Why are the majority of opening lines in stories and novels

ummm... hello???
give me an example????

>Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

Do you guys think flannery was a qt?
Did she die a virgin?

>>9352379
Because youve pathologized the patterns of imageboard rhetoric to the point of percieving any honest attempt at beauty distastefully.

>>9352542
Thanks Freud

>>9352580
no your mom

>Call me ishmael, its not actually my name but its so cool Xdd
really melville?

>>9352379
exposition in general is pretty cringe-inducing but you can't exactly write a first paragraph without offering some exposition.

>>9352619
look into how many meanings are in that one sentence and i guarantee you will be astounded

>>9352653
>I just met you
>and this is crazy
>but here's my number
>and call me Ishmael

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>the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed

>>9352865
That line was porn to me when I was a teenager, 2bh pham.

>>9352480
Dieser Zats gefiel mir als Kind.

>A pale sun had risen in the morning, as it had done the day before, and after its setting, the moon had taken its place.

This is the translated first line of my novella. Is it cringeworthy?

>>9352925
I kinda like it. It sounds a tiny bit clunky but that might just be the translation. What's the book about?

>Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

>>9352925
"It was a dark and stormy night"

Opening stories with weather reports is such a cliche. Don't do it. I've only ever seen hacks do it.

>>9352932
The book it set five years after a nuclear war. It follows two Finnish men, a Younger one and an Older one, as they try to survive in the world devastated by nuclear winter. They meet a mother and her daughter, and the Older man and the mother, being very paranoid of strangers, hastily kill each other upon meeting. The Younger Man - who only now gets a name - starts traveling with the daughter and they eventually fall in love. In the end they find an old man dying of cancer, who has started a garden in an abandoned greenhouse.

The themes of the novella include the question of when, if ever, is life worth living. I also drew a lot of parallels to the story of Adam and Eve, whom the Younger Man and the daughter represent. While the book has a seemingly happy ending, it is uncertain if humanity can ever rise from the ashes; this uncertainly is present throughout the novella. I also liked creating a lot of contrast between moments of blissful happiness, like, for example, going to the sauna after two weeks of walking, and the gruesome fates of people the characters come across, like the corpse of a man who has been tortured to death by raiders.

It is definitely the best thing I've written so far.

>>9352966
I agree, but in this case the environment and the progression of the weather is very important, as the story takes place between spring and autumn, and the seasons play an essential role. The book is even called The Fall of Eden (Eedenin syys in Finnish). The name actually works better in English, due to the double meaning of the word fall.

>>9352379
Consider yourself lucky you live in an age where the opening is just a few mines instead of whole pages of of-so-meaningful purple prose mountainous scenery.

>>9353032
sounds like over-written garbage desu

>>9352379

Worrying about the opening line is plebeian and low-attention.

>>9353855
*a few lines

>>9352531
she looks like the mole man from the simpson

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>>9352920
Wieso last du die Verwandlung als Kind

CRASH! Mom made pancakes.

>>9353863
Tsk. Overwritten, underwritten, a bad book's a bad book.

>>9353943
Das Buch schien mir cool

>DUDE LMAO HE BECAME A BUG

>>9352379
Imo it's the expectation that it has to be a certain way to entice readers.

>Only one enemy remained. CRASH! Two if you count the golden retriever we decided to adopt.

>>9354701
by george....i desire a continuation

>>9352610
>xanaxagoras
>le millenial drugs with ancient thinkers reference

wow ur so cool.

>>9353032
It's not really my kind of genre but it sounds like you put a lot of work into it. I think it could turn out good. Just don't make the ending to happy, you know

>>9353855
>He doesn't like Proust's 3 page long descriptive sentences
I hate you.

>>9353032
it doesnt matter what youre reasoning is for why you want to open with the weather. if you send it to an agent or publishing house they will stop reading after the first sentence and assume you're a hack. just dont do it. keep the sentence but move it to the second paragraph or something

>>9353032

Here's how I would open it:

You think it's depressing to be Finnish as it is? Well in 2100 some fucking nuclear bombs fell and it got even worse. Marmo and Parmo were growing some carrots in a greenhouse to fend of starvation for another day, wondering if life was even worth living now they couldn't engage in the great Finnish past times of eating rotten fish and sitting in a steamy room.

>>9352865
This line is making me wet right now, tbqh

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>>9356415
Kek

>>9356415
i would read the shit out of any book that started like that

>>9356010
Is the second paragraph really far enough? Would you want to mention it at all in the portion of the manuscript you send to an agent? Where's the cutoff?

>>9352925
It's great.

>>9352865
kek
is that The Dark Tower?

>>9353032
Sounds interesting, if a bit heavy handed on the metaphors.

CRASH our adopted golden retriever had made pancakes!