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/lit/ - Literature

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1504861 No.1504861 [Reply] [Original]

ITT The first line of our novels/short stories/poems.

I'll start:
>The dog had been dead for many days when Harry found it stuffed in the fridge.

Pic unrelated.

>> No.1504870

I don't wanna share it. It'll get stolen.

>> No.1504873

>>1504870
>implying your work is good enough to steal

>> No.1504882

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

I know it's been done before, but it fits so well with my story!

>> No.1504889

>None of the orphans knew how far they were from any kind of civilization, but one decided to find out.

>> No.1504895

Old Tom had died several times that day; he'd have to buy a new shirt again too. Fridays were always the predictable mess.

>> No.1504896

I love these. I probably have ten or twelve word documents of nothing but a few sentences I thought sounded good at the beginning of a story. Something I actually finished recently though:
>“They don’t have many androids in America, do they?"

>> No.1504900

Melvin Webber could feel a small knot on his back as he got out of bed that morning.

>> No.1504906

You know times are desperate when you see yourself fucking a dead chicken.

No joke, and it's a good story too.

>> No.1504909

My face hit the wall with a meaty, viseral thud.

Title is 'I Married A Kickboxer'.

>> No.1504917

The camera was mounted in the smoky darkness behind the two chatters.

>> No.1504942

>Banner slumped in the chair as it occurred to him that torture was not the way he wanted to start his day.

>> No.1505074

The roar of jet engines faded as I ducked into the cab and closed tugged the door shut.

>> No.1505083

My semen smells like the laundry today.

>> No.1505096

Any opening line containing "as (noun or pronoun) (verb)" is shit tier

>>1505074
>>1504942
>>1504900

Consequently, these is my favorite:
>>1504896

>> No.1505099

>>1505096
>these is

derp, should be this is

>> No.1505274

I love first lines, and I particularly like those that make me wonder for half a second what the fuck it means or what is about to happen and to whom.

>>1504861
>>1504889
>>1504896
>>1504906
>>1504942
Favorites ITT.

>> No.1505302

feelsbatman.jpg

>> No.1505307

No surprise you're almost all terrible writers.

>> No.1505330

Jesus christ this room is full of black people.

>> No.1505553
File: 40 KB, 450x450, too cool.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1505553

>>1505307

>> No.1505562

I don't like priests and tango.

>> No.1505563

>>1505553
Is that the Velvet Underground?

>> No.1505565

Wading through a warming sea

>> No.1505568

Bruises; fresh and beautiful in their own way.
Poem.
I can haz cool. :3

>> No.1505575

>>1505563

=_=
...
=_O
...
O_=
...could be?

Just the most-appropriate-looking thing that popped up when I googled 'too cool for school'.

...captcha is in japanese. What the fuck.

>> No.1505576

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

>> No.1505584

"I cannot claim to be without bias."

IT GETS BETTER I PROMISE

...fuck that, who am I kidding, no it doesn't...

>> No.1505587

>>1505563

I think I see Lou and Nico. Seems like it.

>> No.1505600

>“They don’t have many androids in America, do they?"

Now that's good, in a "He awoke - and wanted Mars." or a "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." sort of way. Better have a story to back that up.

>> No.1505595

>>1505587
It is.

>> No.1505601

My first thought was, he lied in every word.

>> No.1505605

>opening lines that are dialogue
There's a reason professional authors don't do this

>> No.1505606

Midway through the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood to find that the straight way had been lost.

>> No.1505611

>>opening lines that are dialogue
>There's a reason professional authors don't do this

Eh bien, mon prince,...

>> No.1505615

The moment struck with the force of a semi-truck barreling down a hill and in that instant I realized, man, I really am, too sexy for my shirt.

>> No.1505616

>>1505605
Excluding, I assume, works written in the first person and the entire genre of theater?

>> No.1505626

The last thing I wrote began with
>I used to live in France.

>> No.1505628

>>1505616
>genre of theater

Please cease breathing.

>> No.1505637

>The orange thing fell through the night.

>> No.1505638

>>1505628
The term is more general than you think. You've been ruined by shitty genre fiction threads and shittier scifi/fantasy troll threads.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genre

>> No.1505640

from the last thing i started writing.

"There was a surprisingly large amount of liquid in the thing. "

>> No.1505649

FADE IN
EXT FAST FOOD RESTAURANT DAY

>> No.1505653

Dreams whisper
the woe induced truth
of separated lovers
divided by elongated space
and drawn time.

Thoughts?

>> No.1505669

>Damn.

>> No.1505697

>>1504896

This is a good one (at least for sci-fi) because it establishes a lot about the world off the bat. Many people mistakenly try to load a first sentence with things which are just 'weird' but that don't really give you much information about what kind of world the story takes place in. Good job.

A few years ago I read Orson Scott Card's book on SF/F writing and he dissects the first paragraph of...I think it was an Octavia Butler novel...that in one paragraph basically takes you from not knowing anything to laying out the initial conflict, getting you emotionally engaged, and setting up many of the rules of the world, including the protagonist's unique exception to those rules. It's really amazing when you see someone do that really well, because it's not at all intuitive, even to people who can write good sentences and have a strong imagination.

>> No.1505699

"Fuck!" said the Bishop.

>> No.1505736

I shiver a great gasping naked dope-sick-type morning shiver but I do not spit.

>> No.1505745

An unseen beast has spit slick black sludge onto the unclean street where it now sits glistening like a greasy California smile.

>> No.1505746

Real scruffy face, beard sorta curls around his chin, background noise, train going by, cheap fucking glasses, misty out this morning, lights hang over the asphalt, glowing heads on pikes, bugle blast from train, maybe two-thirds past, rust-tinted railcars, scrawled with std. graffiti, dirty denim, dirty jacket, dirty t-shirt, really old shoes, train’s gone now.

>> No.1505749

>>1505746
Is everyone on the board a bad fucking writer? Jesus.

>> No.1505759

>>1505749

I think that was supposed to be the description of a scene for a movie?

>> No.1505761

Mostly, and we are always seeking confirmation of the opposite from our peers. Thus this thread.

but really though, tell me what you think of
>>1505653

>> No.1505784

The regulator didn't believe in supersition, and only in those few legends which he knew to have some measure of truth, but he knew that there were things that could not be explained.

>> No.1505805

>>1505784
>two conjugations in one sentence
Is that legal?

>> No.1505807

>>1505759
sort of. like bits of scenery.
i was trying to strip down my prose, ornate sentences were starting to make me feel self-indulgent.
but according to the internet i am a bad fucking writer Jesus, so...

>> No.1505809
File: 31 KB, 560x374, random-and-crazy03.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1505809

>>1505096
>Any opening line containing "as (noun or pronoun) (verb)" is shit tier

does this include first person, present tense?

>> No.1505813

>>1505805
No, the grammar there is kind of fucked, even self-contradictory.
perhaps it could have been:
>The regulator didn't believe in supersition, only in what little lore he knew to have some measure of truth, but he knew that there were things that could not be explained.
Just a suggestion

>> No.1505822

>All I wanted was to leave the city.