Young Writers Society

I have a question: How many of you, upon opening up a book, read only the first line before deciding to read it?

Recently, I've read quite a few articles about and pleas for help with first lines. People say they are the most important, the first impression, blah blah blah.

Don't get me wrong. I think first impressions are important and if you can write a killer first sentence, then by all means make it as killer as possible. But is it really that important that you should get hung up on it and stress about it and generally be worried about it?

I can't say as I ever have been that hung up on it. More than the first sentence alone, I have always freaked about about the first paragraph of my story, because that is what I personally read when I am first opening a book. I give the book a little more of a chance than a single sentence.

My advice in general though: Don't freak out about it too much, especially not on your first draft. There is always time to edit later. Just start the story however it demands to be started and you can go back and make it look pretty later.

"Other" was my choice.

I have read anywhere from 1 sentence to three pages to determine if the book was worthwhile (the three pages was because it was so nice to read I just kept going...) with my average being around three paragraphs. Usually, I stop when there's some sort of glaring error (clunky description, not using the person well, too much backstory required to understand the situation, grammar, ect) early on.

However, once I get into the story I tend to skip over these errors. For the most part. This stage of requiring to hook me usually lasts until the story gets good, which often is at the 7/10 page mark.

I pick a random page in the middle of the book because I know that the first line/page probably went through the most work until it was perfect. That being said a book can easily sound amazing from the first page and go down hill.

I picked Other as well because it's often a combination of factors that lead me to read a whole story. Title is a big thing because if they've created an interesting title, it can often lead me to reading the whole story just to understand the meaning.
Also, a well written, interesting blurb about the book can often be enough to get me to read it.
Sometimes, too, it will be the author that will encourage me to read it. The very name 'Kurt Vonnegut ' will prompt me to read the book. These factors actually bring me to want to read more than the first few lines of the story.

I picked other because I use a combination of the title and the summary and sometimes I read a page or two. I also go by the cover. There are certain covers that make me want to read books and others that make me want to drop them. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover but I can't help it.

~peanut~

First paragraph then the middle. I've been bamboozled too many times by a first line.

I picked other. I have a range of reading the first few paragraphs up to around three pages. If I feel like it, I also sometimes take a short sneak peek of the future chapters just to see where it's going before I continue reading.

First page.
It's almost always one page or 3/4th a page and then I decide.

I choose Other.

There was this one book that I read a good five chapters in before throwing it to the piranhas. I noticed it was moving really slow and the description was dragging and the whole book itself was just...slow. Nothing was happening other than the girl being admitted into the corrections facility and meeting everyone, but at least she made an enemy! Ugh.

Different books, like ones by Sarah Dessen, I don't even need to worry about if it'll be good or not. She's just that awesome.

Loveless~