The first line in a book is by far the most important sentence in the entire novel. The first line can instantly hook readers…or it can completely turn them off.

When I’m trying to come up with a new book concept, I always come up with the first line, then I work out the rest of my story. Cause if I can get a strong, powerful first line…well, then everything else falls into place for me.

Each October, Tina Wainscott hosts a “Best First Line‘” contest. I love this contest! I entered it a few years ago and came away with third place and an honorable mention. And I got a lovely autographed book from Tina for my effort. The reason I particularly enjoyed her contest was because I got a chance to just sit down and brainstorm ideas. One wonderful first sentence after the other.

In my idea file, I have tons of first sentences, and someday…I’ll write complete books to go along with them.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.