First Lines Meme part 3

[lokei]

If you made it this far, you have more patience than I almost did!  *grin*  I should have cut this list, but I am type A, Ivy grad, certifiably over-achievement oriented, and I wanted the comprehensive look.  *eyeroll*

Turns out, I DO seem to have different styles.  Most humorous works start with dialogue, and most of the dialogue starters are

Comments

[sg_betty]

Oh look! I've read all these! : )
Broken down grammatically, I have 5 passive constructions
I am so impressed that you know this! I am really starting to wonder if my University sucked. I don't think I had to take one English course to graduate, and clearly someone should have made me.
I am also very impressed that you have all the links, making it easy for me to go read all your stories, one after the other!!

[lokei]

Oh look! I've read all these! : )

Awwww. *writerly heart fills with glee*

I don't know where you went to University, but as an English major, I think everyone should take at least one English class! *wry grin* I couldn't get away from them. Hooked, that's me. There were so many I wanted to take that I didn't have time for...*sigh* I'm considering applying for an MFA in Creative Writing program, actually. Feed the need and all that.

You can blame paian for the links. She did that with her list and I thought Ooooh, good idea! Of course, she went through and coded them all into her numbers so it looked prettier...but she did half the number of fics I did, so the work was probably equivalent!

[advection]

::hands off credit blame for numbers-linking to synecdochic:: *g*

It is handy! And a fair amount of work, definitely -- very glad you did it.

[lokei]

*chuckle* Ok, we can blame synecdochic then.

I got halfway through the list and was asking myself not IF I was insane, but just HOW MUCH. *laugh* It was fascinating to look it all over at the end though.

[advection]

It's a great list, and I'm so glad you did it! I'm most impressed by the variety -- that's what I finally realized I was really looking for in my own list, too -- and by how many of them really work as hooks, making me want to read what follows whether I recognize the fic or not.

[lokei]

Thanks for nudging me to give it a whirl. Things that make me look more critically at my writing are always both useful and fun.

Not that you should feel required to answer, but just for curiosity's sake--Any ones in particular that caught your eye? (Other than say, the exploding fanmail that sg_betty was so taken with. *grin*)

[advection]

Well, of course I love all the Jack/Daniel ones and would want to read on anyway, but #12-15 in this post were all especially hook-y to me -- no question I'd read on after those openings. And #19 in the first post, that's a wonderful in-medias-battle start, gets the blood going and makes me want to see the battle through, find out what happens. And #12 in the second post, wonderfully mysterious and intriguing.

And who can resist exploding fanmail??? *g*

[lokei]

That's pretty cool-- 13-15 on this list are all Alphabet Soup entries, so I was doing the make-the-words-count thing because I was trying to keep them short, and the other one is also a really short fic.

And the one about the Flying Dutchman is STILL one of my favorite fics. It's dark and creepy and utterly unlike anything else I've written, but I had such FUN with it.

Seriously, no one can resist exploding fanmail. Sadly, that one was a bit of a bait and switch, as the fanmail exploded only in quantity in the original fic. I wrote sg_betty an actual exploding mail fic in the comments of that second post to make up for it. *laugh*