Write the first and last lines to your novel

[charlie and algernon]

First line:
At precisely 7:30am, the alarm clock shattered yet another fantastic dream and Matthew Lewis awoke to what will surely be another shitty day in this shitty existance he calls a life.



Last lines:
Matt looked at Cynthia, Cynthia looked at Matt. She wanted to say something, anything, she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Please god, say something!
Matt did: "Jump!"
They floated into the air, their lives finally complete.

[JTG of the PRB]

1. I'll play along.

First Line:

The trio of bright headlights on the stopped maglev train shone outward into the misty rain, creating ghostly beams of light that dissipated into the dreary, cold night.

Last Lines (or something somewhat like this at some point):

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Greene asked, lifting her gaze to Decker once again. Decker was silent for a long moment before he spoke.
"I just hope he knows what he's doing."

[azmouse]

2. First: It was a dark and stormy night.

Last: The sun shone brightly in the morning.


I don't think it'll be a Best Seller.

[NNadir]

3. OK, I'll do it.

Opening:

"You touch the steel cylinder..."

Closing:

There is the rumble of the waves, and beneath this, the exhalation of the broken surf, of bubbles of air rising through the water, over the earth, brushing against the sky. It is all they hear, this effervescence below them, this, superimposed as it is on the three Kelvin sigh cooled now out of the birth wail of the universe, this, the voice of the God who gives their rare embrace this, this, the hissing of the drowning sun.

It's even worse in the middle.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Okay, reluctantly.

First lines:
January 6, 1973, 10:00AM. A cafe, somewhere in northern Mexico.

Do you love me? - I asked.

Yes. - She said.

And for a moment, I was held in the gaze of an angel.



Last Lines:

When they speak to you of love, and hopes for the future
and they offer you the sun and a sky to go with it
if you remember me, don't say a word
because you will remember what true love was like.

And if they want to know about your past
you will have to tell a lie
tell them you come from a strange world
that you don't know how to cry
that you don't know of love
and that you have never loved.

Because wherever I go
I will speak of your love
as a golden dream
and forgetting all rancor
I will never admit your goodbye was my downfall

And if they want to know, about my past
I will have to say a different lie
I will tell them I come from a strange world
that I don't know pain
that I triumphed in love
and that I have never cried.

- Jose Alfredo Jimenez

[Brother Buzz]

5. A story

"When he was thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm broken badly at the elbow.", read the first line of a well thumbed book I held in my hand. I had just shut the house down for the night and was getting settled into my favorite chair with the intent of reading the book once again when suddenly the doorbell rang.....

•••••

"He Would Be in Jem's Room All Night, and He Would Be There when Jem Waked up in the Morning.”, read the last line of my book as the sun was rising and I felt a searing pain in my lower back. I found myself lying in the bathtub filled with ice and a message written in scarlet lipstick on the mirror advising me to seek medical help. I realized I was dreaming I was awake, and then all of a sudden I woke up and found myself asleep in my favorite chair.

Curry dishes are wicked good.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. hmmm...

Opening lines:
Sun breaking and mist rising over the green fields, she awoke. Coffee first and then to the barn where the two year old colt was waiting.

Closing line:
Down by the creek, Sam was waiting.

[HopeHoops]

7. First line: It was a dark and stormy night.

You knew that was coming.

Last line: But she really wanted to get laid anyway.

[Bucky]

13. You could set the sequel in a college town...

"It was a stark and dormy night..."

[HopeHoops]

15. Same last line, though!

[Aristus]

8. First line: "I grew up in a small town called the U.S. Army."

Last line: "The other two never looked at me the same way again."

[skygazer]

9. Fun little exercise

First line -

The sun was just rising above the horizon when Gaylord emerged from the yurt.


Last line -

He sighed. "I suppose I'll never know for sure what happened that night on the Elbe," he offered.

"No," she laughed. "But what does it matter? The jewel is back where it belongs and the only monster you have to worry about now is my dear old mum."

