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What makes a great opening line?
151–160 of 202 posts
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#152In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His story will be told here.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#153"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo."
I must admit, that opening line did very little for me. Neither did the rest of the book.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#154Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
It's pretty embarrassing in retrospect, but I got "Lo. Lee. Ta." tattooed on me at 18 because I love the opening page of this book so much. It's perfect.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#155Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
This is poetic and all, but I fail to see why it’s so great. I’m am curious.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#156"In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#157What 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.
"It was a dark and stormy night."
A perfect opening line. Followed by a long paragraph beating the same topic to death. And who remembers the rest-of-the-story.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#158"Throw Momma from the train" Billy crystal spends the whole movie trying to come up with an opening line for his book.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#159"There were rats in the souffle again."
Again.
Short story in Analog SF&F, but some searching suggests that it was a meme for writers for a while.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#160"I own the house I currently live in because of a script I wrote."
Yesterday here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30617628