First Lines Meme, Take 6
Apr. 19th, 2017 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupBecause I'm bored with research for my current active projects (![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
backagainharry and fandom5k), a recurrent meme:
First Lines, previously meme'd in 2008; 2012; April 2014; Sept 2014; & 2016.
Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfic posts and try to find a pattern.
With 1 being the oldest of the group and 25 the most recent...
1. JARVIS being JARVIS, there was no question of farming the paternity test necessitated by the presence of the nervous teenager on Tony Stark's doorstep off to an outside lab for analysis.
(Teenage Trojan Horse of Chaos, B:tVS/Iron Man)
2. Eliot took one look at the screen, then turned and gave Hardison a look.
(The Dinosaur Job, Leverage/Jurassic World)
3. Brian was pretty sure Toretto had been suspicious from the start that he wasn't entirely susceptible to the man's charm.
(Weighting the Odds, Fast & Furious series)
4. "Well, here we are," the big DSS Agent said, gesturing around his industrial-chic secret headquarters.
(The Benefits of Inter-Agency Cooperation, B:tVS/Fast & Furious series)
5. "Until next time, huh?"
(A Whole Different Level, Fast & Furious Series)
6. Jack O'Neill's feelings were mixed as he stepped through the stargate to Orban, a planet he hadn't seen in person in-- was it eight years ago now?
(Back to Basics, Stargate SG-1)
7. "D. Cappucio and Simmons."
(An Energy Like No Other: 2/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
8. River lifts her head just enough to glance over the half-collapsed wall, tightening her grip on the axe and sword that have traveled with her halfway across the 'verse.
(half of writing history is hiding the truth, Firefly/The Walking Dead)
9. Another foreign city, another temp job come to an end.
(Breaking the Ice, The Transporter [Yuletide])
10. The lighting in the elevator is just as relentlessly white on the way back down as it was to the roof, casting the same revealing light on everything within it.
(What's In a Name?, Hitman: Agent 47 [Yuletide])
11. It was a cool, still evening late in harvest season the first time I heard the song about the River's daughter.
(The River's Daughter, Uprooted [Yuletide])
12. The thing Stephen Buchevsky was having the hardest time getting over about his latest abrupt and painful change of circumstance wasn't the sudden lack of a heartbeat.
(raison d'être, Out of the Dark [Yuletide])
13. It had hurt like the devil's own fire to leave Snow White's castle behind after her coronation.
(From Darkness Into Light, Huntsman movies [Yuletide])
14. “So,” Kaulder said, his voice a low, thoughtful rumble.
(the secret to happiness (is releasing expectation), The Last Witch Hunter [Yuletide])
15. The best thing about Quidditch, in Harry's recent experience, was that no two matches or even practises were ever alike.
(Back Again Harry: Chapter 19, Harry Potter)
16. Tried to do a good deed, and look where it got me.
(Seeking the Threshold, Riddick series [Chocolate Box])
17. Dahl shifted her weight on her patient's thighs, using her weight as leverage to trap him more securely against the seat, and began carefully unsticking the edge of the bandage taped across his chest.
(Making an Exception, Riddick series [Chocolate Box])
18. By the time Peter Quill finally set foot on Earth again, he'd been gone for the better part of three decades; or about three-quarters of his life, to put it in non-Terran-centric terms.
(Not That Unique of a Thing, Guardians of the Galaxy/Jurassic World)
19. Thor held up his wrist at Darcy's hissed reminder, displaying the colored plastic bracelet the gatekeeper had given him to the guardians at the doors of the vast hall, and nodded to those watchful men and women as he passed through into the crowded space beyond.
(Acquiring a Frame of Reference, Thor movies)
20. "Are you sure about this, Alex?" Rick frowned at his twenty-year-old son.
(Far, Far Better Things Ahead, Mummy movies/The Great Wall)
21. DG and Az found Glitch exactly where they'd expected to: bent over a desk covered with journals and correspondence in the vaulted central room of the Royal Library.
(Weathering the Storm: Chapter 4, Tin Man)
22. On the surface their banter hadn't changed, but William knew better after so many months of travel together.
(in one another's shelter, The Great Wall)
23. Mikaela spent most of the two hour drive from Random Forest, Delaware to Washington, DC white-knuckling the edge of her seat and trying not to worry.
(An Energy Like No Other: 3/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
24. It was absolutely the stupidest thing he could be worrying about, in the midst of being shanghaied by an ancient used-to-be-Decepticon while the current Decepticons slaughtered thousands world-wide, but Sam was absolutely convinced that someone was watching him.
(An Energy Like No Other: 4/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
25. Brian swore as Sam disappeared into the wall, fixated on something none of the rest of them could perceive.
(An Energy Like No Other: 5/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
Of the 25 lines of fic:
* Include dialogue: 5
* Include formatting for emphasis: 2
* Include at least one comma, colon, semicolon, ellipsis, or parenthetical: 21
* Include name of POV character: 16
* Fusion or crossover: 10
* Present Tense: 1
* POV - First Person: 2
* POV - Female: 7
* POV - POC: 4
As I've noted before, my style hasn't changed much in awhile: I have a clear preference for beginning a story in medias res, tightening on the chosen character POV right at the start, and using lots of scene-setting and/or dialect-specific description words. This often results in fairly complex sentences, and a variety of sensory cues.
