Comments | cloudscudding: First Lines of Works in Progress

cloudscudding

First Lines of Works in Progress

Jul 09, 2009 10:21

In Progress, Writing

They thought they could come and conquer our world easily. - Kept in Coral

With great reverence, Leander committed the greatest blasphemy of his life. - Tree of Life

In Progress, Editing

When Albin's nursemaid woke him in the dead of night, he knew something even worse than the death of his father had happened. - The ( Read more... )

writerblog, vicesteed, kept in coral, ice mother, writing, pneumatic knights, unkindness of ravens, tree of life, old woman by the sea, out of focus

Comments 6

jongibbs July 9 2009, 15:45:36 UTC

Great stuff. I like Vicesteed best, very atmospheric :)

cloudscudding July 20 2009, 21:39:54 UTC

Well, that one has already been edited (the beginning), so it should be a leetle better. The original opening was pretty awful, despite my fondness for it.

"The night was glimmer-glam draped in neon...."

thoughtdancer July 10 2009, 13:53:06 UTC

Reading your list is making me think about the very first words of stories. I'm being to wonder if the first word needs to be something... well solid or moving. Names, actions, that sort of thing.

Like jongibbs, I was most taken with the Vicesteed start, followed by "And the Dog Died". Then I noticed the grammar involved.

So, I'm now working through my starts. I'm making sure I start with names or action words. Something solid or moving.

(Is this what happens when a former English prof turns her hand at writing? Grammar of successful opening lines? EEEiiiieee!) ;-)

cloudscudding July 20 2009, 21:41:10 UTC

Huh, I never even thought of it like that...the extent of my strategy in naming stories is to try to find something that is reasonably unique (checking via Google) and hopefully interesting in and of itself.

andres_s_p_b July 11 2009, 04:43:34 UTC

For some reason, the two Writing ones sound to me like almost-complete nanofiction, while the Editing ones sound more like first lines of stories, though the former hook me more. The opener for Tree of Life really grabs me, as it makes it sound like precisely the sort of magical-awesome throwaway universe-building story that I love.

cloudscudding July 20 2009, 21:42:14 UTC

Ha! Half right. Kept in Coral will be either nano- or flash fiction. Tree of Life, on the other hand, started out a short story and then announced its intention of being a novel despite my best efforts. I sulked and then gave in to it.