TheEarl
Occasional visitor
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2002
- Posts
- 9,808
Off the 'first line' thread.
Was looking at my library for fun first liners and came across this:
"Jesus fuck."
Inspector McGregor wished there was some kind of official crime scenario checklist, just so that he could have a quick glance and confirm that he had seen it all now. He hadn't sworn at a discovery in ages, perfecting instead a resigned, fatigued expression that said, 'Of course. How could I possibly have expected anything less?'
Quite Ugly One Morning, by Christopher Brookmyre.
Now compare it to the start of my latest WIP:
“And what about those, Faith?”
I dragged my attention away from the window and looked at him like I didn’t know what on earth he was talking about. It was a look I’d had a lot of practise at, but in this case the charade was painfully obvious. He humoured me though and gestured towards my lap with one hand.
Brookyre's one of my favourite authors in all the world and I'm actually quite giddy at the discovery that my opening paragraph shares so much stylistically in common with his, despite me not having read any of his in quite a while. We both start off with a disconnected piece of dialogue, then use the second sentence to introduce our character through a random thought. Then we drop into the scene proper.
Amazing how much our favourite authors rub off on us, isn't it?
The Earl
Was looking at my library for fun first liners and came across this:
"Jesus fuck."
Inspector McGregor wished there was some kind of official crime scenario checklist, just so that he could have a quick glance and confirm that he had seen it all now. He hadn't sworn at a discovery in ages, perfecting instead a resigned, fatigued expression that said, 'Of course. How could I possibly have expected anything less?'
Quite Ugly One Morning, by Christopher Brookmyre.
Now compare it to the start of my latest WIP:
“And what about those, Faith?”
I dragged my attention away from the window and looked at him like I didn’t know what on earth he was talking about. It was a look I’d had a lot of practise at, but in this case the charade was painfully obvious. He humoured me though and gestured towards my lap with one hand.
Brookyre's one of my favourite authors in all the world and I'm actually quite giddy at the discovery that my opening paragraph shares so much stylistically in common with his, despite me not having read any of his in quite a while. We both start off with a disconnected piece of dialogue, then use the second sentence to introduce our character through a random thought. Then we drop into the scene proper.
Amazing how much our favourite authors rub off on us, isn't it?
The Earl
