What happened to my novel’s first sentence?
We talk a lot about how important the first line in a novel is. Everyone knows the famous ones, like “Call me Ishmael.”
Imagine what would happen if the unthinkable occurred. What if the first line were accidentally omitted by the typesetter? Would Moby Dick have been the same if it started, ”Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.” Curious, huh?
I’ve got a quiz for you to try your hand at identifying these famous books by their second lines.
Amazing
My respect for that author has grown, given her creative way of dealing with a publisher’s error that some authors would consider horrifying/heartbreaking. I got 8 out of 10, and should have gotten 9, but that’s because the selections are heavy on SFF–I could see an equally valid set of 10 books where I’d be lucky to get one. (One of the two I missed: I thought old British fantasy when I should have thought new British fantasy.)