I also don't tend to notice the implications of which character I've chosen until afterward, because I have a tendency to pick the one that has the most interesting perspective of whatever bit of story I'm telling (or sometimes, doesn't - because I'm trying to obscure a particular plot point for future revelation). What they are is usually not the important part; who they are matters a lot more to me. And I've never been the sort of person to say, "well, they're not like me so I can't write them," instead, "well, I'll have to do more research if I want to make this sound right." I'm aware a lot of people write for fantasy and escapism and research is too much like work? But I don't get obsessive about it, so I don't think I please the SJW's either? *shrug* Oh well; I don't throw stones either way.
I see a more even mix this time between crossovers and non-crossovers, though; also between official exchange fic and stuff written for my own account or for prompt posts, and between stand-alone fic and chapters of longer works. I just seem to get more eclectic on that front the more time passes-- which makes sense, given just how long I've been at this. 15 years and 2,154,595 published words as a fanfic writer!
I still find it interesting that the Present-Tense count has dropped so much in the last couple of years; I seem to have almost stopped playing with that tool outside of a very particular range of fandoms and characters (much like with 1st Person POV), few of which I've spent much time in recently. It'll be interesting to see if that changes in future.
Anything else you find interesting, or want to ask about...?
backagainharry and fandom5k), a recurrent meme:First Lines, previously meme'd in 2008; 2012; April 2014; Sept 2014; & 2016.
Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfic posts and try to find a pattern.
With 1 being the oldest of the group and 25 the most recent...
1. JARVIS being JARVIS, there was no question of farming the paternity test necessitated by the presence of the nervous teenager on Tony Stark's doorstep off to an outside lab for analysis.
(Teenage Trojan Horse of Chaos, B:tVS/Iron Man)
2. Eliot took one look at the screen, then turned and gave Hardison a look.
(The Dinosaur Job, Leverage/Jurassic World)
3. Brian was pretty sure Toretto had been suspicious from the start that he wasn't entirely susceptible to the man's charm.
(Weighting the Odds, Fast & Furious series)
4. "Well, here we are," the big DSS Agent said, gesturing around his industrial-chic secret headquarters.
(The Benefits of Inter-Agency Cooperation, B:tVS/Fast & Furious series)
5. "Until next time, huh?"
(A Whole Different Level, Fast & Furious Series)
6. Jack O'Neill's feelings were mixed as he stepped through the stargate to Orban, a planet he hadn't seen in person in-- was it eight years ago now?
(Back to Basics, Stargate SG-1)
7. "D. Cappucio and Simmons."
(An Energy Like No Other: 2/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
8. River lifts her head just enough to glance over the half-collapsed wall, tightening her grip on the axe and sword that have traveled with her halfway across the 'verse.
(half of writing history is hiding the truth, Firefly/The Walking Dead)
9. Another foreign city, another temp job come to an end.
(Breaking the Ice, The Transporter [Yuletide])
10. The lighting in the elevator is just as relentlessly white on the way back down as it was to the roof, casting the same revealing light on everything within it.
(What's In a Name?, Hitman: Agent 47 [Yuletide])
11. It was a cool, still evening late in harvest season the first time I heard the song about the River's daughter.
(The River's Daughter, Uprooted [Yuletide])
12. The thing Stephen Buchevsky was having the hardest time getting over about his latest abrupt and painful change of circumstance wasn't the sudden lack of a heartbeat.
(raison d'être, Out of the Dark [Yuletide])
13. It had hurt like the devil's own fire to leave Snow White's castle behind after her coronation.
(From Darkness Into Light, Huntsman movies [Yuletide])
14. “So,” Kaulder said, his voice a low, thoughtful rumble.
(the secret to happiness (is releasing expectation), The Last Witch Hunter [Yuletide])
15. The best thing about Quidditch, in Harry's recent experience, was that no two matches or even practises were ever alike.
(Back Again Harry: Chapter 19, Harry Potter)
16. Tried to do a good deed, and look where it got me.
(Seeking the Threshold, Riddick series [Chocolate Box])
17. Dahl shifted her weight on her patient's thighs, using her weight as leverage to trap him more securely against the seat, and began carefully unsticking the edge of the bandage taped across his chest.
(Making an Exception, Riddick series [Chocolate Box])
18. By the time Peter Quill finally set foot on Earth again, he'd been gone for the better part of three decades; or about three-quarters of his life, to put it in non-Terran-centric terms.
(Not That Unique of a Thing, Guardians of the Galaxy/Jurassic World)
19. Thor held up his wrist at Darcy's hissed reminder, displaying the colored plastic bracelet the gatekeeper had given him to the guardians at the doors of the vast hall, and nodded to those watchful men and women as he passed through into the crowded space beyond.
