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Post the first lines of your 20 most recent fics, and see if there are any patterns.
Fic Lines, in the form of Line, (Title; fic type; fandom):
1) "You know," said the woman in the armchair, conversationally. "I shouldn't believe you're real."
(Sans Merci; prompt fic; Labyrinth/Criminal Minds)
2) "... Angel?" the demon asked, very carefully.
(Dead Tomes; prompt fic; Good Omens/Cthulhu mythos)
3) He lands from his falling mad.
(Nidhoggr; prompt fic; Thor/Norse Myth)
4) They are the Eaters of Souls, the dark servants of a necromantic god, cursed eternally to a life of predation, of blood and glee and the throes of endless death.
(Eaters of Souls; prompt fic; Highlander/Cthulhu mythos)
5) One slipped free.
(Soft Chains of Dreaming; prompt fic; Inception/Cthulhu mythos)
6) "You're despicable," Daffy hissed, with his usual spray of spittle, and this time also some unnamable fluids from the lake Bugs had just dropped him into.
(Foreign Feelings; prompt fic; Looney Tunes)
7) At the noise behind him, Harold stiffened, for just a second.
(Prediction, Protection; prompt fic; Person of Interest/The Pretender)
8) He's too grateful, too obsessed, too desperate.
(Touch; prompt fic; Haven)
9) She is the sum total of human knowledge.
(And She The Page; prompt fic; Highlander/Dresden Files)
10) "You always remember your first," they say.
(First; introspective/character study; Highlander)
11) He'd been young, when he first understood it.
(And A Hardboiled Egg; introspective/character study; Discworld)
12) "So. You're one of the stranger things Dad's dropped on me in his time."
(First Death; random ficlet; Highlander/Supernatural)
13) "I'm coming with you."
(Angel, Will You Walk Into Hell For Me; relationship/bad-future fic; Good Omens)
14) He'd known, from the moment he saw them.
(Blood Offering; AU/fix-it fic; Sanctuary)
15) Helen did not approve of brandy and cigars in the study.
(Gestures; character/relationship study; Sanctuary)
16) It was a scene straight out of a hundred medieval paintings and icons.
(Not Quite The Usual Scene; crack-fic; Good Omens)
17) "He is not like your other student," she said, softly, contemplatively.
(With Care, With Abandon; concept sketch; Highlander/Harry Potter)
18) She was gone.
(Blood; dark character study; Sanctuary)
19) There is chiming in the Twilight Woods, the speaking tongues of trees
(And She, And He; very weird poem fic; Sanctuary)
20) "Yes, sir, there's no doubt about it," Artie drawled, leaning casually back on the settee to watch James pull out his new waistcoat, a good, rich emerald green with silver brocade. "That there is one mighty fine piece of haberdashery, Jim."
(Negotiations; prompt fic; Wild Wild West)
1) "You know," said the woman in the armchair, conversationally. "I shouldn't believe you're real."
(Sans Merci; prompt fic; Labyrinth/Criminal Minds)
2) "... Angel?" the demon asked, very carefully.
(Dead Tomes; prompt fic; Good Omens/Cthulhu mythos)
3) He lands from his falling mad.
(Nidhoggr; prompt fic; Thor/Norse Myth)
4) They are the Eaters of Souls, the dark servants of a necromantic god, cursed eternally to a life of predation, of blood and glee and the throes of endless death.
(Eaters of Souls; prompt fic; Highlander/Cthulhu mythos)
5) One slipped free.
(Soft Chains of Dreaming; prompt fic; Inception/Cthulhu mythos)
6) "You're despicable," Daffy hissed, with his usual spray of spittle, and this time also some unnamable fluids from the lake Bugs had just dropped him into.
(Foreign Feelings; prompt fic; Looney Tunes)
7) At the noise behind him, Harold stiffened, for just a second.
(Prediction, Protection; prompt fic; Person of Interest/The Pretender)
8) He's too grateful, too obsessed, too desperate.
(Touch; prompt fic; Haven)
9) She is the sum total of human knowledge.
(And She The Page; prompt fic; Highlander/Dresden Files)
10) "You always remember your first," they say.
(First; introspective/character study; Highlander)
11) He'd been young, when he first understood it.
(And A Hardboiled Egg; introspective/character study; Discworld)
12) "So. You're one of the stranger things Dad's dropped on me in his time."
(First Death; random ficlet; Highlander/Supernatural)
13) "I'm coming with you."
(Angel, Will You Walk Into Hell For Me; relationship/bad-future fic; Good Omens)
14) He'd known, from the moment he saw them.
(Blood Offering; AU/fix-it fic; Sanctuary)
15) Helen did not approve of brandy and cigars in the study.
(Gestures; character/relationship study; Sanctuary)
16) It was a scene straight out of a hundred medieval paintings and icons.
(Not Quite The Usual Scene; crack-fic; Good Omens)
17) "He is not like your other student," she said, softly, contemplatively.
(With Care, With Abandon; concept sketch; Highlander/Harry Potter)
18) She was gone.
(Blood; dark character study; Sanctuary)
19) There is chiming in the Twilight Woods, the speaking tongues of trees
(And She, And He; very weird poem fic; Sanctuary)
20) "Yes, sir, there's no doubt about it," Artie drawled, leaning casually back on the settee to watch James pull out his new waistcoat, a good, rich emerald green with silver brocade. "That there is one mighty fine piece of haberdashery, Jim."
(Negotiations; prompt fic; Wild Wild West)
Conclusions?
