# Intro sentences



## Justin Rocket (Jun 29, 2014)

Write your best first line for a story.

Here's some examples

"Why don't we just steal it?"

"Through the fog, John could see something stalking him."

"The smell of burned flesh permeated the room."

"Mrs Agatha, Lisa's foster mom, was a mean drunk."


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## Pluralized (Jun 29, 2014)

It was late, the boat creaked like a wooden coffin, and I'd already drunk the last of Harvey's piss.


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## Deafmute (Jun 29, 2014)

_This isn't how it was supposed to happen...

_Like glass from a mirror, the world shattered.

You have never heard silence like the silence of space.

The computer screen flicked to black, a small sphere began bouncing from corner to corner in a hypnotic dance.

Who am I? What am I? Most importantly, why am I? Am I chance? Coincidence? Do I have a purpose, or am I just a pawn? No………. I’m David.


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## garza (Jun 29, 2014)

You asked for one opening line, but of mine none is much more of a favourite than most others. Here is a random sample. Pick one and we'll call it my favourite.

'You've come to watch me die.' - from 'Going Gentle into that Good Night'.

'You're hopeless,' said Bernie. - from 'Out at Sea'.

'Lester always smelled like a wet dog.' - from 'Lester' in _Seven Miles on a Dirt Road_.

'We'll go to prison.' - from 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'.

'Whenever Ralph came home Papa would start to lock things away - first the whiskey, then whatever he could lay his hands on quick that was worth anything before Ralph got to it and sold it to buy some smoke.' - from 'Ralph' in _Seven Miles on a Dirt Road.' 
_
'I dint go to school today on account of I done ate too many collie flowers and caught the dire rear.' - from 'Donky Hodie Road a Hors'.

'It will die.' - from 'Danny's Dog' in _Seven Miles on a Dirt Road_.

'You're a girl!' said Randy. - from 'Venus in Transit'.


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## Morkonan (Jun 29, 2014)

I've never had a gun held to my head before lunch.

(Not a "Best Of" offering, just a quickie. Every good opening line is "good" for different reasons, some that may have to do with the tone being set for the story or specifics desired by the genre's audience.)


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## Bilston Blue (Jun 29, 2014)

A long opening sentence from one of my works in progress, provisionally titled _The Distant Rumble of Aneurin Bevan Turning in his Grave:_



> Waiting for his mother’s return from a treatment session designed to reduce arthritic swelling in her hands, which included the injection of steroids into pinched carpal tunnels, Delaney was more concerned than he thought healthy at having to sit at the wrong (i.e., window, not aisle) end of a row of seats in a waiting area which resembled in its layout if not dimensions an aeroplane's passenger cabin.


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## Jeko (Jun 30, 2014)

'The mourning period was over.'

'"Honestly Gerald, you're such a charmer."'

'I was walking down the road when I saw two men staring at me like the horizon on the back of a wasteland.'

A couple of those come from my A level Creative Writing coursework.


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## T.S.Bowman (Jun 30, 2014)

Sometimes, it pretty well sucks being The Official Ferryman Of The Underworld. I know, I know, the title sounds good and all. Lots of prestige involved, right? Well, not so much as you might think.


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## Terry D (Jun 30, 2014)

Here are three off the top of my head;

Trevor never thought much about his looks. Never thought much about his face at all, until the day he looked into the mirror and saw it melting.

“I got two words for ya,” the guy pointing the Glock at his face said. “Run. Now.”

The worst thing about being in the hospital was all the damned spiders.


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## Bishop (Jun 30, 2014)

"Johnson! Get that damn death ray up here, these mimes are NOT going to kill themselves!"


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## Ixarku (Jun 30, 2014)

Bishop said:


> "Johnson! Get that damn death ray up here, these mimes are NOT going to kill themselves!"



Any story that opens with a line like that has _got_ to be a winner.


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## egpenny (Jul 1, 2014)

Jaeger Logan punched his office wall, creating a hole that close to the hole he'd fisted into the wall earlier that day.


