it was a dark and stormy night ...
Apr. 25th, 2013 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrspollifaxFic first lines meme! Most recently seen with ziparumpazoo. This was both hilarious and cringe-inducing. Oh, man, do I struggle with fic openings. I think this is 20 of them, arranged into self-mocking helpful categories. *g*
1. And suddenly, a phone rang, or something like that.
The ringing of the phone is quiet, muffled by distance, a closed door, and the noise of voices and computers on the floor of Homeworld Command. (x)
Jack barely has time to register the Unknown glowing on the caller ID before he punches the button to answer the shrilling phone. (x)
There was nothing but ringing on the other end of the phone until her voice mail picked up the line. (x)
2. The 'zzzzz' award. My best fics often do not have the most engaging openings, apparently. lol
When she was four years old, Ella's mom and her Aunt Liv took her to the beach in Florida. (x)
President Bartlet closes the folder in front of him and stares hard across the table, waiting. (x)
Sam blinks in the bright light of the hotel lobby, a sharp contrast from the December darkness of the street outside. (x)
3. Ficlets get snappier first lines. There is probably some law about conservation of prose that explains this.
Jack woke with a start, his head pinned down, unable to draw a full breath. (x)
Three days ago they'd run out of the last of the coffee from Earth. (x)
The first box arrives on Wednesday afternoon. (x)
He’s long past beers and into whiskey by the time her knock comes at his door. (x)
Sam wonders where, exactly, she'd gone wrong. (x)
It's not the sort of place he'd usually stop in and visit. (x)
4. Look, Vala just talks a lot, okay????
Vala shifts slightly, her cramped muscles protesting the low crouch she's adopted to blend in with the other unwashed, unwanted, and unmentionable beings who dwell in the no-man's-land between village and palace. (x)
5. No, really. Vala can't provide me with an excuse for long-windedness in these cases - someone take away my keyboard, please. *g*
The dragons of bureaucracy take even longer to slay than usual that day, rearing their ugly, ill-proportioned heads every time Jack starts to believe he might win free, coming back over and over until he's pretty sure he won't. (x)
When Sam's conversation with General Pearson's chief aide was interrupted by a fresh-faced, eager staffer from Senator Morrison's office – and she wondered what he'd done to rate an invitation – she took advantage of the opportunity and fled. (x)
6. Winners of the 'miraculously actually fits the fic' award:
Sam leans forward, the wood railing rough against her hands as she looks upward at the sky. (x)
An instant provides all the time Sam needs to comprehend the gravity of the situation. (x)
It was early morning when Catherine found the first one; just a scrap of paper propped against her tea tin. (x)
It's not the first time. (x)
7. Didn't really go in any of the above categories, but here for nostalgia purposes.
She'd wandered off after breakfast, around to the opposite side of the pond and into the trees. (x)
I want to see other people's now so that I can learn to do it better. You know you want tooooooooo.
Tangentially, coming back to fanfic after spending a while reading novels instead is an exercise in "omg the present tense everywhere I cannot grok!!!" Which is not to say I do not love present tense - because I do, or I would not write so much of it, lol - but going from past tense mostly in first person (seriously, is every new novel written in first person now?) to third person present requires a non-trivial mental shift, apparently.
ziparumpazoo. This was both hilarious and cringe-inducing. Oh, man, do I struggle with fic openings. I think this is 20 of them, arranged into 1. And suddenly, a phone rang, or something like that.
The ringing of the phone is quiet, muffled by distance, a closed door, and the noise of voices and computers on the floor of Homeworld Command. (x)
Jack barely has time to register the Unknown glowing on the caller ID before he punches the button to answer the shrilling phone. (x)
There was nothing but ringing on the other end of the phone until her voice mail picked up the line. (x)
2. The 'zzzzz' award. My best fics often do not have the most engaging openings, apparently. lol
When she was four years old, Ella's mom and her Aunt Liv took her to the beach in Florida. (x)
President Bartlet closes the folder in front of him and stares hard across the table, waiting. (x)
Sam blinks in the bright light of the hotel lobby, a sharp contrast from the December darkness of the street outside. (x)
3. Ficlets get snappier first lines. There is probably some law about conservation of prose that explains this.
Jack woke with a start, his head pinned down, unable to draw a full breath. (x)
Three days ago they'd run out of the last of the coffee from Earth. (x)
The first box arrives on Wednesday afternoon. (x)
He’s long past beers and into whiskey by the time her knock comes at his door. (x)
Sam wonders where, exactly, she'd gone wrong. (x)
It's not the sort of place he'd usually stop in and visit. (x)
4. Look, Vala just talks a lot, okay????
Vala shifts slightly, her cramped muscles protesting the low crouch she's adopted to blend in with the other unwashed, unwanted, and unmentionable beings who dwell in the no-man's-land between village and palace. (x)
5. No, really. Vala can't provide me with an excuse for long-windedness in these cases - someone take away my keyboard, please. *g*
The dragons of bureaucracy take even longer to slay than usual that day, rearing their ugly, ill-proportioned heads every time Jack starts to believe he might win free, coming back over and over until he's pretty sure he won't. (x)
When Sam's conversation with General Pearson's chief aide was interrupted by a fresh-faced, eager staffer from Senator Morrison's office – and she wondered what he'd done to rate an invitation – she took advantage of the opportunity and fled. (x)
6. Winners of the 'miraculously actually fits the fic' award:
Sam leans forward, the wood railing rough against her hands as she looks upward at the sky. (x)
An instant provides all the time Sam needs to comprehend the gravity of the situation. (x)
It was early morning when Catherine found the first one; just a scrap of paper propped against her tea tin. (x)
It's not the first time. (x)
7. Didn't really go in any of the above categories, but here for nostalgia purposes.
She'd wandered off after breakfast, around to the opposite side of the pond and into the trees. (x)
I want to see other people's now so that I can learn to do it better. You know you want tooooooooo.
Tangentially, coming back to fanfic after spending a while reading novels instead is an exercise in "omg the present tense everywhere I cannot grok!!!" Which is not to say I do not love present tense - because I do, or I would not write so much of it, lol - but going from past tense mostly in first person (seriously, is every new novel written in first person now?) to third person present requires a non-trivial mental shift, apparently.
