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necessarian) wrote2019-03-30 01:58 pm
necessarian) wrote2019-03-30 01:58 pm
Entry tags:
first line meme
nabbing this from nachodiablo! you - the person reading this - should feel free to steal it from me in turn :-)
RULES: List the first lines of the last ten stories you published. Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any! 1. bruise and leave behind - To catch a monster, you need to think like a monster.
2. tell me again what the body is for - This is your body.
3. Aἰών - I woke with a jolt, clutching my stomach where the sharp pain from the bullet wound still lingered.
4. intermarginal - London winter treats her roughly.
5. run with the devil - We had not been out to the country house since Bunny’s body was found, so it was with some alarm that I found myself there one Friday evening in late spring.
6. hints for the taking - Muggles had this word: miracle.
7. mortuus est rex (kongen længe leve) - Let us set the scene:
8. out there, somewhere - It was on my third attempt, only once Camilla had left Boston, that I managed to convince Francis that consigning himself to a life of repression and sadness was a bad idea.
9. and whose army? - Frost clung to the windowpanes and caught the streetlight like sequins in the early evening gloom.
10. breathing, indiscreet - They were in the forest.
-
okay, patterns... well, you can see that i love short opening sentences. a first line has to catch you and keep you reading, and short sentences are good for creating that kind of pace. also i guess leaving a little bit of incomplete information by nature requests a lot of follow-up. i really like 6 in this regard, because it's setting up instant conflict (muggles have the word, an us vs them scenario) and then introducing something that's mundane to us as a novel term, so out of this conflict we're curious to see how it's defined. i also really like the thesis statement quality of 1, and the abstract distance of 4. and 7, which is quite literally setting the scene - i guess sometimes you have to be literal with how you play around with narrative techniques, and also, this is hamlet fic, so i basically have free reign with getting meta.
the three secret history fics here (3, 5, 8) have really long openers, which fits much better into the style of canon. but for the other fandoms, where i'm certainly trying less to mimic the tone of canon, it's more authentically my style, i guess? or is it a consequence of first person that long sentences feel more natural? i suppose this is why i'm more comfortable in third person, because i'm a more sparse writer in general. i can do sprawling, but i like to save it for moments of heightened emotion. first person feels sprawling by nature because you're inside someone's head.
anyway i love writing first lines! they are so nice and friendly compared to, say, last lines, which are pure evil!
nachodiablo! you - the person reading this - should feel free to steal it from me in turn :-)RULES: List the first lines of the last ten stories you published. Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any!
2. tell me again what the body is for - This is your body.
3. Aἰών - I woke with a jolt, clutching my stomach where the sharp pain from the bullet wound still lingered.
4. intermarginal - London winter treats her roughly.
5. run with the devil - We had not been out to the country house since Bunny’s body was found, so it was with some alarm that I found myself there one Friday evening in late spring.
6. hints for the taking - Muggles had this word: miracle.
7. mortuus est rex (kongen længe leve) - Let us set the scene:
8. out there, somewhere - It was on my third attempt, only once Camilla had left Boston, that I managed to convince Francis that consigning himself to a life of repression and sadness was a bad idea.
9. and whose army? - Frost clung to the windowpanes and caught the streetlight like sequins in the early evening gloom.
10. breathing, indiscreet - They were in the forest.
-
okay, patterns... well, you can see that i love short opening sentences. a first line has to catch you and keep you reading, and short sentences are good for creating that kind of pace. also i guess leaving a little bit of incomplete information by nature requests a lot of follow-up. i really like 6 in this regard, because it's setting up instant conflict (muggles have the word, an us vs them scenario) and then introducing something that's mundane to us as a novel term, so out of this conflict we're curious to see how it's defined. i also really like the thesis statement quality of 1, and the abstract distance of 4. and 7, which is quite literally setting the scene - i guess sometimes you have to be literal with how you play around with narrative techniques, and also, this is hamlet fic, so i basically have free reign with getting meta.
the three secret history fics here (3, 5, 8) have really long openers, which fits much better into the style of canon. but for the other fandoms, where i'm certainly trying less to mimic the tone of canon, it's more authentically my style, i guess? or is it a consequence of first person that long sentences feel more natural? i suppose this is why i'm more comfortable in third person, because i'm a more sparse writer in general. i can do sprawling, but i like to save it for moments of heightened emotion. first person feels sprawling by nature because you're inside someone's head.
anyway i love writing first lines! they are so nice and friendly compared to, say, last lines, which are pure evil!
no subject
I commend you for your first line skills, I struggle with my beginnings! I often start a story with the ending in mind and have to figure out how I get there. Your beginnings are already solid!
no subject
and, thank you!! i commend you for the endings thing tbh, i am soooo bad at endings