Celebrate National Storytelling Week with First Lines

First Lines is a series of blog articles posted on around the first of the month. Inspired by a friend’s suggestion that I write a post on how to write the first line of your story, I started this series. My idea was to inspire my writing with these examples. I also hoped to inspire other writers and point readers to books they might enjoy.

As writers, we’re often told that the first line of a story must hook the reader (particularly if that reader is an editor.) Implied is that the editor will not buy the book if the first line isn’t great. But the hooky-ness of a first line is in the eyes of the beholder. 

Celebrating National Storytelling Week (Jan 30-Feb 7) these books are all from lists of “recommended” or “must read” and represent many different genres. Read to the end to discover what else these first lines have in common. Enjoy!


The cover of Passing features a close up of a woman's profile as she gives us a side eye through the black veil of her hat

It was the last letter in  Irene Redfield’s little pile of morning mail. After her other ordinary and clearly directed letters the long envelope of thin Italian paper with its almost illegible scrawl seemed out of place and alien. And there was, too, something mysterious and slightly furtive about it. A thin sly thing which bore no return address to betray the sender.

Passing, Nella Larsen


The cover of Second-Class Citizen has an illustration of a postage stamp. The stamp is in pastels and shows the profile of a young woman with brown skin and wearing a colorful head covering.

It had all begun like a dream. You know, that sort of dream which seems to have originated from nowhere, yet one was always aware of its existence. One could feel it, one could be directed by it; unconsciously at first, until it became a reality, a Presence.

Adah did not know for sure what gave birth to her dream, when it all started, but the earlier anchor she could pin down in this drift of nothingness was when she was about eight years old.

Second-Class Citizen, Buchi Emecheta


The cover of Crossing the Mangrove is an illustration that is mostly line drawings of men and women in chairs and standing. Splashes of color partly fill in dark skin and facial features, a dog and background though all clothing is without color and only a pencil drawing

“My heart did not tell me! My heart did not tell me!”

Mademoiselle Léocadie Timothée, a retired elementary school teacher for over twenty years, stood with one hand on her breast, the other rolled into a cone level with her mouth, and went over her dreams in slow motion, taking herself back to that night the previous week when the pain of her worn-out body, together with the barking of Leo’s dogs next door and the lowing of his cows tied up in the savanna next to her house, had kept her away until four in the morning, the hour when the pale and timid light of dawn had already stolen noiselessly between her louvered windows.

Crossing the Mangrove, Maryse Condé 


The cover of Whispers in the Dark features large type with a small  illustration forming a band below the halfway point and above the author's name. The illustration shows a palm tree framed view of a body of water with clouds on the horizon and a young woman who faces us but her eyes look back as if in fear.

September 13

A fine rain was falling as Det. MacAlister made her way through the tall grass to the wooded area where the arm had been found. It was cool for early September, and the rain, little more than a mist, felt cold. She shivered as she reached the shelter of a stand of red oaks. Ahead she could see a small cluster of men, perhaps half a dozen all but one in uniform. 

Whispers in the Dark (a Marti MacAlister Mystery), Eleanor Taylor Bland


The cover of An Extraordinary Union shows a a young woman facing the camera, from the collar of her dress partly down her skirt. She holds papers rolled and one folded tight against her waist with both hands.

Prologue

April 1861

Baltimore, Maryland

“It will be an easy assignment, a simple passing on of information. One that even a girl such as yourself should be able to handle.”

Elle suppressed a bitter laugh as she recalled her Loyal League master Lasalle’s briefing from a few days earlier.

Easy?

Either her superior had dreadfully underestimated the Southern male’s love of an opportunity to do violence, or her’d purposely set her in the middle of danger.

An Extraordinary Union,The Loyal League Book 1, Alyssa Cole


The cover of The Secret Lives of the Four Wives shows the silhouette of a young black woman wearing a blue head dress, behind her is the view of a desert and a large blue sky

I didn’t just happen upon this room; I dreamed of the pale green walls before I arrived. Now the built-in wardrobe is mine and so is the ceiling fan. My window looks over a backyard with patchy but neatly trimmed grass. Damp clothes flap in the evening breeze and perfume the air with detergent.

The Secret Lives the Four Wives, Lola Shoneyin


The cover of Bluebird bluebird is a photograph ofa a vacant four lane highway lined with trees disappearing into a blue sky in the distance. Over the top of this image is a large white 5 point star with splotches of brown on it and the title of the book within the star (making the second bluebird's first and last letters clipped by the shape of the star

Geneva Sweet ran an orange extension cord past Maya Greenwood, Beloved Wife and Mother, May She Rest with Yer Heavenly Father. Late morning sunlight pinpricked through the trees, dotting a constellation of light on the blanket of pine needles at Geneva’s feet as she snaked the cord between Maya’s sister and her husband, Leland, Father and Brother in Christ. She gave the cord a good tug, making her way up the modest hill, careful not to step on the graves themselves, only the well-worn grooves between the headstones, which were spaced at haphazard and odd angles, like the teeth of a pauper.

Bluebird, Bluebird, Highway 59 Book 1, Attica Locke


Clarification

There are no affiliate links in this post. I don’t make a cent off of the books listed on this page. Usually I pull these titles at random. They are from Amazon, my personal library, my area public library, or other online booksellers. 


Do You Want to Read More?

Do these first lines hook you? Do you want to read more? Did you figure out what these books have in common? 

The books are part of the celebration of Black History Month. A black woman authored each of these books and the stories focus on black lives.

These first lines are here for your enjoyment. And to entice you to buy more books. To encourage you to read books by people of color. 

Diversity is important in our lives, our actions, and our reading. The more we read the more empathy and understanding of others we develop. 

I hope you found at least one book from this list that you want to read this month. 

If you enjoyed those first lines, check out previous First Lines posts

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