And Then The Murders Began

At the beginning of March, author Marc Laidlaw put out a tweet that read “The first line of almost any story can be improved by making sure the second line is -And then the murders began-”

This is a very intriguing idea, and I challenge everyone to open up the nearest book and give it a try.

“Even before the events in the supermarket, Jim Ironheart should have known trouble was coming.” And then the murders began.

That may not be too big of a stretch for a Dean Koontz book. That was the first line from Cold Fire.

Let’s see how that new line will affect some other books.

“Once upon a time there were three bears who lived in a little house in the woods.” And then the murders began. You know what, I think that really livens up that story. I heard that second line and said woo, wait a minute. That’s different, tell me more about these killer bears.  

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” And then the murders began. Tough to improve on this one, but it does make the opening statement pop.

“Think about some of the different ways that people use computers.” And then the murders began. That’s from one of my programming books. That line does indeed improve the book. I might use that the next time I start a new class. Should be an attention grabber.

So have some fun with that, go grab a few books and read the first two lines out loud.