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## thepancreas11 (Jul 14, 2014)

"Tell me, Simon: what is it like to be human?"

and

The words, "You're going to live," normally get more of a rise out of people than they did with Sam Bentley.


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## JimJanuary (Jul 14, 2014)

The branches of sakura swayed with each pulse of the wind.


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## thepancreas11 (Aug 10, 2014)

If I had a nickel for every time I heard, "You'll never make it," I'd have $24.48.


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## Ginger2 (Aug 10, 2014)

This is the opening line from a Halloween feature I wrote a couple years ago.  (_LeRoy Independent_ News)

After a devastating car accident and a near death experience, a young Minnesota woman fell under attack by evil spirits, suffering from headaches and  “seeing things."


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## J Anfinson (Aug 11, 2014)

"I never used to think that the dead could talk, but that was before I became one of them."


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## midnightpoet (Aug 11, 2014)

The old blind man was sitting cross-legged on the corner, strumming his guitar, when he heard the rattle of gunfire in the street.


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## ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord (Nov 4, 2014)

The stars were washed away by the storm clouds and the neon.


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## TKent (Nov 4, 2014)

I'm Celeste, your redemption advisor.


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## Kevin (Nov 4, 2014)

I gave two shits...


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## LeeC (Nov 4, 2014)

Notes from a story I may someday get to:


She appeared through the smokey haze of the gin mill, floating on shapely legs leading to the prize.


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## midnightpoet (Nov 6, 2014)

"He looked on the face of death and realized he was staring into a mirror."


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## Sleepwriter (Nov 12, 2014)

Susan was a cold-heart bitch, but she threw the best parties.  Not because she enjoyed them or even liked having people around her, but because she enjoyed hearing people talk about how incredible the party was.


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## Bishop (Nov 20, 2014)

Jake Pless had lived on Orvan 4 for two years, and liked it because he didn’t have to wear shoes.


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## J Anfinson (Nov 20, 2014)

I knew it was going to be a bad morning when I woke to find someone had cut my throat.


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## Ascalaon (Nov 25, 2014)

Only fools breed carnivorous cows, and I was one helluva fool.


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## Nemesis (Nov 28, 2014)

The table lamp beside my bed was on when I woke up, and I was concerned by the fact that it wasn't plugged in and didn't run off of batteries either.


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## midnightpoet (Nov 28, 2014)

"The old man had peed on himself, third time this morning, and Rachel was having her second homicidal thought of the day."


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## S.T. Ranger (Dec 10, 2014)

The choices were clear: run, kill, or just go ahead and accept the cup of coffee. I don't know, maybe I do have an anger management problem...


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## Nemesis (Dec 10, 2014)

I eyed her through the scope and imagined, not for the first time that day, pulling the trigger, but her eyes lifted and bore into mine until a I cursed, lowered the weapon, and wondered how she knew I was there.


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## Terry D (Dec 10, 2014)

My story is for the world, but this first sentence, my first thought, is for her.


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## J Anfinson (Dec 10, 2014)

I slipped the noose around my neck and wondered, not for the first time, if what I was doing would kill me.


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## docshoog (Dec 11, 2014)

You bastard!!!  You've put pepper on the toilet paper again!!!


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## macytech1 (Dec 24, 2014)

How many times can you wish on a star


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## midnightpoet (Dec 25, 2014)

A sting ray swam by my left ear, which wouldn't have been strange except I wasn't underwater.


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## escorial (Dec 25, 2014)

i can't go on but


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## J Anfinson (Dec 25, 2014)

It was supposed to be silent in the house the night before Christmas, but Santa tripped over something in the living room; the jolly fat man filling the air with colorful language as glass shattered and the dogs began barking.


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## Crodentia (Dec 28, 2014)

She was curves and glamor, dressed in silk, with a body that smelled like sweet sin_._


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## Ephemeral_One (Jan 4, 2015)

Guns, the most useless invention of mankind.

In the beginning there was Chaos and in the end, there will be Chaos.

Death doesn't change your perspective, just your daily habits.


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## mw1406 (Jan 25, 2015)

With one flick of a switch, the lights mysteriously went out.


