the newbie writer's assistant

The First Sentence

The first sentence is almost as important as the title. It is what entices would be readers not to put down that book (or choose to continue that wattpad story) and read how the rest of the story unfolds.

To be honest... I have yet to write that one amazing first sentence. That one sentence that reels the audience in real fast. That one sentence that titillates the imagination.

If you are like me, still in search, still trying and practicing, I'd like to share some first sentences of books I loved (and others I googled) to inspire us with. Do comment with the first sentence of the books you loved so I can add it here as well:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
♡ Old Testament, Bible

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
♡ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

"Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own."
♡ Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
♡ The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."
♡ Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"You better not never tell nobody but God."
♡ The Color Purple by Alice Walker

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
♡ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."
♡ Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."
♡ Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

"The war in Zagreb began over a pack of cigarettes."
♡ Girl at War by Sara Nović

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
♡ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."
♡ A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

"If youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting
world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn't constantly run
across folks today who claim that a child don't know anything."
♡ Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright
[*this novel is famous for not including the letter 'e' in the whole story! Go ahead, read the intro again :) ]

'All children, except one, grow up.'
♡ Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

"I don't know how other men feel about their wives walking out on them, but I helped mine pack."
♡ Breaking Up by W.H. Manville

"As a boy, I wanted to be a train."
♡ Machine Man by Max Barry

"For the better part of my childhood, my professional aspirations were simple-I wanted to be an intergalactic princess."
♡ Seven Up by Janet Evanovich

"The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in thee study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves."
♡ Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

"I was born upside down, the umbilical cord looped twice around my neck."
♡ Poppies by Ulrica Hume

"The candleflame and the image of the candleflame caught in the pierglass twisted and righted when he entered the hall and again when he shut the door."
♡ All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
♡ 1984 by George Orwell

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
♡ One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez