Wednesday, August 8, 2012

August First Line Grabber #27

TITLE: DMcWild
GENRE: YA Science Fiction

Water pooled in my eyes as a human cocooned in red from crown to roots emerged from my entry pod carrying a rooting box—the rooting box that nurtured my clones.



87 comments:

Heidi said...

No. Simply can't follow what's going on.

B.E. Sanderson said...

No. I don't understand what the writer means here.

Anita Saxena said...

Yes. It is a bit hard to follow BUT someone has a box responsible for creating clones, so I would read more to just figure out what is going on.

Amanda Foody said...

No. It's hard to picture and really hard to follow. There's a lot of information here and some 'red light words.' Not bad words, but words the reader sees and realizes they're not in Kanas anymore. Particularly human, cocooned, entry bod, rooting box, clones. All are off or foreign.

Stacey Hays said...

No. I'm so lost right now. Too much. Too soon.

the type writer said...

No. Feel like I'm in information overload.

Yttar said...

No. This seems like a nice image, but I'd rather have a chance to explore it more than to be rushed into the next bit of information.

Stephanie Garber said...

No. Too much is going on.

Lanette said...

No. I'm confused.

Emma said...

No. Less is more in this case. You're trying for too much info all at once.

Judy Mintz said...

No. Way too much going on in that sentence.

Janice Sperry said...

No. I'm lost.

ElectraCute said...

No. Lots of words; hard to follow.

Lydia Netzer said...

No. Too much going on. Potentially an interesting book though -- rooting box, clones, red cocoons, etc. This is just an awful sentence.

Kelly Allan said...

No. I wanted to stop reading after the word cacooned. The writing was too over-the-top.

Kathleen said...

NO. Too heavy, too early. I have no idea what's going on. What is a root box, and why is it carrying clones? Who is "I" in this story? There are plenty of questions that would suggest I read on, but the strangeness of the sentence is a turn-off.

JennaDanielle said...

No. But it is an interesting concept. If it was easier to read, I may have voted Yes.

Robbin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jillian Kuhns said...

No, the sentence is hard to read and a little long.

janealfalor said...

No. I think there may be a good idea here, but right now I'm just confused as to what's going on.

Leah Petersen said...

No. On a basic level, it just plain needs commas; but even with them it's too much info too early for me to get a sense of what it means or why I should care.

Stacey Trombley said...

No.

Read this out loud. It doesn't read smooth at all, reading it out loud should help you find a rhythm and clear up some of the confusion.

A. M. Perkins said...

No. This is beyond in medias res and is confusing. Perhaps if you backed the opening up a few minutes - even a few seconds - to give us a little bit of setting or character to ground the scene.

erin said...

No. The sentence is too long, rambling, and clumsy. I had to read it aloud before I could even wrap my head around it, and that's too much work for the first line in a book.

Alaina said...

No. I'm confused, not intrigued.

Amanda H said...

No--sentence is too convoluted and difficult to follow. It would make me wonder if the rest of the writing is, too.

But the rooting box bit is intriguing.

misstante said...

no. i have to focus too much to find the image and want it to be clearer.

DJ said...

No, sorry, not during breakfast! Too yucky for me (I'm a wimp).

Shiela Calderón Blankemeier said...

No. It's weighted down with too much description and made it hard for me to follow. The idea of cocoons (I know it's a description but that's what stuck in my head) and cloning is intriguing, but hard to see.

Lauren B. said...

No, the narrative voice sounds inauthentic, i.e. "water pooled in my eyes" sounds forced and not how someone would actually describe something if they were telling a story.

Milhaud said...

No. This is much too convoluted.

Bill Scott said...

NO. "My rooting box" sounded like part of her body and I think it's because it's paired with "my eyes," so the whole thing had an unintentional sexual innuendo vibe for me.

R.A.Desilets said...

No. This sentence completely loses me, it's clunky and confusing.

Charlee Vale said...

No. I don't think I can add to the many reasons said here. They are the same.

Lori Alexander said...

No. Needs to be tightened up a bit.

Missy Fleming said...

No. Way too confusing and it never really figured out what was going on. It felt like a run on packed with too much information.

Chro said...

No. Clunky, and I had trouble visualizing exactly what was going on.

Holly Bodger said...

No. Too confusing. Too much detail.

Ellie Heller said...

No. In part because the sentence is confusing and in part because the close and rooting box seems too adult for YA.

Jane Doe said...

No. Not a good first line. Rather confusing. Could be a later line early in the book.

DB Graves said...

No. Feels too technical for a YA start. No clear sense of voice. Not sure if the 'speaker' is MC or someone else.

jkwise1 said...

No. Too many words in strange combination.

zolosolo said...

No. Too much information.

SMKrafty said...

No. The intent is unclear because it is cluttered with ambiguous description.

A Little Push said...

No. I was confused as to what was going on.

