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IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT…by Jennie Bentley
…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.
You’ll recognize this as the opening line from Edward George Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 novel, ‘Paul Clifford.’ It has pretty much set the standard for bad opening lines, spawning a long-running and hysterically funny contest – http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ – and becoming part of the public consciousness thanks to Charles Schultz and his plagiarizing cartoon beagle Snoopy.
The opening sentence is, arguably, the most important sentence in a book. That, and the last sentence. As someone – I don’t know who – once said, “A great first line will make them buy your book. A great last line will make them buy your next book.” That’s an important consideration, especially for someone writing a series. As applies to most of us, these days. Still, without a great first line, chances are no one will ever get to read your last line, so three guesses as to which is more important.
Hallie Ephron said this, in Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel – how to knock’em DEAD with style:
No pressure, but the opening of your book is the gatekeeper in determining whether your novel will sell. If your opening is weak, it won’t matter if chapter 2 is a masterpiece. Editors and agents will stop reading before they get to it.
And so will I, frankly. You’d better hook me in the first paragraph, or I’m putting your book back on the shelf. And if I feel that way about spending my hard-earned $6.99 – or worse, $24.95 – just imagine what the editor who’s looking at paying your advance feels. If you have only a couple of sentences to hook me, you have less than that to hook him. Or her.
The reason for my preoccupation with opening sentences, is that I’ll be participating in a panel this weekend called ‘Start with a Punch – End with a Bang.’ The occasion is the annual Killer Nashville mystery writers’ conference, held just down the road from me in Franklin, Tennessee. I’m there with my local chapter of Sisters in Crime, and in addition to the Punch/Bang panel, I’ll be on a panel for subplots and one discussing humor in mysteries. I’m a little worried about those, too, so I’m off to do some more research now. I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite opening sentences from books I’ve read in the not too distant past. (Any longer ago, and I’ll have forgotten.) And because I’m feeling magnanimous – and also because I’ve been promised a small box of advanced reader copies of ‘Fatal Fixer-Upper’ – I’ll send one to whomever can place the most of these. Or the first person to place them all. Book and author, please. Here we go:
Matilda Goodnight stepped back from her latest mural and realized that of all the crimes she’d committed in her thirty-four years, painting the floor-to-ceiling reproduction of Van Gogh’s sunflowers on Clarissa Donnelly’s dining room wall was the one that was going to send her to hell.
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time rolling on the ground with men who think a stiffy represents personal growth.
Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.
I was sitting at my desk doing my nails when the door opened and the spy sneaked in.
It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby.
When the girl came rushing up the steps, I decided she was wearing far too many clothes.
The Eastern Seaboard is crammed with dead people.
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
If I could find a way to deep-fry chocolate, my life would be whole.
That last one sounds like it could be mine, considering last week’s post, but it isn’t. These are all by other people. Different people. No cheating; no using the same author twice. Not even under different pseudonyms. And they’re not all from mysteries, although most of them are. Even some of the ones that sound like they’re not. And I think the girls may have a slight advantage today, since at least one of the above is from a book no guy would be caught dead reading. Still, they’re some of my favorites, and I never claimed to play fair.
I’ll be back this evening to tally up the answers and announce the winner. Good luck, y’all, and may the force be with you!
Guest Good Girl Jennie Bentley is the author of the new series of Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation Mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime!
