Twenty First Lines (meme)
I saw this meme over at dotfic's journal, and it sounded interesting and not too taxing on the old brain, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Take the first lines of the twenty most recent fics you've written, and see if you notice any patterns, etc.
1 - I will think on the Lord with every breath in. With every breath out, I will think on my soul. (SPN: "Glass")
2 - She picks up a second pair of the panties, because Sam's big hands have been known to cause some serious damage to her delicates, and these red lace numbers are pretty enough to frame. (SPN: "Party Girl")
3 - It takes a few minutes for Ben to feel the pain of pulling John to his feet, but once his abused wrists start to protest, he cannot shut them up. (SPN: Ben and Dean, scene eleven)
4 - She'd been expecting there to be a battle royale pitched by her new partner, some crazy way of asserting that his theories - lacking one shred of proof - were still better than the science that bolstered her, had stayed steady for generations, promising something larger than themselves. (X-Files: "Three Times Scully Was Bound")
5 - Sam flinches and maybe jumps the tiniest bit when Dean whirls and plunges his silver dagger in the broad chest of the Bruce Campbell figure. (SPN: "Monkeychucker")
6 - She's seen him, because he only remembers to be sneaky about half the time. (Friday Night Lights: "Knees on Nylon")
7 - I still have no idea where Astrid lives. (SPN/Fringe: "The Eyes of the Observer Make the Mystery")
8 - It took her a minute to realize that the girl in the creamy wool sweater, the girl with the glossy hair peeking out from under a cashmere cap, the girl with the bright smile on her pink-cheeked face was actually her. (SPN: "Pas de Deux")
9 - "Do you ever stop talking?" couldn't have been the first thing he'd ever said to her, but maybe it was, given that he could hardly get a word in edgewise when she got going. (SPN: "I Like the Girls with the Boom")
10 - His father wanted him to be a CEO because he had the smarts. (Chuck: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough")
11 - "No," Dean said. More specifically, Dean said, "Nonononononono, this is not happening!" (SPN: "Holding Pattern")
12 - Sammy acted like him graduating high school was flat-out amazing, raising his eyebrows significantly and smiling proudly whenever announcements of "seniors, report for graduation rehearsal" came floating out over the PA as they were about to head home. (SPN: "Commencement")
13 - "Seriously?" Dean asks, his eyes wide. "Because of me?" (SPN: Ben and Dean, scene twelve)
14 - Hilts ─ It's a street: Ashland. ─ McQueen Sam reads, sitting in a Baltimore holding cell. (SPN: The Dearth of the Cool; or, Five Errant Dreams of Other Lives")
15 - "Dean," Dad said, watching him try to rub the sleep out of his eyes with his fists, "we need to talk." (SPN: "Hairstreaks and Metalmarks")
16 - Sam stumbles around for the rest of the weekend, thinking of Pete and smiling, and Dad amusedly mutters something about fools in love to Dean. (SPN: Rapture Drabbles 1)
17 - "Your hair flops all over the place, so you should be Harry," Pete says, frowning seriously at Sam. (SPN: Rapture Drabbles 2)
18 - "Morning," Sam said as he walked into the kitchen. (SPN: "Squirt")
19 - Since his hands are full, Sam lets Pete have the honor of kicking Dean’s ankle to get him to slide out from under the latest car in need of his TLC. (SPN: Rapture Drabbles 3)
20 - Sam came home to find Jess squatting amid shards of broken glass, sweeping them up into her little blue dustpan. (SPN: "Angel Eyes")
So, what did that tell me? That I'm as likely to start with dialogue as with narrative, that I write in both past and present tenses, and that I'm writing het, gen, and slash almost equally (gen wins). Hmmm, what else? That it's hard to tell from my first lines what the tone of the piece is going to be. That I seem to write questions, moments of investigation, as openings. And that I actually don't, surprisingly, have twenty SPN fics here. Huh.
Who else wants to play?
1 - I will think on the Lord with every breath in. With every breath out, I will think on my soul. (SPN: "Glass")
2 - She picks up a second pair of the panties, because Sam's big hands have been known to cause some serious damage to her delicates, and these red lace numbers are pretty enough to frame. (SPN: "Party Girl")
3 - It takes a few minutes for Ben to feel the pain of pulling John to his feet, but once his abused wrists start to protest, he cannot shut them up. (SPN: Ben and Dean, scene eleven)
4 - She'd been expecting there to be a battle royale pitched by her new partner, some crazy way of asserting that his theories - lacking one shred of proof - were still better than the science that bolstered her, had stayed steady for generations, promising something larger than themselves. (X-Files: "Three Times Scully Was Bound")
5 - Sam flinches and maybe jumps the tiniest bit when Dean whirls and plunges his silver dagger in the broad chest of the Bruce Campbell figure. (SPN: "Monkeychucker")
6 - She's seen him, because he only remembers to be sneaky about half the time. (Friday Night Lights: "Knees on Nylon")
7 - I still have no idea where Astrid lives. (SPN/Fringe: "The Eyes of the Observer Make the Mystery")
8 - It took her a minute to realize that the girl in the creamy wool sweater, the girl with the glossy hair peeking out from under a cashmere cap, the girl with the bright smile on her pink-cheeked face was actually her. (SPN: "Pas de Deux")
9 - "Do you ever stop talking?" couldn't have been the first thing he'd ever said to her, but maybe it was, given that he could hardly get a word in edgewise when she got going. (SPN: "I Like the Girls with the Boom")
10 - His father wanted him to be a CEO because he had the smarts. (Chuck: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough")
11 - "No," Dean said. More specifically, Dean said, "Nonononononono, this is not happening!" (SPN: "Holding Pattern")
12 - Sammy acted like him graduating high school was flat-out amazing, raising his eyebrows significantly and smiling proudly whenever announcements of "seniors, report for graduation rehearsal" came floating out over the PA as they were about to head home. (SPN: "Commencement")
13 - "Seriously?" Dean asks, his eyes wide. "Because of me?" (SPN: Ben and Dean, scene twelve)
14 - Hilts ─ It's a street: Ashland. ─ McQueen Sam reads, sitting in a Baltimore holding cell. (SPN: The Dearth of the Cool; or, Five Errant Dreams of Other Lives")
15 - "Dean," Dad said, watching him try to rub the sleep out of his eyes with his fists, "we need to talk." (SPN: "Hairstreaks and Metalmarks")
16 - Sam stumbles around for the rest of the weekend, thinking of Pete and smiling, and Dad amusedly mutters something about fools in love to Dean. (SPN: Rapture Drabbles 1)
17 - "Your hair flops all over the place, so you should be Harry," Pete says, frowning seriously at Sam. (SPN: Rapture Drabbles 2)
18 - "Morning," Sam said as he walked into the kitchen. (SPN: "Squirt")
19 - Since his hands are full, Sam lets Pete have the honor of kicking Dean’s ankle to get him to slide out from under the latest car in need of his TLC. (SPN: Rapture Drabbles 3)
20 - Sam came home to find Jess squatting amid shards of broken glass, sweeping them up into her little blue dustpan. (SPN: "Angel Eyes")
So, what did that tell me? That I'm as likely to start with dialogue as with narrative, that I write in both past and present tenses, and that I'm writing het, gen, and slash almost equally (gen wins). Hmmm, what else? That it's hard to tell from my first lines what the tone of the piece is going to be. That I seem to write questions, moments of investigation, as openings. And that I actually don't, surprisingly, have twenty SPN fics here. Huh.
Who else wants to play?