First Lines Meme
Aug. 30th, 2008 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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kyuuketsukirui, a meme that got me interested:
Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfics and try to find a pattern.
Drabbles ignored, all HP except for one Whoniverse, and with a liberal interpretation of 'first line' to include first paragraph if it's short and basically expressing a single thought. Not linked individually below, but except for the first (i.e. most recent, not yet posted) and the TW one they're all well linked on the ficjournal. (Also, 25? That's quite a lot -- about two-thirds of the total for me, and I'm relatively prolific. If anyone else wants to pick this up, please feel free to interpret it as 'up to 25'.)
Harry sometimes wondered whether it was worth asking his aunt if she had his birth certificate. He suspected it might show his middle name was in fact 'Trouble', not 'James'. (A Law of the Medes and Persians)
Solving the Daily Prophet crossword might seem an odd way to honour a fallen friend and comrade, but from Kingsley Shacklebolt's point of view, it was by far the most appropriate. (Solving the Clues)
"Mother, I'll be bored. Do we have to go?" (The Repercussions of Having Bad Hygiene (Go Further Than You Think Remix))
Hermione Granger had grown to dread the winter. The season seemed almost to have a grudge against her. (In The Bleak Midwinter)
When a tired and thoroughly pissed off Torchwood team finally made it back to base, it was to find Jack Harkness sitting in his office and smiling insouciantly as if none of them had ever been away. (Catching Wild Geese)
Thump! (The Four Laws of Golpalott)
When Percy Weasley left work early at six-thirty on Friday evening for a well-earned weekend break, he hadn't expected a dramatic change in his conditions of work by the time he returned on Monday morning. (The Sleeper Awakes)
Remus listened in sick horror to the words spoken by the silver doe. (The Dark Side of the Moon)
I've learned that you can get used to danger. Or at least, to the idea of putting yourself in danger. Isn't that odd? (A Measure of Danger)
One glimpse was his undoing. (To Dwell In Dreams)
The first time that Lucius catches sight of Marcus Flint, only long experience of masquerade saves him from openly staring. (Unmarked)
"Petrificus Totalus!" (Desperate Measures)
For the last few hours, the palette in which my world is painted has been reduced to a smattering of colours, drawn across the canvas in broad strokes of green and white and grey. (The Lonely Sea and the Sky)
Ron had sometimes wished you could tell when life-changing events were about to happen. (The Right Time)
"Cho?" (That's What Friends Are For)
"D'you know what?" said Ron as they waited for news. "I think we should go and see Lockhart." (Battles with Basilisks -- well, OK, that's taken from CoS)
During the course of a long career at Hogwarts, Poppy Pomfrey had grown used to students calling on her for help with strange ailments, often ones that they would prefer did not become widely known -- anything from the bizarre anatomical effects of hexes cast in the corridors, to the unfortunate consequences of experimentation with potions of dubious legality. (Preventive Medicine)
They have only themselves to blame. (Blood Lines)
"You want me to do WHAT?" (Change For Me)
Ernie Prang glanced up as the Knight Bus careered into Trafalgar Square, and hastily jabbed his foot on the brake to prevent an overshoot. (Dangerous Driving)
Firstly, I must offer my congratulations to you, the reader of this brief introduction -- for you have demonstrated, by the mere fact that you are reading it, your excellent grasp of the basic principles of the fascinating branch of magical study that is Invisibility. (Introduction to The Invisible Book of Invisibility)
Over the last two years, the ingenious jokes and toys sold by that whimsically-named company, 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes,' have taken the commercial world by storm. (Indistinguishable)
Harry stood gazing out of the window at what passed for a main street in Godric's Hollow. (You Tell Her)
It's dead easy to get into the Jewel House of the Tower of London without being spotted by the guards. (Honour Amongst Thieves)
There were so many rumours about the Englishman, no-one knew which of them to give credence to. (The Wolf Covers Its Tracks)
So, what can I say? Actually, I'm surprised -- I'd remembered my first lines as being as mundane as my titles, but although some of them are, in most cases I seem to have actually made the effort to produce something a bit intriguing in an attempt to pull the reader into the story, just as the style guides tell you to do. Quite often I seem to go for a touch of humour, too. Well, well. There are a few that are just there to get the ball into play, as it were, but with any luck in those cases the first scene as a whole will be enough to pique interest.
I do wince at a few of the clumsier ones, and I also seem to be rather verbose at times, don't I? Some of those openings are practically paragraphs in their own right.
There are also a number of very short ones, mostly lines of dialogue -- but I think that can also help to pull the reader in? It usually indicates that we've arrived in the middle of a situation just at the point where something is about to or beginning to happen, and hopefully gets the reader thinking "hang on, what's going on here?".
kyuuketsukirui, a meme that got me interested:Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfics and try to find a pattern.
