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Royalty-Free Novel First Lines
Attention-getting openers to hurl you on your way to writing fame and fortune
Writing a novel is hard. But writing the perfect first line is even harder.
Most of us know the opening to the 1830 novel Paul Clifford by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton:
“It was a dark and stormy night;”
It actually continues — and continues, (and continues):
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”
Not surprisingly, Grammarly considers this sentence “hard to read.”
It has become a cliché. Whether that is good or bad is up to you to decide. Regardless coming up with an excellent first line can be difficult.