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## J.J. Maxx (Jan 27, 2015)

Under normal circumstances, FedEx won't ship a dead body, let alone one that was making such a commotion inside the box.


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## J Anfinson (Jan 27, 2015)

I've got a quarter tank of gas, a great dane in the back seat, and a half pack of cigarettes I stole off a dead man.


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## JustRob (Feb 13, 2015)

![(ƎԺՁ♀ﺕᾪᵷ)]!

Sensing her cognoscendum cradled in her rider's imperative thought the graceful black unicorn walked out from amongst the small group of grazing stallions to greet him echoing her being, that selfsame unique identity, with her distinctive psychic whinny.


Not necessarily a best opening sentence but one that I'm trying out for a new short story that I may write and post on this website when I find the time. I'm afraid cognoscenda don't translate well from pure unicorn thought to Unicode, despite its promising name.


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## Angelwing (Feb 13, 2015)

"It was a dark and stormy night..."


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## JFSurvivor (Feb 21, 2015)

Come on! Come on! Think! What rhymes with "door" other than poor? I can't write a poem about our lord and emperor and point out the fact that he sucks at his job.


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## Ascalaon (Feb 26, 2015)

I didn't think pennies were lucky until I bent down to pick one up and the sniper missed.


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## MHarding53 (Mar 8, 2015)

Even though I did not have dark glasses, a black fedora, or a brother named Elwood, I was still on a mission from God.


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## JustRob (Mar 8, 2015)

The second time that I died I thought that it would be easier, but of course it wasn't.


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## PatriciaLoupee (Mar 8, 2015)

A few of mine:

_"The changellings are running for us way more faster than we can run from them."

"Phone calls in the middle of the night are never the carriers of good news, and Thomas just received one of those."

"- They do not come out during daylight... Or do they? - Ian, sitting beside his father in the front of the chariot, questions him with fear writen all over his eyes."

"When we finally made the skies pitch black beyond recovery, we built the Rainbow Citadel, above the clouds. And when the Rainbow Citadel began to suffer the effects of over-population, the first rebellions sparked, and from the ashes of that civil war, all the other citadels we live in now were born."

"The ravens came in flock to deliver his mistress orders, and upon hearing them, Tsuriha ran for her with all the strength available in his four legs. It was the first time Murasaki-sama requested his presence with such urgency."_


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## MHarding53 (Mar 10, 2015)

A west wind, warm and humid, blew through the Celts long blonde mane; it smelled of thyme, cold iron and old leather.


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## Erik Fantasia (Mar 11, 2015)

Dragons don't have wings.

The book you are reading has been written by a dead man.

If you're reading this, congratulations: you have eyes.

Tala just really didn't understand why the grass was blue.


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## JustRob (Mar 12, 2015)

When James woke that fateful morning he realised that he couldn't remember anything about tomorrow.


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## Erik Fantasia (Mar 12, 2015)

It was the yesr 3012 when the world ended.


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## JustRob (Mar 12, 2015)

It all started to go wrong when I chose between the red and blue pills without taking off my sunglasses.


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## TeriBeth (May 13, 2015)

Sitting quietly, he flicked the ashes off of his cigarette as he watched her.


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## Whiskeyjack (May 13, 2015)

Being the Sandman has it's perks, insomnia not being one of them.


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## rcallaci (May 14, 2015)

The foul stench of death wafted through the air as I opened the door to Hell.

The foul stench of death wafted through the air as I held you in my arms.


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## Silence (May 15, 2015)

When the rooster crows, it signals the start of a new day, but when the raven crows it signals the end.


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## Harper J. Cole (May 16, 2015)

For Brain Skerritt, that bitter and irrelevant middle manager, death came with a sickening crunch.


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## hypocritter (May 27, 2015)

"Trust me I've done this a thousand times" .


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (May 27, 2015)

If you're reading this, they've already found you.


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## TimH216 (Sep 26, 2015)

Just as she finds the last of the shotgun ammo, the lights go out.


