Wednesday, August 8, 2012

August First Line Grabber #25

TITLE: THE CURSE
GENRE: Adult Paranormal

I was born into this life a witch, naked and pink as nature intended; And it was for my birthright I was taken out of this world, naked just the same.

80 comments:

Heidi said...

Yes. The being killed naked part intrigues me. Writing needs to sustain that intrigue.

Anita Saxena said...

Yes. The part about being born a witch as naked intended hoked me.

B.E. Sanderson said...

Yes. Now I want to know what took her out of the world and why she was naked at the time.

Amanda Foody said...

Yes. It's well written and comes in a full circle. I have a thing for full circles.

Stacey Hays said...

Yes, it gave me a beginning and end. Which I like.

Stephanie Garber said...

Yes. You create two very clear images with this one line, and I am curious to read on.

Yttar said...

No. It seems like a cliche opening.

AG said...

YES. Well constructed and mysterious

Emma said...

No. Seems a bit of a cheat with the semi-colon, and with that, a bit too much info for a first sentence.

Judy Mintz said...

No.

Janice Sperry said...

yes. I had to think about it for a while. The next sentence would have to knock my socks off if I were to read beyond that.

Lydia Netzer said...

No. Grandiose. I think it's "naked just the same" that pushed it over the edge into sonorous.

ElectraCute said...

No. But it can be made a grabber with some editing.

Kelly Allan said...

Yes. I want to know why she's naked.. The sentence is a little clunky though.

Kathleen said...

YES. I love the writing, first off. Second, why was she killed for being a witch? The writing helps weave an intriguing question.

Jillian Kuhns said...

Yes, I'm a sucker for witches and like that it ties beginning and end.

janealfalor said...

No. I actually like the idea, but I feel like there's just too much going on for one sentence.

Stacey Trombley said...

Yes.

"nake just the same." pulled the yes out of me. I don't love it, but I'm interested.

erin said...

Yes. It's well written, and I'm interested to know what's going on in the book.

It's a little cliche, though, and if the following lines didn't work really well, I might not keep reading.

Amanda H said...

No. I agree the semicolon feels like a cheat to get the single sentence, and I really do feel I've seen similar lines elsewhere.

Plumbago said...

No.
I like the part before the semi-colon. But the second part tells me we're about to have a flashback. I don't like starting with flashbacks. (Is the birthright the witchiness or something else?)

Alaina said...

No. There's too much going on in the sentence, and the semicolon's addition feels tacked on.

DJ said...

NO, I think it's too much. I'd prefer it to be two sentences, plus it hints of misery-lit, which I'm not into.

Bill Scott said...

No. Didn't care for the construction.

Charlee Vale said...

NO. The sentence is a bit clunky, though I like the cyclical nature you tried to bring to it.

R.A.Desilets said...

No. Love the concept, but the sentence as a whole needs work.

Missy Fleming said...

Yes. I like the voice. Some of the grammar needs fixed but the voice caught me.

Ellie Heller said...

No. It looks like you realized the first sentence wasn't going to cut it and so you stuck the next sentence to it, making for a too long and incorrectly punctuated sentence. I also didn't get the 'for my birthright' part. The 'for' didn't make any sense. You can definitely trim this down to one compact sentence and have a much stronger hook, the idea is there.

Chro said...

No. I think this is a bit too wordy.

Holly Bodger said...

No. I almost said yes but there are grammatical errors and the "for" sounds like it should be "because of".

Leah Petersen said...

Yes. Grammar issues aside, the imagery is great, "naked and pink" which bodes well for the rest; and the premise it lays forth is intriguing.

Karen Akins said...

YES -Iike the nature/naked echo. I'd change the semicolon to a period, though.

zolosolo said...

No. I agree this opening is a bit trite.

JaneDoe said...

No for a first sentance. Yes for the concept.

DB Graves said...

Yes. Need to read a little more. First line seems wordy to me though.

SMKrafty said...

Yes. The intrigue is there, even thought the sentence itself seems awkward.

oxford coma said...

Yes! The only thing more exciting than witches is naked witches.

Shiela Calderón Blankemeier said...

Yes, love that she's supposedly dead. Also love the balance of the sentence.

A Little Push said...

No. This first sentence seems like it's trying too hard.

Kelsey (Dominique) Ridge said...

No. There's nothing here to impress me. Sure, she's a witch. Sure, she was born naked. These are standards of fantasy. Even the idea of dying naked is not new or interesting enough to grab me.

Jade said...

