What's your first line?

Its not the most astounding line ever but it's doing the job at the moment.

"When it happened some people were sleeping."

"No-one expects a knight in shining armour these days."

I have two stories at the moment so here are my two first lines:

One from my fanfic of Stargate Universe - "The artificial light in First Lieutenant Tamara Johansen's bedroom burned through her eyelids to the tired blue eyes that lay beneath them causing the sleepy air force officer to roll over onto her stomach to try and find the darkness that she was favouring at that moment in time."

And the one from my Original fic titled Exodus from Earth - "The Earth shook violently as yet another missile exploded into the side of the Empire State building, the missile tore a hole through the side of the building knocking large blocks of concrete out of its way as it pierced the building and shot out the other side as if it was a bullet passing through a human body."

Grimness was what I was going for, so I hope I provided well enough!

My first line doesn't bode well for the characters this year.

2009 - Ninjas In Space II
2008 - Ninjas In Space (won)
2007 - Winter Court (won)

I have to say, these are cracking first lines. I have a feeling I'd be taking these to the till without needing to read the second lines.

This year have gone for:

"Sodomy, you say?"

though the chapter title is, "They can't, Roland, there isn't a lady present!"

That's my first line

NaNoWriMo debutante '09!
--2009: Sentience

Well the first line of my prologue goes as follows:

It gets a bit less smooth and cool a few minutes later...

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Nano 05: Excess Baggage (chicklit) - finished at 50,100!
Nano 06: Moving on (literary fiction) - unfinished at 50,090!
Nano 07: an elven fantasy which got stuck around 20,000, although I did represent Na

I'm giving you two lines, because the first is very clichéd... Woops!

"Sometimes, they say, in the middle of a completely, and utterly ordinary life, the world will grant us a fairytale. I’ve always loved that saying – always, that is, until I realised the one downside of finding your fairytale:"

Check my email and hope you write me back
You give me that confidence that I sometimes lack <3

--

NaNo '09 - Leaving You - 55 594/50 000

Mine is:

"Anita had originally thought that the hardest part of being on an Earth mission was keeping up a normal routine, where the only respite from pretense was sleep."

Even typing it out makes me want to edit it and I can't! It's November 2!

Good thing I like the rest of my first chapter, though the rest of the prose needs a good edit or fifteen. But I like the idea and the action - that's something, right?

I like my first line; it's been in my head for weeks!

Mine is:

I think I'm being followed.

~ Wisdom is knowing when to avoid perfection ~

My first line: "Ianto paused, looking down the street behind them, tugging on Jack's hand. “I thought I heard something,” he insisted, smiling."

NaNo09 - The more you write, the less you die.

www.fanfiction.net/~Galadriel1010

My first line:

The pillow had rucked itself up and was pressing into his mouth and making it slightly uncomfortable to breathe.

My first line: 'His body lay on the ground, lifeless and bloodied; just another victim of a war that had no meaning. '

This is the full paragraph: 'His body lay on the ground, lifeless and bloodied; just another victim of a war that had no meaning. The problem was that he was not meant to die... not yet. But this was what war was – the deaths of those who have gone before their time for no reason other than because someone above them has told them to fight. But he is not like the others in this war, he is not a fighter; he is a child of five years old who wanted his parents to love one another...'

2008: Blood and Shadows - Lost
2009: Fragments of a Life - Won, 17th November

Mine is short and sweet:

‘You’re doing it wrong.’

http://www.sarahbillingtonauthor.com
http://twitter.com/SairzBillington

NaNo08 WINNER! It's MJ's Blogiverse (You just live in it!)

NaNo09 CONTESTANT Demi & The Demon Diary/The Wishing Journal/ Careful What You Wish For

Kinda dull, but there you go:

"Either everything was winding down, Tahern thought, or she'd gone too far."

Winding down 'cos they're losing, hahaha...

The author formerly known as aeireono.
NaNo 2009: Capercaillie

2008: Haixtlan
2007: Moths
2006: Eye of Rakaros
2005: Senahri: Approximate Destruction
2004: JSBCBS
2003: From Here To There

The date was not going so well.

"What kind of colour for a ship is purple?"

Well, it's a valid question! :)

"No it isn't"

NaNoWriMo - anagram for Iron Woman

mine is
"its cold"

-be reyt-

Mine's rather dull, I'm afraid:

"When it happens next time, I won’t be prepared then either. "

“David!” The girl shrieked at the man coming towards her.

--------------------------------------------
Nano 2006 - Crimson Crusade - WON
Nano 2007 - vampire based fiction (no name as yet) - WON
Nano 2008 - werewolf fiction - FAILED
Nano 2009 - zombies/alternate reality insanity...?

Also boring:

"What's your name, sweetheart?"

My first line... Either (both subject to change!):

"Well, here we are at last, huh? Just you and me. Hardly romantic though, is it?"

or

"OK, what do you want to know?"

It kinda goes downhill from there... and will probably change completely in the next 28 days.

Jude

"What the hell is this supposed to be?"

Claire - ML for England :: York & Leeds + Moderator of Newbies

Ah, se, I had this whole clever political thriller thing going. Then I was hijacked by sci-fi and vomited the following onto the page as a first line:

"Sensors noted the imposing bulk of the docks and the awaiting mechanical arms that would take the Aurora into their protective embrace to hold her steady whilst she was unloaded."

I think, with that, I've just turned off anyone still reading by the last word.

And that's all I have to say about that

_The woman has been spelled. She cannot be trusted."

Ok, so this isn't the first line of my novel, but it's my first nano line, and I just noticed I screwed up my dialogue formatting. Darnit.

Nano 2005: Nikara (Won)
Nano 2006: The Third Essence (Lost)
Nano 2007: Nikara O_o (Faaaaaailed)
Nano 2008: The Third Essence (Failed Again)
Nano 2009: The Third Essence (?)

The snow falls thickly in Siberia, but nobody can see it: everything is white.

Doing two stories so here are the first lines of both...

(original story) "The wind swept through her hair as she galloped homeward racing the setting sun. Orange streaks spread across the large expanse changing the light blue to darker purple hues."

(fan fic story) "Bitter sulfuric winds blow from the west whipping my hair around my face obscuring the desolate scene in front of me. Destruction, utter destruction is all that remains of the once proud city. Sky scrapers that once challenged gravity and dared high winds to do their worst lay in scattered pieces on the ground."

Current signs of Nano induced insanity:

*2 hours spent prying off every key of keyboard and swabbing clean with alcohol before replacing, contemplating new message to put on keyboard to replace qwerty.

*one hour spent via video with girlfriend sing

“Comrade, I wanted to make sure that you're aware that I consider my presence here to be a mistake.”

T. Bread Sandwich
And all that.