphany about the wip the other day. It was while I was drafting a pattern to make something for D2. All of a sudden something that I had been struggling with, something that had been blocking me, became clear. It was almost like one of those moments when you're doing a left brain activity and it frees up your right brain to tell you the solution to some problem , except I was doing a right brain activity.

It got me thinking about my creative process. I already know that I can't work without feeding the muse. I feed him (yes, him) art and music and all the usual things that a muse needs.

In the past I have noticed that the most creative periods in my writing and hobbies occur together. There is a school of thought that suggests we can't 'use up' our creativity in other activities if we want enough left over for writing (or painting, or whatever your non hobby art is).

I think that for me it might almost be the opposite. The more creative activities I'm doing the more I seem to be able to do. It's almost like they help feed the muse.

Norman Lindsay seems to be an example, he painted, he sculpted, he wrote, he made models, I wonder if there was anything the man couldn't do? Then again Elton John doesn't even (usually) write lyrics.

I'm guessing this another one of those things that is different for everyone. Obviously my brain does better when I do more things. Given the fact that there is a school of thought out there telling people not to use up their creativity on pursuits other than their main one there must be people out there who find that their creativity doesn't feed off itself, but instead gets used up and needs time to replenish.

I'm intrigued. How many are there of each? Who's in between?

What works for you?