First Line meme

[singedsun]

Borrowed this meme from sewn

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.


First there's only the repetitive thudding sound of bodies hitting the ground.
--Hold Your Breath

The dreams hadn’t kept her up in years.
--Home

The window in her bedroom is open, letting in a breeze strong enough to drift through the pages on Aveline’s desk in the next room.
--Rumors

“Percival!”
--Dearly

“You’ll make a fool of me in Hightown.”
--Let it Show

When Eve left London to chase after Villanelle, she started a new playlist while waiting in the airport.
--Devote to Me

“I can’t believe you don’t want to talk about it,” Marisha says.
--Tell Me I'm the Fool

She was so small.
--What I've Done to You

The gloves go on as soon as Theo sits up.
--Just Thought You Should Know

“It’s kind of pretty, you know?”
--Under the Stars and Storm


***

I expected more of it to be dialog, because I know I like starting short stories in the middle of a conversation. I guess I like starting most stories in medias res, but I don't think that's unusual for fanfic writers. I also tend to favor shorter lines, I'm actually surprised by the two longer ones.

Comments

[sewn]

Fanfic definitely has a tendency to jump straight in. Perhaps it has something to do with the particular element of surprise that fanfic works with, and of course not needing to need to cover the basics. A lot of fanfic is also short story-length, and in medias res is more typical in short fiction, in my experience.

[meridian_rose]

It's always fun to think you write a particular way and then find it's less clear-cut :)
That second line is especially intriguing!

[wheatear]

Starting with dialogue is always interesting, it immediately pulls you into the scene. Interesting that several of these don't name the speaker either, so you're really dropped right into it.

[singedsun]

It's definitely one of the reasons I like to start with dialogue. Often, that's how I start writing a story and then build around it. Sometimes that means adding something before the dialogue but not always.

[wheatear]

Yeah, same. I often write the dialogue first for a scene and then flesh it out.