(Acquiring a Frame of Reference, Thor movies)
20. "Are you sure about this, Alex?" Rick frowned at his twenty-year-old son.
(Far, Far Better Things Ahead, Mummy movies/The Great Wall)
21. DG and Az found Glitch exactly where they'd expected to: bent over a desk covered with journals and correspondence in the vaulted central room of the Royal Library.
(Weathering the Storm: Chapter 4, Tin Man)
22. On the surface their banter hadn't changed, but William knew better after so many months of travel together.
(in one another's shelter, The Great Wall)
23. Mikaela spent most of the two hour drive from Random Forest, Delaware to Washington, DC white-knuckling the edge of her seat and trying not to worry.
(An Energy Like No Other: 3/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
24. It was absolutely the stupidest thing he could be worrying about, in the midst of being shanghaied by an ancient used-to-be-Decepticon while the current Decepticons slaughtered thousands world-wide, but Sam was absolutely convinced that someone was watching him.
(An Energy Like No Other: 4/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
25. Brian swore as Sam disappeared into the wall, fixated on something none of the rest of them could perceive.
(An Energy Like No Other: 5/5, Fast & Furious Series/Transformers Bay-verse)
Of the 25 lines of fic:
* Include dialogue: 5
* Include formatting for emphasis: 2
* Include at least one comma, colon, semicolon, ellipsis, or parenthetical: 21
* Include name of POV character: 16
* Fusion or crossover: 10
* Present Tense: 1
* POV - First Person: 2
* POV - Female: 7
* POV - POC: 4
As I've noted before, my style hasn't changed much in awhile: I have a clear preference for beginning a story in medias res, tightening on the chosen character POV right at the start, and using lots of scene-setting and/or dialect-specific description words. This often results in fairly complex sentences, and a variety of sensory cues.
I also don't tend to notice the implications of which character I've chosen until afterward, because I have a tendency to pick the one that has the most interesting perspective of whatever bit of story I'm telling (or sometimes, doesn't - because I'm trying to obscure a particular plot point for future revelation). What they are is usually not the important part; who they are matters a lot more to me. And I've never been the sort of person to say, "well, they're not like me so I can't write them," instead, "well, I'll have to do more research if I want to make this sound right." I'm aware a lot of people write for fantasy and escapism and research is too much like work? But I don't get obsessive about it, so I don't think I please the SJW's either? *shrug* Oh well; I don't throw stones either way.
I see a more even mix this time between crossovers and non-crossovers, though; also between official exchange fic and stuff written for my own account or for prompt posts, and between stand-alone fic and chapters of longer works. I just seem to get more eclectic on that front the more time passes-- which makes sense, given just how long I've been at this. 15 years and 2,154,595 published words as a fanfic writer!
I still find it interesting that the Present-Tense count has dropped so much in the last couple of years; I seem to have almost stopped playing with that tool outside of a very particular range of fandoms and characters (much like with 1st Person POV), few of which I've spent much time in recently. It'll be interesting to see if that changes in future.
Anything else you find interesting, or want to ask about...?
no subject
Date: 2017-04-20 11:23 am (UTC)I still find it interesting that the Present-Tense count has dropped so much in the last couple of years; I seem to have almost stopped playing with that tool outside of a very particular range of fandoms and characters (much like with 1st Person POV), few of which I've spent much time in recently. It'll be interesting to see if that changes in future.
In this order: *jaw drops* and Second Tense, any stories with that? Or opinions on its use?
no subject
Date: 2017-04-20 06:57 pm (UTC)As for Second Person POV ... there are a few people I've read it from where it works? But I've never, ever been tempted to use it. It's not just that it's really difficult to get right; there has to be just the right reason for it, and I've not yet run into a canon where it felt appropriate.
I mean ... when I think in the Riddick-verse, or the Dresden-verse, the main characters' narration is what pops into my head? It's by far the easiest voice for me to hear for them, so if I'm writing from Riddick's or Harry's POVs, that's just how I roll. I can't think of a single canon voice that makes me think in second person before any other; if I ever do find one, I might give it a go, but not for any other reason.
(Besides which, I really can't get into the whole /Reader movement in fandom; which I have a vague impression of being responsible for a lot of the second person stuff? For me writing or reading in fandom is about immersing in it, not fourth-wall-breaking fantasizing about interacting with it. It works for some people; it doesn't work at all for me.)
no subject
Date: 2017-04-20 08:28 pm (UTC)I'm wondering if the hyperattractiveness of some players fosters 2nd person fic of the Do Me Palpy variety (yes, there's an LJ comm with that title) or, more approachably, Generalsgrrrrlz (sp) on Geocities, which featured tons of pretty darn good 2nd person Star Wars Ep. II fic with General Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor, mullet and all). Sooo many OCs in those stories ...
no subject
Date: 2017-04-30 05:17 pm (UTC)which a quick skim shows as having loads of ABH 2nd person stories. Hooboy ...