Drabbles ignored, all HP except for one Whoniverse, and with a liberal interpretation of 'first line' to include first paragraph if it's short and basically expressing a single thought. Not linked individually below, but except for the first (i.e. most recent, not yet posted) and the TW one they're all well linked on the ficjournal. (Also, 25? That's quite a lot -- about two-thirds of the total for me, and I'm relatively prolific. If anyone else wants to pick this up, please feel free to interpret it as 'up to 25'.)
Harry sometimes wondered whether it was worth asking his aunt if she had his birth certificate. He suspected it might show his middle name was in fact 'Trouble', not 'James'. (A Law of the Medes and Persians)
Solving the Daily Prophet crossword might seem an odd way to honour a fallen friend and comrade, but from Kingsley Shacklebolt's point of view, it was by far the most appropriate. (Solving the Clues)
"Mother, I'll be bored. Do we have to go?" (The Repercussions of Having Bad Hygiene (Go Further Than You Think Remix))
Hermione Granger had grown to dread the winter. The season seemed almost to have a grudge against her. (In The Bleak Midwinter)
When a tired and thoroughly pissed off Torchwood team finally made it back to base, it was to find Jack Harkness sitting in his office and smiling insouciantly as if none of them had ever been away. (Catching Wild Geese)
Thump! (The Four Laws of Golpalott)
When Percy Weasley left work early at six-thirty on Friday evening for a well-earned weekend break, he hadn't expected a dramatic change in his conditions of work by the time he returned on Monday morning. (The Sleeper Awakes)
Remus listened in sick horror to the words spoken by the silver doe. (The Dark Side of the Moon)
I've learned that you can get used to danger. Or at least, to the idea of putting yourself in danger. Isn't that odd? (A Measure of Danger)
One glimpse was his undoing. (To Dwell In Dreams)
The first time that Lucius catches sight of Marcus Flint, only long experience of masquerade saves him from openly staring. (Unmarked)
"Petrificus Totalus!" (Desperate Measures)
For the last few hours, the palette in which my world is painted has been reduced to a smattering of colours, drawn across the canvas in broad strokes of green and white and grey. (The Lonely Sea and the Sky)
Ron had sometimes wished you could tell when life-changing events were about to happen. (The Right Time)
"Cho?" (That's What Friends Are For)
"D'you know what?" said Ron as they waited for news. "I think we should go and see Lockhart." (Battles with Basilisks -- well, OK, that's taken from CoS)
During the course of a long career at Hogwarts, Poppy Pomfrey had grown used to students calling on her for help with strange ailments, often ones that they would prefer did not become widely known -- anything from the bizarre anatomical effects of hexes cast in the corridors, to the unfortunate consequences of experimentation with potions of dubious legality. (Preventive Medicine)
They have only themselves to blame. (Blood Lines)
"You want me to do WHAT?" (Change For Me)
Ernie Prang glanced up as the Knight Bus careered into Trafalgar Square, and hastily jabbed his foot on the brake to prevent an overshoot. (Dangerous Driving)
Firstly, I must offer my congratulations to you, the reader of this brief introduction -- for you have demonstrated, by the mere fact that you are reading it, your excellent grasp of the basic principles of the fascinating branch of magical study that is Invisibility. (Introduction to The Invisible Book of Invisibility)
Over the last two years, the ingenious jokes and toys sold by that whimsically-named company, 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes,' have taken the commercial world by storm. (Indistinguishable)
Harry stood gazing out of the window at what passed for a main street in Godric's Hollow. (You Tell Her)
It's dead easy to get into the Jewel House of the Tower of London without being spotted by the guards. (Honour Amongst Thieves)
There were so many rumours about the Englishman, no-one knew which of them to give credence to. (The Wolf Covers Its Tracks)
So, what can I say? Actually, I'm surprised -- I'd remembered my first lines as being as mundane as my titles, but although some of them are, in most cases I seem to have actually made the effort to produce something a bit intriguing in an attempt to pull the reader into the story, just as the style guides tell you to do. Quite often I seem to go for a touch of humour, too. Well, well. There are a few that are just there to get the ball into play, as it were, but with any luck in those cases the first scene as a whole will be enough to pique interest.
I do wince at a few of the clumsier ones, and I also seem to be rather verbose at times, don't I? Some of those openings are practically paragraphs in their own right.
There are also a number of very short ones, mostly lines of dialogue -- but I think that can also help to pull the reader in? It usually indicates that we've arrived in the middle of a situation just at the point where something is about to or beginning to happen, and hopefully gets the reader thinking "hang on, what's going on here?".
