“Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”
What makes a great opening line?
11–20 of 202 posts
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#12What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#13Why can't I zoom in on mobile?
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#14I'm glad this essay mentioned the opening line of 1984. It's one of my favorites: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
I looked up some of the author's writings. She had an interesting opening line in one of her short stories, entitled "Endangered":[1]
"The artists were kept in cages."
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#15"The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."
I think Seveneves was one of Stephenson's weaker novels overall, but you can't deny it has a killer opening line.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#16On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#17What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
[deleted]
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#18What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
I don't know, I couldn't get through a chapter of Anna Karenina but it's still a great opening line.
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#19What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
I'm not sure that's true. Certainly there are a number of "classics," including some like A Tale of Two Cities that are probably not the author's best work, which most people would probably find boring with memorable openings.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#20[wakes up] [clown vanishes]