I have just finished listening to a “seminar” given by a literary agent in which she critiqued proposed first lines of novels.
Sounds good, right? If the first line doesn’t grab you, the rest of the book is in trouble, right?
Yes, except that this particular agent was…well, a fool.
“We never begin a book by waking up,” she said. “We never begin a book with dialogue.”
Really?
How about this line:
“The explosion threw me out of bed.“
Would you read the next line? Of course you would. The first line isn’t about waking up, it’s about something crazy happening.
My novel The Gods of War begins this way:
“Mr. Robinson, would you mind working on a case in which the stakes are death?”
This violates this silly agent’s rule by starting a book with dialogue. But tell me, dear reader, doesn’t it intrigue you? Don’t you wonder what kind of a case Minerva wants Carson to work on?
The agent didn’t explain why beginning a novel with dialogue was a violation of the Rules. My guess is she would say something foolish like, “We don’t know who’s talking or why.” Well, that’s what the next line is for, my dear.
I can think of a dozen great books which begin with dialogue. War and Peace, for instance, starts like this:
“Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the
Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don’t tell me that this means war,
if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by
that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have
nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer
my ‘faithful slave,’ as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see
I have frightened you- sit down and tell me all the news.”
Gee, that book wasn’t very popular, was it. A real failure, just because Lev Tolstoy started with dialogue instead of some punchy line to pull you in.
No, I think the Rules are for the Fools. They really don’t know what they’re doing, so they copy the stuff they hear other agents saying without thinking. Which is why our literature is so dull these days.
The only real rule should be, don’t be boring. If your first line–and your first page and first chapter–pull the reader in, interest them, make them want to read more, that should be sufficient.
Mark Bruce, Writer 