Opening lines

[galaxygoddess]

What is it with opening lines and they being the absolute hardest part of the whole damned thing?

I have dozen of great stories stuck in my head and I can't get them out cause I can't think of a good opening.

I've tried the whole "wrate the parts you know and then clean it up, but my brain still wants a good line to start with. It's like once I get past this inital sentance or paragraph it just floooows.... but UGH the start just kills me


Also, it's been a week now and my submissions haven't gone through and I don't want to submit anything else til the first ones go through *yanks hair*


So whats a good opening line about a guy walking into his apartment?

heh *eyeroll

 

[Guest]

Skip the opening lines and write the rest of the story. Don't let this prevent you from getting your other words down.

I'm not one to talk since my submissions have been few and far between (especially lately) but I do know when I'm stuck on a section I go around it. And then I come back to it later.

And good luck on your first submissions.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I jump right into things.

"Stan sighed as he unlocked the door to his apartment. The work week was finally over, his vacation was beginning, and all that he had to do for the next nine days was sit around the livingroom and relax."

Depending on what the story is about, I could write that a dozen different ways.

"Stan heard noises coming from the back of his apartment as he opened the front door."

"Stan dropped the to floor, barely dodging the pot that his wife tossed at his face in a fit of rage."

"Stan tripped over the cat as he tried to walk in the door of his apartment."

"Stan fired five rounds from his 9mm Glock before charging through the back door of his apartment."

Not a dozen lines, but you get the picture. Just write out what you want to happen. If you don't like it, try writing it again differently. Keep trying until you have a line that you like.

 

[galaxygoddess]

I jump right into things.

"Stan dropped the to floor, barely dodging the pot that his wife tossed at his face in a fit of rage."

I laughed so loud I just got weird looks over that one XD


Those helped a lot though thanks

 

[TheeGoatPig]

You are welcome. I enjoyed writing them

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Damn. I wish I was more responsible. This would make a great writing challenge. "Who can write the best opening line about walking in the front door?" Maybe even make it a paragraph? Enter as often as you wish

(hint hint, somebody else start the topic if you are interested in it)

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

When I was in college, one of my roommates decided I needed to sharpen my reflexes. He would randomly just throw things at me without warning. After a few weeks I got to the point where I could catch them without looking away from what I was doing.

One day I was coming in from classes, he had settled himself across from the door waiting for me to come in. AS soon as I opened the door he threw the tennis ball, which was literally inches from my face as I walked in. I dodged just barely and reached to catch the ball. My fingertips grazed it just enough to knock it noticeably off course.

I graduated from "grasshopper" to "apprentice" with that one.

 

[R. Richard]

So whats a good opening line about a guy walking into his apartment?

"It was a dark and stormy night."

 

[Guest]

"It was a dark and stormy night."

It is a far, far better thing I do, then I ever did before. It is a far, far better sleep..."

 

[BlackShanglan]

In my more abstruse wanderings I once came across this premise: that we know a story is concluded and achieve our sense of closure when we see something at the end that is a repetition of the beginning. Now, the theory gives us a lot of leeway in defining "repetition of the beginning"; the person postulating this (Tzvetan Todorov I think) felt that one could repeat an image, a phrase, a pattern of behavior (man walks in a door to a particular room), an action, a description, etc. Inversions or opposites also count as repetitions, so that one could begin, as in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums," with the image of the flowers being tended and cared for, and end with them being crushed in the dust of the road. We're still coming back to the flowers, and we get a greater sense of unity and completion because the actions taken toward the flowers are equal opposites, a sort of balance.

All of that is a long prelude to saying, "Why not look at the end of the story and see if it can help you write the beginning?" If you know where the story is going, perhaps you can find inspiration for the opening scene in what you know will be the closing.

Shanglan

 

[tickledkitty]

In my more abstruse wanderings I once came across this premise: that we know a story is concluded and achieve our sense of closure when we see something at the end that is a repetition of the beginning. Now, the theory gives us a lot of leeway in defining "repetition of the beginning"; the person postulating this (Tzvetan Todorov I think) felt that one could repeat an image, a phrase, a pattern of behavior (man walks in a door to a particular room), an action, a description, etc. Inversions or opposites also count as repetitions, so that one could begin, as in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums," with the image of the flowers being tended and cared for, and end with them being crushed in the dust of the road. We're still coming back to the flowers, and we get a greater sense of unity and completion because the actions taken toward the flowers are equal opposites, a sort of balance.

All of that is a long prelude to saying, "Why not look at the end of the story and see if it can help you write the beginning?" If you know where the story is going, perhaps you can find inspiration for the opening scene in what you know will be the closing.

Shanglan

Wow. That's brilliant. I learn so much from reading these threads.