3 Things That Make a Great 1st Line

3 Things The 1st Line Of A Novel Must Do

(Or at least the 1st page)

Let’s take a look at famous 1st lines and see how many of these things they manage. And how they do it…

There are so many ways to do it wrong and no one consensus on how to do it right.

Here are thoughts, from two #Balticon panels, on common mistakes and things to try to get it right.

Biggest take-away: remember, characters should be 3 dimensional, not 2-D.

Dialogue is an action…it’s just more socially acceptable than walking across the room and slapping someone. – (Mark Van Name)

A #Balticon51 Panel

Learn about rejection from editors, agents, and writers. Both ways to respond when you get that dreaded rejection letter, and ways to recover.

Step 1 – I googled ‘formal English’ and ‘polite language’
Step 2 – I replaced informal words with more formal ones, particularly during dialogue
Step 3 – As I read along the paragraphs around those edits, I looked for other phrases that stuck out as ‘too modern’ and replaced those as well.

But be careful…

When Morgan Got LASIK The Night Before Last Thursday started off with my meds and eye drops. I knew one … More

Lasers, 8 o’clock, day 1!

Okay, maybe more like 1pm, today! Wish me luck!