NaNoWriMo Inspiration: 10 First Lines from Recent Bestsellers
Here, to inspire your first day of cranking out 50,000 words in 30 days, we’ve compiled some intriguing first lines from recent novels.
Editor's Note: The following list first appeared in the January 2017 issue of Writer's Digest. Subscribe today to experience WD all year long.
So you're taking on NaNoWriMo. The first day of NaNo is often the most optimistic—you have your idea, and you're excited to take on a new challenge. If you're an industrious and forward-thinking writer, you may have even plotted out an outline or written down some notes.
If you're writing a novel that you aspire to publish, now's the time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) in earnest and dig in. But where do you start? At the beginning, of course. Here, to inspire your first day of cranking out 50,000 words in 30 days (that's 1,667 words a day), we've compiled some intriguing first lines from novels released in the past two years.
If you got started on a novel for NaNoWriMo today, share your first line in the comments.
Quotes compiled by Jessica Strawser, images by Jess Zafarris
1. The Promise by Robert Crais
2. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
3. Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams
4.
The English Spy
by Daniel Silva
5. The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
6. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
7. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
8. Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
9. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
10. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
Learn more in the online course How to Craft a Book that Will Sell (and Launch Your Writing Career).
Jess Zafarris is the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications for Gotham Ghostwriters and the former Digital Content Director for Writer’s Digest. Her eight years of experience in digital and print content direction include such roles as editor-in-chief of HOW Design magazine and online content director of HOW and PRINT magazine, as well as writing for the Denver Business Journal, ABC News, and the Memphis Commercial Appeal. She spends much of her spare time researching curious word histories and writing about them at UselessEtymology.com. Follow her at @jesszafarris or @uselessety on Twitter.
