#1: Every new beginning ... is just that
Where we discuss some of my favorite short story first lines
I had another plan on how what the first issue of this newsletter would be. In fact, there’s a whole other issue written and ready, but other factors have me waiting before I send it out.
Which opens the door for us to discuss beginnings.
It may be either simplistic or reductive to call the first line of a short story the most important, but hey, this is my newsletter, so I can say what I want. Still, as either a reader or a writer, first lines are always what draw me in.
Jordan Harper (EVERYBODY KNOWS, SHE RIDES SHOTGUN) wrote what I consider one of the best opening lines ever, for the story “Red Hair and Black Leather”:
“She had an ass like a heart turned upside down and torn in half, and that’s what you call foreshadowing, friend.”
There’s sex, there’s attitude, a wink toward the reader. I challenge someone to stop reading after that.
Contrast that with “Prove It All Night,” Harper’s contribution to TROUBLE IN THE HEARTLAND, an anthology of crime fiction inspired by the songs of Bruce Springsteen:
“No future, no past. Just that animal now. All the fears and doubts and memories and gone and there’s nothing left but me and the single moment that flows around me.”
There’s a microcosm of beauty and mystery in that introduction, along with a stark brutality we can see coming, like headlights down a distant stretch of highway. No hint of what the story’s about or where it’s going. Only foreboding and a sense of eventual doom.
The first line is the lead off. It’s stepping out the front door, taking a deep breath before you start the journey. It can be pithy and fast—a rabbit punch to the face. Something to shake you up and remind you that you’re alive. Just enough to stir your curiosity and to keep pulling you down the page.
“At 8:15, the sawed-off man burst through the restaurant door.”
Delia C. Pitts, “The Killer”
“The Girl Detective reads about her death on Twitter.”
Megan Pillow, “Long Live the Girl Detective”
“I’d like to say I’m a man who hasn’t been defined by the things he couldn’t control, but I can’t, not when I look back at everything I’ve done.”
Beau Johnson, “Coming Home”
“Bob found the dog in the trash.”
Dennis Lehane, “Animal Rescue”
“The church stood across the street and flipped God off.”
Hector Acosta, “La Chingona”
Or it can go the other route and slit your throat with an intensity that makes you worry about what’s next and somehow still eager to discover it.
“Ava wasn’t entirely sure when the sex had gone from merely intense to barely veiled attempts at hurting each other, but lately their fucking left both her and Benjamin’s bodies as battered and bruised as the constant verbal sparring left their psyches.”
R.D. Sullivan, “Beautiful Jena”
“At twenty-five minutes past midnight on 51st Street, the wind-chill factor was so sharp it could carve you a new asshole.”
Harlan Ellison, “Soft Monkey”
“They had only been gone a few hours, just long enough to see a movie and pick up some food for the kid, but somehow that’d been long enough for Taylor Olsen to die, the boy still strapped to the metal folding chair Neil had tied him to before they left, his face blue, his little clenched mouth filled with vomit.”
Paul J. Garth, “Paper Boats”
What do you look for in an opening? What are opening lines do you love? Let me know.
What’s this all about, and what’s coming up:
I have a novella in a long-standing series coming out in May, a new Henry Malone novel set for June, and a few short stories in the pipeline. Plus there’s a WIP that’s a complete break from any of the long works I’ve published to date, and I’m excited about it as I get closer to the first draft finish line. More as dates gets closer.
While you’re here, we’ll talk writing, new books, old movies, the stuff I’m finally catching up on, and what’s interesting me. I’ll try my best to not bore you.
The goal is for this to come out often enough I stay interested but not so often that you stop being interested. The plan’s monthly, but that could change depending on events.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for hanging around. Your time is important, and I’ll try my damndest to not waste it.
See you next time. And hey, let’s be careful out there.
I find it interesting that, for me, the first sentences gain more weight when the story is fully written. I don't know why that is. Maybe because when I lay down the first words, I'm not completely certain where the story will be going. So they're like a clue for me, an unconscious prod. I was in a writing class once where the person running it said that the best stories have an echo of the starting lines at the end. I don't think it's necessarily true but it's something to think about. That circular nature.