First Sentences

zeprosnepsid · Dec 4, 2005

I remember when I did Nanowrimo a few years back someone started a thread like this and I always thought it was fun.

So, tell us, tease us -- what's the first sentence of your WIP?

SusanR · Dec 4, 2005

From BONE SEASON

"Shelly Kahn, Chief Medical Examiner for Albany County, New York, knelt at the bottom of a three-foot utility trench, feeling the press of living eyes behind her, and the empty-eyed stare of the human skull in front."

SusanR

Sage · Dec 4, 2005

From Jian's story:

Kyoko ran ahead of Amarynthia to check the bright purple flowers out.

From Euterpe (or Euniq):

"That was stupid!" Euterpe scolded herself as she plummeted towards the ground.

Perks · Dec 4, 2005

There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard.

DamaNegra · Dec 4, 2005

Checking around to see that no one was looking, the mother left the bundle carrying her newborn on the middle of a street.

zeprosnepsid · Dec 4, 2005

I suppose I should also post mine!

"She was the kind of girl who could not write anything without getting ink all over herself."

tiny · Dec 4, 2005

I was nearly twenty when I stood in the line of dead stretching from the hazy valley to the mountain pass above.

underthecity · Dec 4, 2005

Not a WIP. My new book comes out December 12.

Here's the first line:

Clang Clang! Fifth and Vine, Fountain Square, use the center door, please.

allen

maestrowork · Dec 4, 2005

My new book comes out in February:

Betrayal makes us do strange things.

KTC · Dec 5, 2005

The summer of '83 began with Jeff Barsell burning the Henderson barn to the ground.

KimJo · Dec 5, 2005

Mine isn't all that fascinating but I'm in a posting mood today:

When I woke up, I was already smiling.

Garpy · Dec 5, 2005

At a distance it had looked like a tangled ball of fishing net and seaweed. (A Thousand Suns, due out May)

Dhewco · Dec 5, 2005

Here's mine, from an alternative history novel about King Edward V (one of the princes in the tower):

Edward winced, the smell of the gun powder assaulting the fourteen-year-old King’s senses.

Ardellis · Dec 5, 2005

I have 2 WIPs going at the moment:

1) She was, in a word, amazing.

2) Something was amiss.

fallenangelwriter · Dec 5, 2005

"I don't share my thoguhts easily, or often."

cwilliard · Dec 5, 2005

Not my WIP but from the novel I'm trying to get published:

“You f****d up Joe. I’m sorry.” As Benny Selmano looked down at his friend lying dead on the floor, he was filled with a mixture of relief and regret.

James D. Macdonald · Dec 5, 2005

As Benny Selmano looked down at his friend lying dead on the floor, he was filled with a mixture of relief and regret.

Cut that sentence. It's an awsome example of telling-not-showing.

cwilliard · Dec 5, 2005

Done. It's cut.

NeuroFizz · Dec 5, 2005

From my newest. Sorry, but here are the first three. The first one, by itself, wouldn't be worth putting in here.

My name is Agnes Hahn. I’m a serial killer, emasculator of men. And I’m not.

zornhau · Dec 5, 2005

cwilliard said:
Done. It's cut.

Great. So now what's your first sentence?

I can't tell you what my first sentence is, because I intend to write it last!

goatpiper · Dec 5, 2005

Seth Reck hadn't picked the best time of night to kill himself.

Kasey Mackenzie · Dec 5, 2005

Current WIP (urban fantasy), Reborn in Fire.:

"I died for the first time that night."

cwilliard · Dec 5, 2005

zornhau said:
Great. So now what's your first sentence?

I can't tell you what my first sentence is, because I intend to write it last!

Its now just the dialog; "You f****d up Joe. I'm sorry."

scarletpeaches · Dec 5, 2005

I'm concentrating more on poetry at the moment. The last one I wrote was called "He Looks Like A Psychotic Librarian" and the first line was "His small eyes, behind coke bottle glasses."

FolkloreFanatic · Dec 5, 2005

From Neverwhere:

Everything about their final victim that night was wrong.

From Bad Apples:

There is no defining picture of what transpired during the maelstrom that marked the final days of Terry Blackburn’s existence.

From The Court of Miracles:

He is still beside her when she wakes.

From Stars Over Camelot:

They called it the Lightning Tree.

First Sentences

Our Lady of Parentheticals

delicate #!&@*#! flower

Mexican on the loose!

riding the sun

Finestkind

Fear the Death Ray

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Outside the box, with the werewolves

keyboard monkey

tortures make-believe people

Your Genial Uncle

The grad students did it

Swordsman

Distraction Junkie

One Hit Wonder?

The Arthurian Addict.