writing meme: last 10 fanfics
Rules: Post the first sentence of your latest 10 fanfics, then tag 10 some people
I was tagged by @curator-on-ao3 and @lesspopped - thank you both!
I've been really strict here about the definition of 'first line' and gone up to the first full stop of a fic only. Working from most recent to older:
a question you can't spit out
Charles didn't recognise the sound.
(aqycso starts with a short prologue/flashforward. I think the prologue itself could be tighter but works on the whole. I wanted to be very, very clear up front that this was not going to be a soft, sweet fic - it's violent and angry and no one is ok in it - and give people the option to nope out early rather than being surprised by it in a bad way. As a first line, though, I've never been completely happy with the above)
He ran the data a second time, even though he already knew there was no mistake.
(another fic, another prologue I'm not completely satisfied with)
(... I wrote this fic while annoyed about SNW, and I think that shows through in this very weak opening)
4. We are here, and this is now
“Are you alone? Or are there others like you?”
(is this a direct quote from the episode the fic spins off from? I genuinely can't remember. I don't think it sounds like my voice, reading it at this distance. Either way, another fic I wrote while in a bad mood about SNW...)
5. tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
"This is a terrible idea."
(now this is a fic I really enjoyed writing and one where I think the dialogue opening actually works as a hook)
Commander Angharad Jones halted outside the Captain's quarters and took a deep, calming breath.
(Angharad my beloved. I love this fic, but this first line doesn't do it justice. I think it does just about enough to draw a reader in, but could be better)
(... and the author shrugged. I love this fic, but again this is a whimper of a first line)
"Did you see how her hair moved? [...]"
(this is the start of a paragraph of rapid-fire Mariner chatter and I adore it. Draws you in with the question of who she's talking about and why it's remarkable that this person's hair moves, sets the voice of the characters and the fic. I like it)
Personnel File - Lorca, Gabriel
(I didn't know what to put as the first line for this one! Each chapter of Lost Cause starts with 'archive material' before the chapter itself - redacted personnel records, transcripts, news reports, as well as increasingly drunk, angry and unanswered space-emails from a fresh-from-the-mirrorverse Prime!Lorca to Chris Pike. They work in context, I think - it puts the reader in Gabriel's position of working with incomplete information about what really happened while he was away, and reinforces his complete isolation. As a first line of a story though, it's arguably ... skimmable)
I think my biggest take away from all of this is that I have a fairly ... workmanlike approach to first lines. I could definitely do more to tighten them up/make them stronger, as I genuinely don't think that the above are the best hooks for fics that I'm otherwise, on the whole, really proud of
Thank you for tagging me and making me feel like a real writer again! Tagging @lizardperson @liz-squids @the-lady-general and YOU!
