Can you write the best attention-grabbing sentence?

1. 73

   Andy McGuireposted 12 years ago

   Can you write the best attention-grabbing sentence?
   
   The very first sentence in a story can grab the reader's attention or make them shy away from the rest of the story.
   I wrote a hub that will serve as the prologue to a novel I am working on and, in addition to your feedback on that ("Maddox Bellacole and The Child of Two Worlds"), I want to know what your best top-of-your-head opening story line would be.
   (I won't steal it, I swear, I'm just curious.)

   replyreport
2. 61

   PAPA-BEARposted 12 years ago

   'Alright, you think you know. Then look into my face, look into my eyes. Let me take you back, exactly to the second that it all started.'

   replyreport
3. 70

   Storytellersrusposted 12 years ago

   "She turned to warn him, but his combat hiker had already tripped the wire."
   
   One sentence does not generate enough words to please the answer god, so here's another off the top of my head...
   
   "A fluffy pup trotted across parched earth toward the sunbather, dangling what appeared to be... could it be... was that a rattlesnake?"

   replyreport
4. 61

   Benson Brockposted 12 years ago

   Blaine was locked eye to eye with his infant son Bradford once he turned from his gaze of the streets below the penthouse where the carcass of his brother lay. As he began to walk slowly towards him, he again realized how much little Brad favored his fraternal twin brother Blake who just plunged several stories to his death from the penthouse ledge.
   
   I agree with "storytellersrus". The first sentence has to roll into the second. But the greatest of all to me is, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." Know of one greater?

   replyreport
5. 74

   ACSutliffposted 8 years ago

   "OK--answer me this: why would anyone want to wear an overcoat in San Francisco in the middle of summer?"
   
   (This is the opening to The Alchemyst by Michael Scott; starting with a question that a character asks another can be an intriguing way to start. The answer to this question of course is that they are golems, and if anyone sees their faces, they will scream.)
   
   And here's mine: (I need the whole first paragraph, sorry!)
   
   Theo Presten was just about to write the climax to his story about the brave young stable boy Hermes Trismegistus, who was rescuing all the magical creatures from the evil emperor, but he was rudely interrupted when his pen slipped out of his hand. This wouldn’t be a problem for a normal boy. But Theo was far from normal. For instance, his favorite place to write just so happened to be up in the old oak tree on his parents’ ranch. And this meant that his pen had just fallen twenty feet to the ground below his dangling feet.

   replyreport