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## W.Goepner (Sep 28, 2015)

Whenever we want something bad enough we tend to figure out a way to get it.


It was a battle of magic.


Look at the mannerisms of the dog, everything from breeding to survival is instincts, I am going to place you in the dog for a moment here.


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## kbsmith (Sep 29, 2015)

Joby was a f*ckboy; all the best things in life were given to him for free.


From the endless void came a brief, blinding light.


God wriggled inside her, beneath his skin.


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## Terry D (Sep 29, 2015)

I want what every man my age wants: a bottle of twenty-year-old scotch, the keys to a '67 Vette, and a foolproof way to kill my wife.

Twenty-two years ago we went on our first date, robbed a Seven-Eleven, killed a cop, and we haven't stopped running since.

Tonight Rodney told me what I have to do and it makes a lot of sense. Surprisingly good advice coming from a turtle.


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## midnightpoet (Sep 29, 2015)

Aleana wanted to cuddle with John, but there was that damn porcupine right between them again.


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## Bishop (Sep 30, 2015)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The transition happened the moment we realized we were out of drugs.


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## PaintYourReality (Oct 2, 2015)

All she remembers is falling endlessly and those incessant little voices that came from nowhere. 

Dancing through the field of flowers, she suddenly felt hands grip her tight and pull her down, somewhere under the ground, while a silky voice echoed "come be my queen".


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## Teb (Oct 11, 2015)

He had the look of a man who could pick his nose and miss, but  intelligence has never been the job requisite for a bridge keeper  whereas his current display of stubborn belligerence made him a natural  at his job.

(2nd chapter 1st sentence from an old short story.)


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## Rabber (Oct 11, 2015)

Driving home elated over winning what everyone said was a losing case, Calvin light his cigar with great pride over freeing who he knew was an innocent client, until he realized a crucial mistake and knew his defendant's next victim had hours to live.


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## J Anfinson (Oct 11, 2015)

"Today we're going to talk about hell, and before I'm done you'll all get a taste of it," the reverend said, then picked up a knife and strode toward a woman in the front pew.


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## TBK (Jan 1, 2016)

We was raised in violence, brought up in the wild woods: You don't know a thing 'til you been alone and struggled to survive.


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## Moonbeast32 (Mar 1, 2017)

Now in the Murrillon Manor were two wings, near symmetrical to each other in appearance and purpose.


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## sas (Mar 5, 2017)

Skip this page. Read the last one first.


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## TuesdayEve (Sep 29, 2017)

They buried him deep but was he alive.


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## scerys (Oct 3, 2017)

Out of the shadows walked the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, so beautiful it was like she was her own light, and as I watched her stunning, shining figure reach out from the expanse of darkness behind her I thought to myself 'Wow. She looks angry, like really angry, I should run," and so I did.

Bit long for an opening sentence, but I'm a fan of long sentences lol.


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## C.Gholy (Oct 3, 2017)

Monsters Exist: Kevin was one of them.


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## ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord (Oct 5, 2017)

“The pelicans are on the roof again, sir,” the crab said, suspended upside-down in his saline-pineapple-juice jar.


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## H.Brown (Oct 6, 2017)

The woods bore down on me, suffocating what little air remained as the path before me twisted and split, right or left?


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## AustinFrom1995 (Oct 14, 2017)

The mission had only just started, and already things had gone FUBAR...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## NathanielleC (Feb 4, 2018)

In an hour there would be no body.


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## H.Brown (Feb 4, 2018)

In the silence before the dawn, she comes.


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## AustinFrom1995 (Feb 13, 2018)

"What do you mean they escaped?!" 

"

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


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## C.Stone (Jun 25, 2018)

"He's dead" she whispered.


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## J T Chris (Jun 25, 2018)

They chalked out the pros and cons of having sex.


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## Art3mis (Jul 11, 2018)

The big, metallic mailbox was my doom.


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## Snelbrouler (Jul 14, 2018)

Haven't written any stories yet, but I'll make up a few here:

"Music was the language of the [insert fantasy race], and their last son was born a mute."

