First Lines

Last night, at my writing group, we practiced "First Lines." This is practice in detail, in action, in story. The first line should grab the reader, hook them, pull them in. Playing with these first lines (created on the spot, off the cuff) was actually a lot of fun. I know mine aren't prize-winning, but I kind of liked them. I think I will play with them a little more. Who knows, maybe something will come out of this. Here they are:

• She noticed him watching her as she stepped onto the crosstown bus.
• The pain paralyzed her with each step as she pushed on toward the top.
• Aunt Sue came over last night with the apple pie she had made for daddy's hogs.
• Their laughter, echoing down he hall, sparked memories of her childhood.
• Parsley, that's what she had forgotten; now she'd have to scrap the whole thing.
• Between the two of them, he could see the shadow of his father.
• Bubble-gum lip gloss sparkled on the lips of the girl in the hot-pink mini-skirt.
• Her favorite flowers were daisies, but she hadn't seen any of those since the year her daddy left.
• He ate yellow cheese and moldy bread because the cupboards were bare since Laura left.
• Lucy was sitting on the rocking chair, gazing out at the yellow corn when Rob raced up in the jeep.
• She used to cruise the main drag in her cherry-red convertible, silver fenders sparkling in the sun.
• When she was ten, she'd steal pickles from her grandmother's deli and eat them out among the weeds.
• He filled the pickle jar with bottle caps, then trudged among the weeds to find the hiding spot.