Tag: First Line Friday

The First…by @denisemcolby

The First…

Several words come to mind when I hear those words…

• The First Noel.
• The First Time in Forever.  Yes it’s a Frozen song.
• And a few others I couldn’t quite remember the entire title.

We all know that Firsts are important. 

Babies have a first laugh, a first word, their first step, and so on.  Every stage of life has a first to it.  The first day of preschool.  The first day of high school.  The first day of college.

There’s always a first for everything.

The dictionary defines first as; coming before all others in time or order; earliest; 1^st; never previously done or occurring.

It’s no wonder that as writers, we all have and celebrate our firsts too:

• The first time we enter a contest
• Submit our work for a critique
• The first time we sign a contract
• The first time we are published

[tweetshare tweet=”@denisemcolby explains … The Firsts” username=”A_SliceofOrange”]

Even within our fictional manuscripts we have firsts:

• When our hero and heroine first lay eyes on each other
• Their first kiss (which is their last first kiss)
• The first time they realize they love the other person.

And part of the fun of writing is to get it right (a whole subjective term, I know, but that’s for a different post).

So, in our first book, getting the first Chapter correct is necessary.  Writing the first paragraph in a way to grab readers is crucial.  And delivering well, the first line of the book, is essential.

• Vital.
• Imperative.

I think you get the idea.

First Lines in books.

Now that I understand this in my writing journey, I’ve been tracking the first line in the books I read and study (thank you Leslie for the idea).  And let me say, it’s amazing how different these lines are.  Some start with dialogue, some start with action, and some start with an inner thought from the main character.

And they all start us on a mini adventure we are willing to sit and explore for hours.

Recently, my critique partner introduced me to her blog posts First Line Fridays, which are hosted by a blog called hoarding books.

Authors and readers write their own post on their blog, then post a comment at https://hoardingbooksblog.wordpress.com/  with a link to their posts.  The post includes the first line from whatever book is near them or they are reading. I’ve seen this as a Facebook challenge before, but not as a blog post.  It’s a great way to share books and authors with other readers, so I decided to join in the fray and post my first, First Line Fridays post this past Friday.

See how I did that?  It’s my first!  And I’m super excited about it.

If you’re so inclined to read it, you can check it out here.  http://denisemcolby.com/first-line-friday-12-8-17/

And if you want to learn more about the hoarding books blog, you can go to https://hoardingbooksblog.wordpress.com/

Happy Reading,

Denise

P.S. I googled ‘The First’ quotes and found a website that organizes quotes by topic.  There are a lot of quotes with the word first in them.  Go to https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/first  if your inclined to take a look.

Although new to the writing fiction world, Denise Colby has over 20+ years experience in marketing, creating different forms of content and copy for promotional materials. Taking the lessons learned from creating her own author brand Denise M. Colby, Denise enjoys sharing her combined knowledge with other authors.

If you are interested in a marketing evaluation and would like help in developing a strategy for your author brand you can find out more here http://denisemcolby.com/marketing-for-authors/