by Stephanie Morrill
For your reading pleasure today, I have the winning entries from the Great First lines contest. There were so many amazing first lines. You all made life very difficult on our judges. Judge Laura L. Smith wanted me to pass this along to you guys:
I was incredibly impressed with these opening lines and had an extremely difficult time narrowing it down to just five winners. You are all creative and talented and understand the concept of grabbing your readers from the get go. All of your powerful openers have inspired me to go back and rework the opening lines of my own upcoming books. I did go through all of the sentences three times. The winners had one liners that resonated with me, had sentences I kept going back to. There were plenty of great sentences that may have resonated with someone else. To all of you - keep writing!Enjoy!
By Anna Schaeffer, 1st and Honorable Mention:
The day I moved into a Florida retirement community at the age of sixteen was the day I decided God most definitely has a sense of humor.
By Lily Jenness, 1st:
Awaiting your execution is nerve-wracking, no matter how many times you do it.
By Allison E., 2nd and 4th:
My father spent his time digging for artifacts - the buried treasure of ancient civilizations - and I spent my time digging for worms.
By Allison Young, 2nd:
People haven't always worn masks.
By Jane B., 3rd:
So there I was, standing in the courtyard at midnight, pointing a gun at my best friend.
By Sky W. 3rd and 4th
Nobody goes to Chipotle hoping to save the world
By Jane B. 5th
I secretly watched as my lies were passed around the library like candy.
By Ely Gyrate, 5th
The night the Tiller house erupted, Thane was supposed to be in his room, grounded
By Anna Schaeffer, Honorable Mention:
If God had given Moses an eleventh commandment, it would have been: Thou shalt not give Kristen Fincher a driver’s license.
By Deborah Rocheleau, Honorable Mention:
If it weren't for my mother's death, I wouldn't have been named after an Edgar Allan Poe poem.
By Kaitlyn Johson, Honorable Mention
People have wanted me dead even before I was born.
By Alexandra M, Honorable Mention
My aunt Lina never understood why I always freaked out when we went out to art museums.
All of these are AMAZING, and I'd definitely agree with the judges about Anna's first place line. I just cracked up and scratched my head at the same time...
ReplyDeleteThese are so incredible guys! And so sorry to the judges that we're all too good at first lines ;)
Oh, yes, and I forgot.
DeleteJust from the 500 word contest and this first lines contest...I know Anna Schaeffer's writing style, and I love it! ;)
This is torture - I must read more!!!! Oh my god these are just awesome guys! Jane B, why is he/she pointing a gun at his/her best friend? What did they DO?! :O
ReplyDeleteGreat first lines, wow!
ReplyDeleteWow! Those are all awesome! Way to go y'all! Those are some great openers to books I would love to read some day. :)
ReplyDeleteLily Jenness - "Awaiting your execution is nerve-wracking, no matter how many times you do it." I don't know. By the third or fourth time, I was pretty chill about the whole thing. ;) Haha. Great first line. Hope there's a story to go with it!
I loved this first line too!
DeleteYup. This one was brilliant too.
DeleteIt just screams intrigue, a cocky spy, and somehow gets across the message that there's an awesome and unusual romance in the story. Absolutely awesome.
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DeleteThanks guys! Sadly, there is no story for it yet. But there will be one day. It came to me randomly while I was working on something else :P
DeleteAllison - I like the sound of that! Mind if I use those idea when I get to writing the story?
I don't mind at all ... I can't wait to read it when it comes out. :D
DeleteA great and inspiring collection. Congratulations everyone!
ReplyDelete~Sarah Faulkner
www.inklinedwriters.blogspot.com
Thank you! This was such a fun contest. I LOVE all of the other entries, too! I really hope there are stories attached to them, because I want to know what happens!
ReplyDeleteAnna, I especially liked your line! It made me laugh so hard!! Great job, everyone!
DeleteGood thing mine didn't make it up here, then :P Mine didn't have any stories attached. I love coming up with first lines and then...never using them. :P
DeleteThank you, Marisa!
DeleteAmanda, I know what you mean. I've started so many stories over the years, but I always keep them just in case I get re-inspired.
Some of these are bizarre, but that is absolute brilliance! Nothing like a bizarre first sentence to make a guy yell "But where's the rest of it?!"
ReplyDeleteThese are awesome! Seriously, you guys are brilliant.
ReplyDeleteGreat job, everyone. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteTHESE LINES ARE AWESOME!! Please, please, PLEASE finish the story that goes with each line and send it to me! I MUST READ MORE!! XD
ReplyDeleteoh my goodness, these are fantastic! I especially loved Anna's. Great job, all you winners ;)
ReplyDeleteIn my next draft of my novel I'm really going to have to revamp that first sentence! Thank you for sharing these . . . I think my favorite was Lily Jeness's :) Genius!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThese are so good! You guys!!! Congrats. Wow wow. I'm very impressed and want to read more of all of these! Well done.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I want to read all of the books these start off!!:)
ReplyDeleteWow, Jane B. I just realized you are up there twice! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteOh, I adore Sky W's line! "Nobody goes to Chipotle hoping to save the world." Legendary. Fabulous Job, Sky. :)
ReplyDeleteWell done, everyone! These are brilliant!
ReplyDeleteOh, and thanks!
DeleteFrom Amo Libros:
ReplyDeleteOh. My word. THESE ARE SO GOOD!!! They are absolutely delicious, and I wish we could see the stories that go with them!!! Well done everyone!!
Congratulations to all the winners! These lines were all great.
ReplyDeleteAhhh! I want to read all these books! Why aren't they published yet?!?! :D
ReplyDeleteI know that this is really late but I just discovered GTW! *sigh* I guess homework can wait a little longer. My novel starts with the following:
ReplyDeleteIt seems odd that I have to pay for my own execution.