Kelsey (Dominique) Ridge said...

No. I can follow what's going on, but I know a lot of people aren't going to be able to follow it, and you're going to lose a lot of people instantly. Beyond that, there's just too much happening in one sentence, and not all of it is that critical.

Margot Galaway said...

No. Crown to roots gave me the image of crown of head to roots of hair. Not the image you were after, I think. The rest was simply too much rooting.

Jade said...

No
Too much too fast.

Katie T. said...

No. This sounds much more like the second sentence of your novel. I would start with a simple opening. Then follow up with the details.

Also, I've read this sentence at least three times. It's a bit convaluted for my brain. Maybe the scifi readers will digest this better than others. ;)

Heather Hawke said...

No - too complicated. Nice concept but needs a simpler cleaner start.

skywriter said...

No, sorry. Is there a connection between "from crown to 'roots' " and the rooting box? If not, "roots/rooting" is an odd repetition that made it confusing.

Shakier Anthem said...

No, too much going on for me to follow what's happening.

Stephsco said...

No, I think there's a lot to parse here and it's hard to digest lots of world-building elements in a first line without any context. This might work better as a later line.

Megan C. said...

No. I found myself skimming through the first line. I can tell the writer put a lot of thought into the line, but I think it is just too much info for a first line.

Jasmine said...

No. Too much detail and word repetition and not easily grasped or visualized. (The fact that the title is equally confusing does not help)

Carey Torgesen said...

No, just no. I found myseld re-reading and saying "huh?". And not confusing in a good I want to read more way.

Shannon Schuren said...

No. Confusing and over-written. Is the water pooling in the eyes supposed to be tears? Because on first read, I thought of some sort of water tortue. Why doesn't he/she blink?

Marianne Su said...

No. Too wordy.

SStokes said...

No. I'm confused, and it worries me that the rest of the story will be confusing.

foxfyre said...

No. After reading it a few times I understand it, and that it appears to be from the POV of an alien or plantlike creature, but the construction of the sentence put me off.

Melinda said...

No, could be an interesting story, but this sentence is too confusing.

jedlight said...

No. Found the sentence too flowery, no distinctive voice, too many phrases.

Petre Pan said...

No--but I like the idea! It's just that it's too much about clones much too soon. You could do this same thing in simpler language, and I think I'd say yes--if you just directly told me that after so many years of work you're finally getting to see your clone, or something like that. Direct would do more for me, here. Description can come later.

Susie said...

No. I did understand that the narrator is not meant to be human and therefore would not describe things in the way a human would, but itwas still too difficult to follow. Was the human covered in blood? Was the creature crying? Is the entry pod part of the creature or the enviornment?

Anonymous said...

No sorry, too much

Aightball said...

Yes. I want to know what's going on here and why there are clones.

Lisa said...

No. It was too wordy and to be honest I only skimmed it.

Mary Holm said...

No. Too much information that is new to the reader in one sentence.

Megan said...

No. I couldn't follow what was going on. I think maybe there's too much info crammed into one sentence.

sbibb said...

No. I got lost too quickly. It sounds like it could be an interesting concept (I liked "the rooting box that nutured my clones"), but might be better off explained later. And "water pooled in my eyes" really didn't catch me either.

Stacy McKitrick said...

No. Is this why I don't like science fiction? I'm totally confused.

Robin Weeks said...

No. I read it twice and I'm still confused. Try starting with something more familiar instead of cramming so much new terminology into the first sentence.

Jo Antareau said...

No. You are trying to do too much with this sentence, and it's not accomplishing anything. I've no idea what an entry pod might be. The word 'root' is used three times in the one sentence. I'm not sure how a human in a cocoon could remove anything from anywhere. Do you mean dressed in red? Just say so and your readers will have more patience.

Tori Schindler said...

No. I like the reference to clones, but it's difficult to read. There's simply too much going on.

Lanette said...

I came back and read it again. I understand it now, but I shouldn't have to work that hard.

KayC said...

No. Way, way too much information that doesn't make sense on first reading.

Book Lover said...

No. Seems a little wierd to me.

Heather said...

No.

I have no idea what's going on here. Is the MC crying? Does that mean the clones are dead? I can't tell because I don't know what species the MC is (Ship? Giant plant?) or what a rooting box is. Too much world building up front with no explanation.

Barbara said...

No. The sentence is convoluted and over-written.

Jenn said...

No. Too much to try to follow.

tarak said...

No. There is a lot going on in that one sentence, and it's hard to figure out what the focus is. I think you'd be better served by breaking this into several sentences.

Earth said...

no. You're trying to squeeze too much info in that one sentence

Robin said...

no, too much, too fast.

Britney Gulbrandsen said...

No. I was lost, right from the start.

Dale Ibitz said...

No. Too disjointed for an opening sentence.

Mary said...

No.

Jess Crockett said...

No, not sure what's going on in the sentence.