Um. Firstly, that I've been writing a lot of prompt fic lately (skipped the short, one-liner style ficlets). Partially, I guess, because I'm between fandoms at present (I have shows, just not fandoms). Also, that I seem to have been writing a lot less fic in general this past couple of months. Again, probably a between-fandoms thing. And, while we're with this part, also that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
comment_fic is a really good place for picking up passing prompts in multiple fandoms. *grins*
Opening lines themselves ... Hmm. I seem to like cold-opening into conversations. In my defense, conversations are a good way to introduce plot elements and character interactions quickly and interestingly(-ish), especially for short pieces. Heh. A lot of them, that conversation is the meat of the fic itself, and quite a few of them delineate past/present situations via the conversation, rather than describing it long-hand in an info-dump (not that that always works, of course -a lot of those conversations are info-dumpy no matter what you do- but sometimes it does). It's one of the easier opening-tools to use, for fics involving multiple, interacting characters. Also, I'm bad at backstory in the lead-ins to fics, because I always get stuck in it, and never make it into the main story, so cold-opening puts me forward into the fic. Heh.
For those that don't cold-open onto conversations ... I think what I was trying to do with most of them, since they were for short pieces, was to introduce the opening consideration, the thing the rest of the fic is an exploration of/reaction to. So Loki lands mad, and the rest of the fic explores the causes and consequences (Nidhoggr). Immortals are Eaters of Souls, where does it go? Helen Magnus is gone (Blood), what does that mean for John? It's a scene out of a thousand medieval paintings, because we're about to horribly subvert the expected narrative of those paintings (Not the Usual Scene). Vetinari had been young, when he learned of evil, because it shapes the man he will be for the rest of the piece (Hardboiled Egg). It's ... The opening line is where you put forward the thing you want people to be thinking about, the thing you want in their heads about the character/situation when they go into the rest of the fic. Works better for short pieces rather than long, because in longer pieces you have multiple considerations ongoing, and works better for single POV characters rather than multiple. In longer works (there aren't any on here, it's been a while), I tend to prefer some set-dressing (both DC long fics), or back to cold-open conversations (Arrangements).
The three exceptions to this in this selection, that aren't conversational openings, are the opening for 'And She, And He', which is set-dressing and the opening line of a poem, so its job is more set the scene and introduce line-shape, the opening for 'First', which only looks like a conversational opening but is actually the start of an introspection, and the opening for 'Prediction, Protection', which is basically a conversational cold-open where we haven't made it to the actual talking part yet. In the case of the latter, that's largely because the conversation that follows is taking place in large part non-verbally (waxing and waning of threat in the confrontation), so that needs to be acknowledged in the lead-in.
Um. I think that's most of the patterns? It's what I'm thinking (though usually subconsciously) when coming up with them, anyway. Mostly. I think. I could just be winging it, either. *grins sheepishly* Well. Anybody else notice anything?
Um. Firstly, that I've been writing a lot of prompt fic lately (skipped the short, one-liner style ficlets). Partially, I guess, because I'm between fandoms at present (I have shows, just not fandoms). Also, that I seem to have been writing a lot less fic in general this past couple of months. Again, probably a between-fandoms thing. And, while we're with this part, also that
comment_fic is a really good place for picking up passing prompts in multiple fandoms. *grins*Opening lines themselves ... Hmm. I seem to like cold-opening into conversations. In my defense, conversations are a good way to introduce plot elements and character interactions quickly and interestingly(-ish), especially for short pieces. Heh. A lot of them, that conversation is the meat of the fic itself, and quite a few of them delineate past/present situations via the conversation, rather than describing it long-hand in an info-dump (not that that always works, of course -a lot of those conversations are info-dumpy no matter what you do- but sometimes it does). It's one of the easier opening-tools to use, for fics involving multiple, interacting characters. Also, I'm bad at backstory in the lead-ins to fics, because I always get stuck in it, and never make it into the main story, so cold-opening puts me forward into the fic. Heh.
For those that don't cold-open onto conversations ... I think what I was trying to do with most of them, since they were for short pieces, was to introduce the opening consideration, the thing the rest of the fic is an exploration of/reaction to. So Loki lands mad, and the rest of the fic explores the causes and consequences (Nidhoggr). Immortals are Eaters of Souls, where does it go? Helen Magnus is gone (Blood), what does that mean for John? It's a scene out of a thousand medieval paintings, because we're about to horribly subvert the expected narrative of those paintings (Not the Usual Scene). Vetinari had been young, when he learned of evil, because it shapes the man he will be for the rest of the piece (Hardboiled Egg). It's ... The opening line is where you put forward the thing you want people to be thinking about, the thing you want in their heads about the character/situation when they go into the rest of the fic. Works better for short pieces rather than long, because in longer pieces you have multiple considerations ongoing, and works better for single POV characters rather than multiple. In longer works (there aren't any on here, it's been a while), I tend to prefer some set-dressing (both DC long fics), or back to cold-open conversations (Arrangements).
The three exceptions to this in this selection, that aren't conversational openings, are the opening for 'And She, And He', which is set-dressing and the opening line of a poem, so its job is more set the scene and introduce line-shape, the opening for 'First', which only looks like a conversational opening but is actually the start of an introspection, and the opening for 'Prediction, Protection', which is basically a conversational cold-open where we haven't made it to the actual talking part yet. In the case of the latter, that's largely because the conversation that follows is taking place in large part non-verbally (waxing and waning of threat in the confrontation), so that needs to be acknowledged in the lead-in.
Um. I think that's most of the patterns? It's what I'm thinking (though usually subconsciously) when coming up with them, anyway. Mostly. I think. I could just be winging it, either. *grins sheepishly* Well. Anybody else notice anything?
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