The First Line

Our Mission
The purpose of The First Line is to jump start the imagination-to help writers break through the block that is the blank page. Each issue contains short stories that stem from a common first line; it also provides a forum for discussing favorite first lines in literature. The First Line is an exercise in creativity for writers and a chance for readers to see how many different directions we can take when we start from the same place.

TFL Specs
Published: 4 times a year starting in 2002 (Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall)
From 1999 through 2001 we were six times a year
First Issue: May/June 1999
Cost: $3.50/issue and $10.00 a year. Here's our subscription information.

The First Line is a publication of Blue Cubicle Press, LLC. Here's our contact information.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Can you guess which novel or which movie had the following first lines? For movies, it would be the first line of dialogue or spoken narration (not necessarily the first line of the written screenplay).

Hold your mouse cursor over the line and the answer (name of the work) will appear (at least in IE - I know nothing about AOL or Netscape browsers).

All children, except one, grow up.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

"Life's not fair is it?"

"Is he dead?"

It was love at first sight.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

"So sorry, forgot to knock."

"So where are you?"

1801-- I have just returned from a visit to my landlord -- the solitary neighbor that I shall be troubled with.

On the morning of August 8, 1965, Robert Kincaid locked the door to his small two-room apartment on the third floor of a rambling house in Bellingham, Washington.

"I'm voting for Dukakis."

"People were always asking me, did I know Tyler Durden."

"To be born again " sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die."