Hello, writers. A couple people have mentioned that they've begun turning their responses to previous editions of these challenges into stories. Hopefully tonight's challenge will lead to some stories. It always does when I try it.
In fact, you may want to consider, before you publish your response, whether it's something you want to keep to yourself for a while.
A story should begin in media res-- in the middle of the action. Introductions, backstory, and, God help us, prologues make it harder to engage the reader. My sister is fond of saying that a story should begin not when the main character is about to fall off the edge of a cliff but when s/he has already fallen and is clinging to the edge with her fingers.
Nineteenth century novelists could begin by describing scenery, or reciting the protagonist's pedigree. They lived in a different world. They weren't competing with tv, online games, and Youtube. You are.
According to Teh Guru, a first line also needs to convey confidence. This is a nebulous thing, hard to define, but it's the same quality you look for in a dentist and a mechanic. You wouldn't entrust your Prius to a guy who throws open the hood and says "Huh. What's this thingy here do?" So you want a voice that tells the reader that they are in the hands of a writer who knows how to tell a story.
Tall order.
I recently picked up a middle grades novel-- can't remember the title-- of which the first line was
Pay attention.
I liked that. It certainly conveyed confidence, and it suggested something important was about to happen.
It's minimalist, though. First lines can also be a bit longer, and even convey TMI:
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
(You'll note that what saves this one is the obvious subtext that what's about to happen will not be normal at all.)
I write down first lines a lot, and quite a few of them turn into stories. Often the story, once finished, no longer suits the first line which then needs to be replaced.
Two first lines I wrote that the stories no longer suited in the end:
- The tundra doesn't forgive.
- I've always been a liar.
But anyway. Tonight's challenge:
Write down five first lines for five different stories. You don't need to have any idea what the stories are going to be about. Just make sure the first lines put the reader in the story. Like the above examples, they don't actually have to tell very much. (If they convey confidence, so much the better.)
If you can only think of one first line, that's fine. Or if you want to post one at a time as you think of them, that's fine too.