"It's been years since I last saw my grandfather, and a day since I learned of his death."

"They said drowning would be the worst way to die; I can now confirm that to be true."


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## Deleted member 61744 (Jul 16, 2018)

Ooh I did this recently following a writing exercise book that told me to start in the middle of things...




He did not cry or scream; the look in his round baby-bright eyes told me that even then, such behaviour was beneath him.
Chasing the moon is a stupid way to grow old, but the sun was almost always hidden by clouds so the moon seemed like the best option.
They say that blood is thicker than water, and I can attest to that for I’ve nearly drowned in both.
Toasting forks make surprisingly good weapons when you're desperate.


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## Writer-1 (Jul 19, 2018)

The smell of sex and death permeated the room, causing Dracula to feel an emotion he had never felt before: fear.


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## Teb (Oct 12, 2018)

Misty tendrils clawed their way up the river bank, twisting and snaking silently through the undergrowth.


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## Myk3y (Jan 25, 2019)

"I've always distrusted dentists and barbers. Thieves the lot of them."

"The rain crashed around them like the physical embodiment of white noise on a speaker. So heavy that the reflected mist bouncing off the paving stones would soak you through."

"I can hear the sound of the grinder downstairs. She'll be up with my coffee soon. How can I tell her? Should I?"


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## ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord (Aug 22, 2019)

[FONT=&quot]When I blew out my eleven candles at the Chuck-E-Cheese’s last week, all I could think was that I was running out of time.


[/FONT]


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## seigfried007 (Aug 22, 2019)

“_THE CAT DOESN’T COME HOME TILL YOU’RE ASLEEP!_” Havens yelled as he spun my body around, his face over me, contorted in rage, utterly drenched and gleaming hellishly under the halogen lamps and lightning.


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## JustRob (Aug 22, 2019)

My best opening line to my novel clearly isn't written yet but maybe I've just come up with a way of finding it. My problem hasn't just been choosing an opening line for my novel but choosing exactly where to start the story, given that one can easily play around with the presentation order of events subsequently to fit them in. Therefore the answer may be to find something that one has already written and work out how to bring that to the beginning of the story to make it the first line. Clearly many offerings already posted here imply that relevant events have occurred earlier and will be revealed subsequently. 

One opening line that I tried just to make the first words of the story ludicrously "THE END" was as follows. I can probably type them right now from memory.



> THE END -- That was it, the only possible end to this story. Her straw-stacking camel-driver of a boyfriend was history!



Not bad -- Plenty of back story and scene setting there already within a few words but a bit gimmicky. My next and indeed current effort was as below.



> ‘Oh Moonlight, you look as though you’ve been eclipsed.’



Distinctly weird now, opening with unattributed dialogue so still bucking against the rules, but it seemed to work in a way with the context that quickly unfolded. 

I've not given up searching even though I've given up rewriting the novel at present. Just thinking through my current first chapter I noticed the following that might provide the opportunity for a good opening line if rewritten. There is certainly an intriguing opening idea there.



> ‘Am I dreaming?’ she said out loud, if that was possible in a dream.  Certainly it was the only thing that she’d intended him to hear.
> 
> The slim figure replied, ‘I’m afraid I really couldn’t say,’ adding, ‘but I think I am.’
> 
> ‘This will never do, wasting time debating ownership of a dream,’ she thought, ‘Perhaps we could share it.’



Maybe the idea of two people both believing that the other could be imaginary is central enough to my story to merit being signalled in the opening lines, but the idea literally only came to mind when I just noticed this thread, so I'd need to think about it. It is said that readers dislike sequences in stories turning out to be  dreams, but one that is clearly presented up front as a dream but one  where it isn't clear who is actually the dreamer may be more acceptable. 

Regardless of my problem the general principle may be relevant, that you may already have written your best possible opening line but you simply didn't put it at the beginning of your story. It's worth thinking about, not just_ what_ your best opening line is but _where_ it is currently.


