First line meme/writing thoughts
Meme (via china_shop): List the first lines of your last ten stories. See if there are any patterns.
1. "We've got a problem," Mozzie announced. ( Neal Caffrey, FBI Informant)
2. "Hey, Neal." Peter stopped by Neal's desk. ( The Books That Don't Belong)
3. Sara entered her office at Sterling Bosch with mixed feelings. ( To Steal from a Thief)
4. Neal's release party was a small affair. ( Finding Nemo)
5. Despite the lateness of the hour, Neal couldn't fall asleep. ( And It Was Evening, And It Was Morning)
6. (== FBI offices, Boston ==) Sara was sitting at her desk, head buried in her arms. ( The Boston Affair)
7. It was a warm spring day at Sing Sing and the prisoners were outside in the yard. ( Escape From Sing Sing)
8. Neal's first few months with Moz were a blur. ( Master Con 101)
9. It was another workday, like any other. ( Promises)
10. Standing high up on a New York rooftop, Neal looked down the crossbow sights. ( A Fleeting Thought)
Well ,the first thing I noticed is that I don't fic a lot. The last two fics are from Nov. 2014, when White Collar was still on. I hadn't realized my ficcing output had dropped so much. I thought I was vidding less, but my 10th last vid is from Jan. 2015. (Maybe it looks better in word counts, hopefully).
The second point is that most of those are AUs. I've got 6 AUs + one episode tag that became an AU almost immediately. Apparently I'm not satisfied with canon.
As for the first lines themselves - I mostly go for short and not very informative, with the next sentence or paragraph usually setting the scene better, hopefully. The worst of these is probably #2. I remember not being sure how to start the fic, and ended up going with the most mundane beginning which really means nothing. The longer sentences (#6, #7, and #10) probably set up the story much better, but #4 and #8 also give a good basis to what's going on in the story. Overall, I think I try to catch attention first and worry about introductions and such later on.
More specific notes:
#1 - I roll my eyes when they do this on TV, and I'm very self-aware when I use it in fic. It's the dramatic announcement that says nothing and forces the other side to ask "what is it?"
#3 is actually hinting at what's going to happen. I'm not sure whether I added it intentionally originally, but by the time I finished this fic, it was very much intentional, as a mirror image to the end, where Sara ends up with mixed feelings, this time about a successful recovery. #4 might also be a bit of a mirror image to the end and possibly #6 as well. Since I don't write linearly, I sometimes reflect back on the ending when I write the beginning, and by now I can't remember how much of this was intentional. But I do like it when I can put these things in.
#5 - This one I'm not sure was so intentional, but Neal couldn't fall asleep because, even though the story is superficially about Neal's release, (as the name implies) it's actually about when does the day begin. Neal is in a kind of no-man's land here between four options: when the sun sets, at the stroke of midnight, when the sun rises or when you wake up in the morning.
#9 - This one is the tongue-in-cheek kind of beginning, which I thought I used much more often, but apparently not as much.
1. "We've got a problem," Mozzie announced. ( Neal Caffrey, FBI Informant)
2. "Hey, Neal." Peter stopped by Neal's desk. ( The Books That Don't Belong)
3. Sara entered her office at Sterling Bosch with mixed feelings. ( To Steal from a Thief)
4. Neal's release party was a small affair. ( Finding Nemo)
5. Despite the lateness of the hour, Neal couldn't fall asleep. ( And It Was Evening, And It Was Morning)
6. (== FBI offices, Boston ==) Sara was sitting at her desk, head buried in her arms. ( The Boston Affair)
7. It was a warm spring day at Sing Sing and the prisoners were outside in the yard. ( Escape From Sing Sing)
8. Neal's first few months with Moz were a blur. ( Master Con 101)
9. It was another workday, like any other. ( Promises)
10. Standing high up on a New York rooftop, Neal looked down the crossbow sights. ( A Fleeting Thought)
Well ,the first thing I noticed is that I don't fic a lot. The last two fics are from Nov. 2014, when White Collar was still on. I hadn't realized my ficcing output had dropped so much. I thought I was vidding less, but my 10th last vid is from Jan. 2015. (Maybe it looks better in word counts, hopefully).
The second point is that most of those are AUs. I've got 6 AUs + one episode tag that became an AU almost immediately. Apparently I'm not satisfied with canon.
As for the first lines themselves - I mostly go for short and not very informative, with the next sentence or paragraph usually setting the scene better, hopefully. The worst of these is probably #2. I remember not being sure how to start the fic, and ended up going with the most mundane beginning which really means nothing. The longer sentences (#6, #7, and #10) probably set up the story much better, but #4 and #8 also give a good basis to what's going on in the story. Overall, I think I try to catch attention first and worry about introductions and such later on.
More specific notes:
#1 - I roll my eyes when they do this on TV, and I'm very self-aware when I use it in fic. It's the dramatic announcement that says nothing and forces the other side to ask "what is it?"
#3 is actually hinting at what's going to happen. I'm not sure whether I added it intentionally originally, but by the time I finished this fic, it was very much intentional, as a mirror image to the end, where Sara ends up with mixed feelings, this time about a successful recovery. #4 might also be a bit of a mirror image to the end and possibly #6 as well. Since I don't write linearly, I sometimes reflect back on the ending when I write the beginning, and by now I can't remember how much of this was intentional. But I do like it when I can put these things in.
#5 - This one I'm not sure was so intentional, but Neal couldn't fall asleep because, even though the story is superficially about Neal's release, (as the name implies) it's actually about when does the day begin. Neal is in a kind of no-man's land here between four options: when the sun sets, at the stroke of midnight, when the sun rises or when you wake up in the morning.
#9 - This one is the tongue-in-cheek kind of beginning, which I thought I used much more often, but apparently not as much.