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. First: "The first time I kicked her in her smug fucking face was a universe-sized catharsis"

Last: "The final catharsis, the ultimate most wondrous and breathtakingly soul-cleansing and liberating catharsis, was that moment, that proud moment, that moment of hope and life and new days and ebullient heart-expanding joy when I stopped, a pause in the whirlwind and maelstrom of the previous six days, and I stopped and stood and looked forward and circled around and watched and looked and stared at the endless stretch of death, and I planted my feet firmly on the bodies underneath and knew, fully knew with absolute surety and infinite hope and wondrous swirling euphoria that I had slaughtered everyone, every miserable pathetic excuse for human life, slaughtered and butchered and rent asunder like the pigs, the filth, the cattle, the mooing inebriated livestocks that they were, and that now, being alone, the last human, the only human, the best and most human of all humans, I could remake the world into the image of love and welcome and artistry and tolerance and hope that it was meant to be, and that tomorrow would begin that greatest work in humanity's history as one of us, the most evolved of us, the most holy and right and perfect and capable of us, the last of us, would, after millions of years of inaction, begin humanity's reach for perfection, and I sighed a sigh of the cosmos, the sigh that God Himself must have sighed, knowing that now, finally, someone - me - had the vision and found the will to re-create humanity into its destiny, and I lit a cigarette and I smiled and I knew that I was right and I dramatically kicked one of the nameless dead in the head, severing it, and sending it into the horizon along with humanity's future, and the sun rose on a new day, a new dawn, a new age, and I drank it in knowing that the stench of the irrelevant and un-evolved would soon be blown away and I would be thought of as a god as humanity was created anew in my image."

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Oh, wait - you said "novel". I thought you said "memoir".

[charlie and algernon]

21. Beautiful!

I want to see your full-length 400 page novel, all one sentence of course.

[Bucky]

12. "For Whom's the Tollbooth Belle?"

First line:

Tragedy struck the little Delaware pit stop when, upon finding his back bone and asking the HMO spokesperson a relevant, hard hitting question, the mainstream media journalist was hit by a flying pig and sent hurtling down into the suddenly frozen depths of Hell. It was a good way to go.

Last line:

And so they clambered from the sewers, the air ducts, the cracks in the sidewalk, this relentless army of the shadows--the roaches, the rats, the disease bearing urban porcupines--howling at the overcast gloom and feasting as never before upon the fetid, graying flesh of the once-great dessicated zombie militia. General Hannity was the last to be consumed by the vengeful vermin, those first vile consumers of his cooling flesh quickly choking on their own rodent vomits and twitching in despair. Beyond the atmosphere, the solar system spun on, an unyielding clock, and Commandrix Lynne piloted the Great Liberal Space Arc to Terra Nova... and a place called Hope.

Whatcha think, too purple?

[Call Me Wesley]

14. Okay:

First line:

Chapter I

Last line:

The End

You didn't think I'm giving my bestselling novel away, did you?

[guitar man]

16. ok, this is fun

First line:

"He eased off the throttle and the big Harley started slowing down. Downshifting, he slowed more and pulled into the country store and gas station, coming to a stop at the pump. The big twin's lopey idle was satisfying as he listened a few seconds before shutting it off. Then he saw her, standing in front of the store, short shorts and a halter top. She looked so good he just had to ask her if she wanted to go for a ride...

Last line:

As the endless, two-lane black ribbon continued to unfold ahead of him, the sound of the old shovelhead was mesmerising, the pulse of a bygone era that lived on. As the sun set and he and the old shovel rolled on, he was lost in the cathartic bliss that only a vintage machine, a desert road and perfect weather can provide, not knowing,or caring that several miles behind him, she had fallen off.

[av8rdave]

18. If you can read this....

Oh, never mind.

[guitar man]

22. I started to

use the b-word, but I figured the outrage patrol would get me if I did

[av8rdave]

17. OK

"The abrupt silence, accentuated by the suddenly dark cockpit and a distant sound of wind outside caused Bobby to muse that perhaps he should have paid more attention to his first officer's comments...something about fuel."