No
Sounds overly sexy. and the "and" after ; should be lower case.

Margot Galaway said...

Yes. Witch both brought into and taken out of the world is intriguing.

Heather Hawke said...

Yes - but with caveats - check proper semicolon usage and consider a synonym for "naked" the second time around.

Stephsco said...

Yes, it's dramatic and seems to fit with the genre and title.

Megan C. said...

No. It is an interesting concept, but it sounds like you jput two sentences together, and now it feels choppy to me.

Jasmine said...

No. reads like an attempt to shoehorn two sentences into one and in either case is confusing all the same.

Shakier Anthem said...

No. The language is a little grandiose for my taste.

Anonymous said...

No. I don't like the naked and pink part. If you left it at naked, maybe. I also know a lot about witches so the part about being dead is kind of obvious. Most accused witches were killed. So the surprise element is lacking.

Shannon Schuren said...

Yes. It could be cleaned up a bit, but I really like the voice.

Marianne Su said...

No. Wordy. Could be tighter. "and" after semi-colon doesn't need to be capitalized.

The Dieselpunkette said...

No. As I see others have said "and" shouldn't be capitalized after a semicolon, but also it's vague as to whether being a witch is the speaker's birthright, or if the birthright refers to something else.

SStokes said...

Yes. I found it intriguing and want to read more.

foxfyre said...

No. The semicolon feels like a cheat to make a single more interesting first sentence. I do like the idea presented, and I think this could be great with some editing.

Melinda said...

Yes, strong voice, but the uppercase And seems strange.

jedlight said...

No. I don't like the voice and found the sentence confusing.

Petre Pan said...

No. I'm not sure that 'as nature intended' actually adds to the voice. The sentence seems a bit overdone. You could just say she was born a naked witch and she died a naked witch (not exactly like that--but something simpler that doesn't seem so haughty).

The REALLY Real Curious Crow said...

Yes. I'm a sucker for a well-told story about witches (especially with well-researched history weaved in), and this opened up in an intriguing way.

Susie said...

No. I like what it's going for, but don't think it succeeded at it. Needs to be reworked.

Anonymous said...

No, don't care for the voice

Lisa said...

No. The sentence was clunky. But I like the idea.

Mary Holm said...

No. I liked the ideas, but too much info in one sentence. Semi colon doesn't work for me there. Could work if reworded.

Megan said...

Yes. I like the mystery of how she was taken out of this world. Plus, I enjoy stories about witches, so I'm hooked. :)

sbibb said...

Yes. It has me sort of intrigued, though I'm not sure about if I'd like the voice, but I like how the line ends referencing the first part.

Stacy McKitrick said...

No. The sentence confused me.

Robin Weeks said...

No. The wording strikes me as a tad melodramatic. Plus, the sentence feels more like a premise or a prologue than a start to a story. Unless the character is currently dead, I'm very confused as to the tenses used. If the character IS currently dead... I'm still confused.

Tori Schindler said...

Yes. I don't usually like being told up front the character dies, and the sentence was a little awkward. I did like the 'naked and pink as nature intended' and the 'taken out of this world, naked just the same' though. Great phrasing.

Katherine said...

No. I'm on the fence....but I'm just not convinced.

writesbymoonlight said...

Yes. I like the circular structure. Plus, I love this genre.

Danielle La Paglia said...

No. Telling me the character is dead in the first line doesn't do anything for me.

Heather said...

No.

The sentence is long and unwieldy. And it makes it sound like nature intended her to be born naked and pink because she's a witch, when everyone is born naked and pink regardless... (unless you aren't). The hook bit seems to be that she's naked when she dies... but that doesn't really grab me.

Barbara said...

No. It tells me nothing.

Aightball said...

Yes. I'm intrigued enough to keep reading, to see what the character has to say.

Jenn said...

Yes. I want to get to know this deep witch.

tarak said...

Yes. I do think this is really two sentences, but if you'd ended it with "as nature intended," I'd still be hooked.

Earth said...

Yes. I like the writing style enough to want more

Robin said...

Yes, I like this, it's pretty and horrid at the same time. I like the balance of naked being at the beginning and the end.

Britney Gulbrandsen said...

Yes. I love that the beginning of the sentence and the end of the sentence tie together.

Dale Ibitz said...

No. Had to read twice to get it, especially with the grammatical error.

Mary said...

Yes.

Jess Crockett said...

No, it just doesn't do it for me. I think it's a bit long, for a start, and a lot of stories start with a character being born or a reference to them being born - bit of a cliche.