meridian_rose

Meme I saw at the journals of

singedsun
Rules: list the first lines of your last 10 published stories. See if there are any patterns yourself, or have other people say what they notice.

1 Prince Constantine sat on the throne, his expression sullen, his posture slovenly in a way that irritated his father. Once Upon A Dream

2 Nolan let his hand slide down beneath the covers. Always a Nolan and Emily

3 "Bridget!" Albert staggered onwards, the sun blazing above him. In Need of Rescue

4 The admiral strode onto the deck where the men were fighting with swords and fists, and smoke from the earlier cannon fire and muskets still filled the air. A Historical Tale

5 "No," Lucrezia said. At Her Mercy

6 "I'm home! And please, pour me a drink," Billy said, throwing his coat across a chair before he slammed the door. Immoral and Impure

7 "Dr Ogden. May I have a word?" What The Future May Bring

8 "Having traffic with thy self alone," Kit mused. Traffic With Thy Self Alone

9 "Must be Thursday," Bobo said with a sigh, poring over the textbook.title

10 There were many, many, ways to die in the West, some more wild than others. Emptyin' the Saloon

Might be slightly odd bunch because several of these are things I wrote for Merry Month of Masturbation and they're usually much shorter than other fics. I'm not sure I usually begin with dialogue but maybe I do more often than I think. There's one original work in there (4), a trope bingo fill, and a H/C bingo fill.
I discovered 2 comments I hadn't answered on the Will fic but otherwise no new comments. *sigh* These memes always show me how few comments things get these days.

Crossposts: https://meridian-rose.livejournal.com/654109.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

oldtoadwoman

I wonder if there is a difference based on story length or even fandom?

1. He couldn't breathe.
2. Collateral damage was to be expected.
3. "Make sure they're all dead before you light the fire."
4. It’s an easy trek to Hobbiton and already his brother Bombur is complaining.
5. An interdimensional portal opening in Diagon Alley was not particularly unusual, nor was the petite witch who walked out.
6. "Groot."
7. To hell with new beginnings.
8. Bruce Banner came back to himself to the sound of a Kiwi surfer dude chatting about his cousin's cat.
9. Statler and Waldorf are dead.
10. "Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad."

Hmmmm, if my fic is any indication, then, no. One of those is novel length, a couple are medium-short, most are super-short, and two are drabbles. And I don't think you can guess which is which from the opening line.

From:

meridian_rose

Several of these sound like good titles/summaries too! (7, 9, 3 for a summary)
If I were guessing I'd say 5 and 8 are longer and 6 and 10 are the drabbles but I'm not sure why :)
It's interesting to think if you approach different fandoms or fic types in different ways, but maybe as writers we just go with what seems best for that story :)

From:

oldtoadwoman

5 was actually a drabble (The Wand Chooses The Jedi) and 8 was 14k words, which for me is a middle length (The Chocolate Chip Cookie Story). You guessed right on 6, it's a drabble (Rocket is Fixing the Ship) but 10 was over 18k words (The Storm Comes on Little Cat Feet).

"Statler and Waldorf are dead," really is pretty much the whole story summed up (Old Muppets Never Die, which is only 2k words but always feels longer to me because I think I squeezed a lot of story in between the lines).

The novel-length one was "To hell with new beginnings." (For Science at 72k words.)

I decided to extend the experiment and just look at my Supernatural fic as a comparison for how a fandom affects the opening:

-I swear to God, if it's another dead guy, I am so getting a raise, Sophie thought the day of the second death.

-Sam had to admit that the case felt like a dead end.

-"Wait, that's it?" Dean interrupted.

-Mental hospitals aren't all they're cracked up to be, Jimmy thought to himself as he reluctantly sat up in bed.

-"You are FBI, right?" Sherry asked warily.

I think the theme here is that I definitely open snarky. :-) I'm afraid I have gleaned no other wisdom.

From:

tinny

starting with dialogue has apparently been the thing that surprised everyone the most - of those i've seen do this meme.

I very much love your number 10, it's funny and plays with language, and just wow!

From:

meridian_rose

Thank you :D
I've seen posts saying "Never open your novel with dialogue" and yet fanfic writers break this rule all the time!

From:

tinny

Well. Fanfic cuts away a lot of exposition. Mentioning the name of the character is definitely enough to get people into the story. Also, fanfic is often visceral and emotional and just pulling your reader along as fast as possible is a main characteristic of shorter fiction.

And... to be honest, I don't see why novels shouldn't be the same? At least if you are writing an action-packed plot where throwing the reader into medias res is indicative of how the rest of the book is going to be. You can explain the rest later. (I love that, both as a reader and a writer.)

Of course, if you are writing something more sedate, I guess starting sedately, with exposition, makes more sense.