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## undead_av (Aug 22, 2019)

1.) The little boat was tossed to and fro among the huge, frothing waves. 
2.) It never cost Nya Blackblood a coin to earn passage across the sea. 
3.) The sand whipped up the girl's flowing pant legs, stinging her ankles.
4.) Jaziah was dreaming of oranges again.


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## SilentCypher (Nov 5, 2021)

"The hack was a hard-fought victory, but just the beginning of our troubles."

"It wasn't everyday you found a baby gift-wrapped with a ribbon and bow in a bassinet near the entrance to the Emergency Room..."

"I knew the moment I turned that knob, my former self would cease to exist."

"It's always the people who just want to stay home that end up in the weirdest circumstances..."


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## iamhuman (Nov 9, 2021)

"I kept having to take off my pants."


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## VRanger (Nov 9, 2021)

iamhuman said:


> "I kept having to take off my pants."


I had a friend back in my World of Warcraft days who kept accidentally selling her pants to vendors. It was a running joke for years.


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## NajaNoir (Nov 9, 2021)

vranger said:


> I had a friend back in my World of Warcraft days who kept accidentally selling her pants to vendors. It was a running joke for years.


I did that during my FFXIV days. 180,000 Gil gone like that.  Oh mylanta was I raging.  



A couple of my sentences

"She lived in a city of unimagined luxuries and plastic wrapped smiles."

"It was on the lighter side of twilight when the rain began."


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## VRanger (Nov 9, 2021)

NajaNoir said:


> I did that during my FFXIV days. 180,000 Gil gone like that.  Oh mylanta was I raging.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Luckily in WoW you could buy them back from any vendor as long as you didn't sell enough stuff AFTER that to bump them off the queue, but you DID have to notice before that happened. In later years, they offered an item restoration service so you could recover even if they bumped off the queue.


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## RGS (Dec 2, 2021)

After nightfall, the woods off Old Crawlett Road were no place for any sane human being to be.


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## Deleted member 66515 (Dec 8, 2021)

It was the beginning of the end when he walked through the door.


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## S J Ward (Feb 1, 2022)

'Good morning, class.'
'Good morning, Miss Pendle.' we all droned together.

(And to think, it's about killer mermaids!) Technically two sentences, but If there was only one, what sense would that make?


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## ArrowInTheBowOfTheLord (Feb 3, 2022)

They say there is no end to the Northern moors -- that over the dimmest, most distant hill of purple and black, there is only another, that across every cold sedge riddled with the cries of Psalterbirds another spreads, that you might walk forever and only find broader plains, and chiller winds, and lonelier places, til you are lost in the wind-whirled heather, beneath the ever-autumnal sky, as endless as unbreaking dawn.


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## VRanger (Feb 3, 2022)

"This is a work of fiction."

No ... wait ... that's on the title page.

How about:



> You'll recognize this truth: From time to time in your life, you make a mistake when you know better.


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## SilentCypher (Apr 27, 2022)

If you were to tell a younger version of me that at the age of twenty-eight I'd be picking the lock of a retired cop's cabin under suspicion that he was part of a human trafficking ring, I'd have stared at you blank-faced and probably walked away and ignored you.


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## MisterBobbyPin (May 6, 2022)

Fire, unrelating scores of earth whisking away all known from the land.


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## Vera (Sep 7, 2022)

It was a clear summer day when Veronica decided to kill Harry; it was only his fifth death, hardly anything to write home about.


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## Arsenex (Sep 7, 2022)

The meteor shower began as a fantastic light show... until the lights began to slow.


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## TerraLiga (Sep 7, 2022)

During the previous twelve months I had planned this day meticulously; every waking hour had a schedule - minute-by-minute during the busiest - and everything committed to memory, but by concentrating so much energy on the act I now have no idea about what I'm going to do with the body.


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## Arsenex (Sep 7, 2022)

I reached into the cookie jar and something grabbed my hand.


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## Selorian (Sep 7, 2022)

Every dream is a nightmare waiting to happen.


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## Deleted member 67769 (Sep 9, 2022)

Right in the middle of rejoicing about our great deal on the land, a neighbor tells us about the Indian graveyard.


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