Register | Log in | FAQ | Search | Memberlist | Usergroups
Profile | Log in to check your private messages | Blogs |

ARWZ Forum Index
    > Alternative Reality Caf�


 
Post new topicReply to topic
View previous topic :: View next topic
Author Message
Pyter Voeros
New Member


Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 2

PostOverture and Beginners Please

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:06 pm
Reply with quote

When people try to teach you how to write the The Next Best-Seller, they always say that you must grab the audience's attention right from the start. So, what are your favourite opening lines? No, I don't mean lines from your own works (put that ego away!), I mean, what opening lines have grabbed your attention and made you want to keep reading?

A couple of my own favourites to start things rolling:

Quote:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.


A classic opening to a classic book, George Orwell's 1984. A straight-forward, seemingly mundane sentence, until you hit that jarring last word.

At the risk of seeming pretentious (and I'll admit that I can't read the original Italian), the opening sentence of Dante's Divine Comedy -- an alternative reality story if ever there was one -- is another favourite of mine:

Quote:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ch� la diritta via era smarrita.


There are (of course) a multitude of translations, but Robert Pinsky's is
suitable evocative:

Quote:
Midway on our life's journey, I found myself
In dark woods, the right road lost.


A nicely sinister opening, which gets even more sinister until Dante finally
stumbles across his guide, the poet Virgil.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
ecgordon
Regular Member


Joined: 28 Mar 2006
Posts: 291
Location: Waco, Texas

Post

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:30 pm
Reply with quote

I think one of the more intriguing opening lines I've ever read is from John Varley's Steel Beach:
Quote:
"In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Shadow_Ferret
Active Member


Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 318
Location: Milwaukee, WI

Post

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:42 pm
Reply with quote

I don't think I"ve ever been "grabbed" by an opening line.

It takes a good few paragraphs to "grab" me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Violanthe
Webmaster


Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 5903

Post

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 4:45 pm
Reply with quote

I agree. Opening lines don't tend to work well for me. I usually need an opening scene or chapter to get hooked.
_________________
Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected]
ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Blog
Jay Tomio
Member


Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 27

Post

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:06 am
Reply with quote

Quote:
�Put a truce to any thoughts of departure. I am she who glides through the sky when the snow is falling fast, the lady of frost and darkness. I am a ghost, which is not to say I ever lived. I am a memory, which is not to say I ever died. I begin at the moment the ice on the river begins to crack like bones of glass. I am a silence written on pulp mash paper, in ink drawn from village wells�


That's from Catherynne M. Valente's stunning Yume No Hon
_________________
The Bodhisattva

Fantasybookspot.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Violanthe
Webmaster


Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 5903

Post

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:01 am
Reply with quote

Jay, in your experience, do you find that a great opener typically bodes of an especially good story, or is it hit and miss?
_________________
Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected]
ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Blog
Jay Tomio
Member


Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 27

Post

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:46 pm
Reply with quote

I honestly never pay much attention unless it ossomething oddly similar or/and exact quote fro manother book or some other form of media.

I pulled the Valente quote,because I think she is one of the great prose writers IMHO, and is capablle of writing some of the moss beautiful lines I have read in the last couple of years.

That is I never really paid attention untilI started accepting submissions for the Ezine which shows a great variety of tendencies. Some submissions are rather ordinary frmo beginning to end, while you can tell many more put so much thought in their opening and closing lines and have nothing in between them.

While I read all submissions completely, it has become much easier to tell what stories I will like from the first paragraph. This probably doesn't apply to novels.
_________________
The Bodhisattva

Fantasybookspot.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Violanthe
Webmaster


Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 5903

Post

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:37 am
Reply with quote

I agree that it's much easier to tell from the first paragraph of a short story submission whether I'll like it (which isn't often), than a novel. But I suppose, that's probably due to the fact that most short story submissions I read are unsolicited and from previously unpublished writers. Whereas most novels I read are at least professionally published, having been through the eyes of many editors already.

How about professionally published short stories? Can you tell from the openers whether you'll like them? That is, can you tell if you'll like a published short story from the opener any easier than a published novel?
_________________
Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected]
ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Blog
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic All times are GMT - 4 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You can vote in polls in this forum





Alternative Reality Web Zine: ISSN# 1559-3037


All materials on these pages (including fiction, poetry, essays, articles, interviews and opinion pieces) are copyrighted to the original authors and may not be reproduced without permission.




View Page Stats
ARWZ topic RSS feed 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group