Tuesday, March 25, 2008

great opening sentences

“His mother was ugly and his father was ugly, but Shrek was uglier than the two of them put together.”

185 first lines posted and counting!

(Thank you to Jennifer Thermes for this link)

8 comments:

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Hi Julie,
Great idea for a blog feature. Will you be doing it regularly? I'm a writer who does an entire workshop on first lines of pieces of writing, be they books, articles, or even love letters. Those first lines have to be memorable!

Julie said...

I'd like to. Please suggest more first lines!
And congratulations on Boys of Steel-- I recently learned about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster on a PBS documentary. And I'm a Ross MacDonald fan.

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Oh, forgot to thank you for your congrats! What PBS documentary? Can you email me via my blog?

Unknown said...

Julie, you have to hear it as read by Stanley Tucci. The new CD version of Shrek etc. is UN believable. Meryl Streep!

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

One of my favorites is from a book most of us have not read yet most of us know intimately:

"All children, except one, grow up."

Makes you insanely curious, excites yet also saddens, all in six words.

Jennifer Thermes said...

If you go to www.kidderlit.com you can sign up for a first-line-a-day email. Fun to guess what book they're from.

Julie said...

Thanks Jen! I'll add that address to this post.

Thanks too to Paula and Marc.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the mention of KidderLit, Julie and Jennifer! I hope you enjoy it.

If you or your readers have some favorites that you'd like to see on KidderLit, you can suggest first lines here: http://www.kidderlit.com/suggestion-form.html

I'm very happy to receive suggestions!

Thanks again.