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Tag: First lines of novels

Clockwise from upper left, book covers for “Nine Coaches Waiting,” “A Place to Call Home,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Real Men Knit,” and “Heroes Are My Weakness.”
Pickup Lines: How to Start a Romance

Pickup Lines: How to Start a Romance

By G. S. Norwood Good opening sentences are like pickup lines at a bar.  An author wants you to spend some pleasant time with her book.  Maybe develop a lasting relationship with her characters.  What can she say in that moment when your eye first meets her page?  How should she start a romance with her reader, as well as a romance between her characters?  Today I want to look at some of the pickup lines that helped me start…

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First Impressions

First Impressions

By Jan S. Gephardt They say first impressions are important. As a writer, I’d say that goes for the first lines of stories, too. Lots of great books and stories open with ho-hum first lines. But I deeply admire a great opening line. I often kick off a new month with a collection of illustrated quotations. This month, I’ve put my own spin on a related idea that I got from a friend, Lynette M. Burrows. Her excellent blog regularly…

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