52 Weeks. One Location. 52 different photographs.
Writing Inspiration: This Book Will Save Your Life
Novel: This Book Will Save Your Life
Author: A.M. Homes
Opening Line:
He stands at the glass looking out.
Closing Line:
“I’m here,” he says, “I’ll always be here, even when you can’t see me, I’m still here.”
True Story: I spotted this book in the “Non-Fiction” section of a Charity Shop recently. That really is evidence that you shouldn’t judge a book (or it’s title) by it’s cover! Nice to know that Staff read the back of the book before judging where it should go, isn’t it 
Writing Inspiration: Matched
Novel: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Opening Line:
Now that I’ve found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?
Closing Line:
And they will change from ash and nothing into flesh and blood.
Kat’s Comments: I don’t normally comment on the opening and closing lines, for my Writing Inspirations feature, but today I felt obliged to.
The reason that I started putting up the opening and closing lines on this blog, was because I know how many of us writers struggle with that all important first line. It’s drummed into us, that you have to create an opening line that sinks it’s teeth firmly into the brain of the reader, and drags them in kicking and screaming. Many writers do this very well, whilst others are severely lacking. Some authors who create a superb opening line, then go on to write a rather mediocre novel, as it appears that they’re put all their effort into that one line, and nothing into the rest of the story. Whilst others succeed at creating a brilliant novel, but people unfortunately don’t make it past that first line. It’s a Catch-22 situation at times, that’s for sure. And no one will ever say that it’s an easy task to get both factors right.
Then there are authors, such as Ally Condie, who try far too hard to create an opening line that is smart/clever/arty or whatever, and it just comes across as clichéd, romanticised twaddle. As I mentioned before, many writers can get past this by writing a much better novel, Condie, on the other hand manages to convey what the rest of the book is like within those first lines perfectly. And for me, that is not a good thing. And of course, the closing line is just as flowery as the opener.
For me personally (and this is only my opinion), this is a perfect example of how not to do it.
Writing Inspiration: The Rotter’s Club
Novel: The Rotter’s Club
Author: Jonathan Coe
Opening Line:
On a clear, blueblack, starry night, in the city of Berlin, in the year 2003, two young people sat down to dinner.
Closing Line:
The Sophie rallied, and saw that he was right, and after catching the eye of the wine waiter she turned back to Patrick and smiled her widest smile, full of hope and anticipation. And she said:
- All right, then: now it’s your turn.
Writing Inspiration: The Accidental
Novel: The Accidental
Author: Ali Smith
Opening Line:
My mother began me one evening in 1968 on a table in the cafe of the town’s only cinema.
Closing Line:
I’m everything you ever dreamed.
Writing Inspiration: Wicked
Novel: Wicked
Author: Gregory Maguire
Opening Line:
A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind’s forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by a turbulent air.
Closing Line:
“And there the wicked old Witch stayed for a good long time.”
“And did she ever come out?”
“Not yet.”
Writing Inspiration: The Lovely Bones
Novel: The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Opening Line:
My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.
Closing Line:
I wish you all a long and happy life.
Writing Inspiration: Shooting Fish
Novel: Shooting Fish
Author: Graeme Grant
Opening Line:
Once upon a time there were two little boys who shared a dream.
Closing Line:
Their erstwhile charges, on the other hand, lived Happily Ever After.
Writing Inspiration: Shutter Island
Novel: Shutter Island
Author: Dennis Lehane
Opening Line:
I haven’t laid eyes on the island in several years.
Closing Line:
Teddy said, “I don’t know, Chuck. You think they’re onto us?”
“Nah.” chuck tilted his head back, squinting a bit in the sun, and he smiled at Teddy, “We’re too smart for that.”
“Yeah,” Teddy said. “We are, aren’t we?”
Writing Inspiration: The Book Thief
Novel: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Opening Lines:
First the colours.
Then the humans.
That’s usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.
Here is a small fact:
You are going to die.
Closing Line:
I said it to the book thief and I say it now to you.
A Last Note From Your Narrator
I am haunted by humans.
