Zeke, short for Ezekiel, is a search and Rescue dog, trained to sniff out human remains. Bones, blood, other biological fluids, and body parts. He's a recurring character in my mysteries.
I'm also a big proponent of first lines having a strong voice. I'm not terribly interested in first lines that describe a mundane action or object in a room unless there's some strong thematic importance to what's being described. Too many writers treat the opening paragraph like the beginning of a screenplay, starting with a "shot" of something visual.
The film, Goodfellas, opens with three tired guys driving in a car, so should I start my mob novel with something similar -- an image of guys in the middle of doing something? No, because novels aren't a visual medium -- I should start it with Ray Liotta's voiceover. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster" -- now THAT'S a hook!
I have a collection of first lines. Sometimes they sit for a while, waiting for a story. A recent one for Guilty Magazine, the Ability to Swing, starts with "Innocence doesn’t do it for me." Took a while to find what I could do with that. Right now, I have this one" "Thirty years ago, I fell in love. I'm still falling." The story is taking shape ... still very unformed. And then there's this one from my current WIP..."Declan Shaw wished all New Year’s Eve parties had good music, good friends, champagne and margaritas, a long kiss at midnight, and a girl riding the elevator up with you when the finger food ran out."
We’ll see where the ‘falling’ line will take me. I have an idea but it needs some percolating. The Declan is 1/3 done, 2/3 need rewriting. Gotta raise these damn stakes!
Here's the first line of my mystery novel, The Book of Answers.
"Zeke the cadaver dog raised his big head as if he'd just thought of a question."
I love that! The name (Zeke!), why is he a cadaver, and the inherent humour suggests the narrator has a good sense of humour. A great promise.
Zeke, short for Ezekiel, is a search and Rescue dog, trained to sniff out human remains. Bones, blood, other biological fluids, and body parts. He's a recurring character in my mysteries.
Great blog! The first line of my first book is more than 100 words long. I think the message is that I write a lot of words!
Hahaha - you do you, Douglas!!
(Thanks for the kind words)
I'm also a big proponent of first lines having a strong voice. I'm not terribly interested in first lines that describe a mundane action or object in a room unless there's some strong thematic importance to what's being described. Too many writers treat the opening paragraph like the beginning of a screenplay, starting with a "shot" of something visual.
The film, Goodfellas, opens with three tired guys driving in a car, so should I start my mob novel with something similar -- an image of guys in the middle of doing something? No, because novels aren't a visual medium -- I should start it with Ray Liotta's voiceover. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster" -- now THAT'S a hook!
Yes, I've seen a lot of this - never thought of it as screenplay-like, but that totally nails it.
The opening hook says so much here. It won't always work, but like you said here (and before), it's about voice.
Like this opening from Richard Ford's Canada:
First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.
Word sailors... we always want more. Please promise more. ♥️
Wow, I love that term "word sailors" - did you make that up?
I hear word Explorer a lot so I thought of sailing and how we sail through the words of books 📚 guess I did. 😆
"I was about to skin a cat and then I saw Craig Terlson had a substack posted."
Put
The
Cat
Down…
I have a collection of first lines. Sometimes they sit for a while, waiting for a story. A recent one for Guilty Magazine, the Ability to Swing, starts with "Innocence doesn’t do it for me." Took a while to find what I could do with that. Right now, I have this one" "Thirty years ago, I fell in love. I'm still falling." The story is taking shape ... still very unformed. And then there's this one from my current WIP..."Declan Shaw wished all New Year’s Eve parties had good music, good friends, champagne and margaritas, a long kiss at midnight, and a girl riding the elevator up with you when the finger food ran out."
Wow. These are so good. I especially like the fell in love and still falling.
That Declan line, too. Like a Crumley line in Last Good Kiss, it says so much about the character while immersing it in a vibe. Such good stuff.
We’ll see where the ‘falling’ line will take me. I have an idea but it needs some percolating. The Declan is 1/3 done, 2/3 need rewriting. Gotta raise these damn stakes!
Oh those stakes. Always working hard to raise them :)