If you’re not on Twitter and following me you should be because occasionally I have  moments of brilliance.

What’s the latest moment you ask? Oh nothing much, just an idea of epic proportions sure to sweep across the nation and blow everyone’s mind at once!!!

Okay, maybe it’s not that epic, but it is a great idea I hope you’ll take part in. Let me start from the beginning… *throat clears*

*dramatic music*

In a world filled with children’s books, words run rampant igniting all forms of chaos!  Yet amidst the fires of literary anarchy there rose a hero. Well, not so much a hero as a hashtag. But it wasn’t just any hashtag, it was the only hashtag powerful enough to restore order to the immensely unsettled literary lands. That hashtag was know as: #FavoriteFirstLines.

It’s soul purpose (Yes, I said soul purpose not sole purpose because this hashtag’s mission is rooted deeeeeeep in its very being.) is to be a means through which literary enthusiasts can share their favorite first lines of literature.

The first line of a story is the most responsible collection of words in the entire piece. It is burdened with setting tone, scene, and pacing of a story. If the story’s title is the address of a house ,then the first line is the front door. It’s that line’s job to give a potential reader the gist of a house they no little or nothing about, and convince him/her to cross the threshold. No easy feat.

As an aspiring children’s author and avid reader I’ve become a curator of first lines. Those stories with original, character-revealing, scene-setting, curiosity-poking first lines tend not to disappoint. It pays to pay attention to these lines and identify what makes some sizzle and others fizzle out.

I will be joining the other members of the social media universe in using #favoritefirstlines (because apparently this hashtag is already being used and I did not make it up as I thought I had a few minutes ago before I searched and found it on Twitter… *sigh* is there nothing new under the sun??) to share and collect my favorite first story lines. Please feel free to share your favorite first lines with me via Twitter @whatsticks or in the comments below!