"It was then that he realized just how much he liked tacos."

[arcadian]

19. First: "Fuck! Fuck Yeah! Ain't no hooves on this bitch!:

Last:

"And the world paused in remembrance of his great deeds, his generosity and his love of his fellow man, a greater place for having had him in it."

[Deep13]

26. cheers.

[mak3cats]

20. First: “Hi, my name’s Lauren. Wanna meet my gerbil?”

Last: “She looked upon the still face of her old friend one final time, and turned sadly and silently away.”

True story; I might actually put it on paper one of these days.

[Dr. Strange]

23. Here's the first:

The only thing worse than being a vampire, thought Barney, is being a vampire with dirty underwear.
Barney was, of course, mistaken. There are a great many things that are worse than being a vampire with dirty underwear. For one, the underwear wasn't even his. They belonged to his victim, whose blood was now being drained.

I don't know what the final lines will look like. But in between, I'm hoping for lots of lesbian vampires and harems and horse-riding.

[mnhtnbb]

24. The Matt and Cyndie in my life were married in Las Vegas last Saturday!

Seriously, not a novel!

[Deep13]

25. The adventure of his life began with a drive to the coast...

...in seach of the perfect scenic photograph.

***

Still disbelieving the events of the past week, he sat close to the new-found love of his life waiting for the timer to capture his perfectly composed photo only to have a squirrel jump in front of the lens just before the shutter was triggered.

[charlie and algernon]

27. OK, you win

/thread

[Moondog]

28. I'll bite.

First:

Concluding that men, all men, were basically heartless bastards, Cat swore to herself that she would never again place her trust in another.


Last:

As the earth was placed into Cat's grave, the children and grandchildren grieved, each in their own way, while Sam wept.

[KansDem]

29. Here's mine...

First line: "Call me ________" (insert name here)

Last line: "And at the instant he knew, he ceased to know."

[Z_I_Peevey]

30. Somebody fill in the middle and we'll be writing team.

First line:

I was well into my third hour out of Woodward, relentlessly driving a steady 70 mph on the endless Panhandle straightaway, and I confess, fancying myself some sort of rebel, when I began to sing at the top of my lungs just to stay awake.

Last line:
And there was a voice rising from the floorboard speakers--he was singing about suicide, jumping into a river only to find himself suddently reluctant to die, and fighting, struggling, twisting to say afloat--whose voices was that, and did he say he was going to New Orleans, just as I am?

[A-Schwarzenegger]

31. My Uncle Leonard was a hermit that lived alone in the deep woods his whole life.

And, as a matter of fact, while I was at it, to be fair, to stop in wonder here in there a little bit about you, too.

[MineralMan]

32. The sun rose hot over the tent I had pitched the night before

in the Negev Desert.


As the cell door swung open, I stepped once again into freedom.

[Fire Walk With Me]

33. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to Barney."

"Well, that certainly was a dark and stormy night, the best of times, and the worst of times."





What?

[Duer 157099]

34. "You always wonder how it's going to end.

Will it hurt? Will I cry? Will I have any regrets?"

... (300 pages)


At last, I knew.

[Joey Liberal]

35. Here you go:

1st line - She had a great rack

last line - What a great broad.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

36. "I woke up, face down, on the bar.........

with a tumbler of whiskey in one hand, a copy of Great Expectations in the other."

Last line: "It was then I knew they were all idiots."

[carlyhippy]

37. Excerpts from "Stage left love-life of a rocker wife"

Chapter I

We have had songs written about us-Tiny Dancer, Wonderful Tonight, Woman, and yet we end up in the shadows of stardom.


Chapter fin

It has been a wild ride, and I am ready to get in line and do it again.

[femmocrat]

38. First line: She remembered how the creek ran red with blood.

Last line: It wasn't supposed to end like this.