I was tagged by @leafy-m ! Thank you so much this was actually really fun (and made me realize just how much stuff i have written)
rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!
1- Sometimes the best place to be when looking for new sights, or a wandering witch, is lost. ( The Wandering Witch )
2- The warm night cast a dark blanket around the edge of town in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains, only broken by the flickering lights of fireflies, and the headlights of an old—but reliable—pickup truck. (Chasing Leads)
3- Early in the morning, when the sky bled a deep purple and faded into red as the suns approached the horizon, a sandstorm hit. (The Sea, Chapter 15 of Pieces, Places and Spaces)
4- “Did you know, a thousand years ago, these mountains were completely dead?” (Team Rose Gold (revamp))
5- Beeping from the holochron interrupted Fennec’s second meal for the third time in an hour. (wip, tbobf chpt 5 and 6 rewrite)
7- All the wind whipping up sand all around his hovel couldn’t deafen the excited little shrieks of the boy climbing up the cliff for afternoon drinks. (WIP, deep dive into Luke Skywalker)
8- Tiny rocks slid and tumbled down into the pool far below Din’s feet. (And There Were Stars)
9- Luke drops all of his shopping bags to the ground almost in time to the apartment door clicking shut. (I Want It All)
10- When a modified, untagged N-1 starship hailed them from heart knows where, Bo-Katan didn’t know what to think. (Hand Holding, chapter 14 of Pieces, Places and Spaces)
11- The darksaber is haunted. (Pieces, Places and Spaces)
12- In Boba’s room, near the back of the palace, music played. (Pieces, Places and Spaces)
13- Despite what others were led to believe, Din did not use the Darksaber.
14- Their footsteps echoed in the dark stone ruins.
15- “Ok that does not make any sense.”
16- Waves of a hazy warmth pulled Din deeper into blissful quiet.
17- There was barely a knock at Luke’s door before it opened.
18- “So. This does it for you?”
19- Paz Vizsla had found his way to Fett’s palace, which meant Din was up against a wall the second they were alone. (its good to see you again)
20- It starts off as fatigue (The Favored Mand’alor)
Trends – uhhh well tis mostly star wars (Din Djarin, beLOVED) and things I haven’t finished and original stuff :0
Also predominantly either very short sentences that are supposed to grab attention or longer, more descriptive ones.
Favorite line – uhhhhh I love 2 4 and 7 <3 <3
Thank you so much again! For the next round I’ll tag @soulswimmrand @thechaospilot (No pressure) and anyone else who wants to do it :0
Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!
(a note. i’m using only published stories here cause i am…lazy.)
1. The new neighbors had moved in, in the middle of summer with minimal fuss.
2. Sitting alone at a hospital fundraising dinner was not how Addison had envisioned her night going.
3. The address hadn’t been hard to find but Sloan Riley had not been prepared for the size of the brownstone.
4. She and Derek didn’t have a fight.
5. Mark winces as he hears the doorbell ring, praying silently that it won’t wake up the baby or Addison.
6. Derek isn’t sure what he’s expecting when he knocks on the door of the brownstone.
7. It’s fourteen days into your no sex bet with Mark when you start to feel sick.
8. Lyra could barely look at Edward Coulter’s dead body lying on the dew damp grass before her.
9. Kathryn had been nervous the first time she’d met Harrison’s sons but that had been months ago.
10. “It’s all going to change.”
11. She is still Mrs. Marisa Coulter when Lyra is born, two weeks early and with her husband still away on business; the both of them screaming as Lyra enters the world.
12. Marisa knew as soon as she stepped over the threshold that she should not be there.
13. It is the morning before they are due to start shooting and an early morning call from Hugh MacPhail, the Network Head for Reality Programming, does not seem like a good start to the season to Marisa.
14. “Are you jealous?” Asriel asked, voice smug and amused.
15. “The child,” Marisa starts, her voice low and deliberately despondent, “he was born still,” she tells Edward, eyes lowered to her hands and voice sounding as slow moving as treacle.
16. “Oh, my…” She is breathless and panting, clinging tightly to Asriel, as she tries to catch her breath.
17. Early morning light streamed through open windows, the fair light of a spring morning warmed Asriel’s master bedroom.
18. Mother and Father didn’t usually have parties.
19. It was as if they were pulled together by some unknown force.
20. The hug is unexpected.
It seems the only pattern here is that I like to use character names in my opening lines for the most part?? I never really noticed that but I guess I like to establish who is in it pretty quick? That and fairly short opening lines.
My favourite! It’s a toss up between 8 and 17. 8 because of the slight shock value to the opening line. And 17 because it’s the opening of perhaps my most favourite piece of writing that I’ve ever written. But let’s go definitively with 8 for the sake of it being an opening line I love: Lyra could barely look at Edward Coulter’s dead body lying on the dew damp grass before her.
Tagging:@caladeniablue@mia-cooper and whoever would like to do this! I unfortunately don’t know a lot of writers of tumblr.
Thanks@little-tayy! That looks like a fun thing to do. I have shortened the rule to 10 intro sentences, though.
Here we go:
· “How can you go to sleep?” B’Elanna hissed in a low voice, her eyes darting around the white walls of their small cell.
· Determined to fix the problem once and for all, B’Elanna clambered through the Jefferies tube’s hatch.
· The Bajoran moved around Tuvok, lying prone and restrained on a table.
· She shuffled to the side to make room for the woman who settled beside her with a frown and a grunt.
· Kashyk: Order our ships to pursue. Maximum speed!
· She’d used his rank a lot while on duty.
· “I really don’t understand how it works for them. According to their own records, they can undergo amplexus without a proper anchor. How come?”
· Thank you for changing your father’s mind.
· The cold murmurs of the various consoles and the slight trembling of Voyager’s engines rushing through space tore through Janeway as she stepped on the bridge for the first time in three months.
· “Come on, Chakotay. It all ended well, and Harry was very impressed with his posting,” Janeway said as they entered the turbolift.
There doesn’t seem to be a pattern, apart from 9 of them being Star Trek Voyager. 2 x non-recurring characters; 3 x dialogues; 3 x Janeway-centered; some long, some short. What I do try to do is get the reader embedded in the action as fast as possible, with minimal introduction. I think most of those opening sentences do hit that goal.
My favourite: Thank you for changing your father’s mind. The story, She changed, is about regrets, mistakes, getting older, about the past and a shorter future. One of my favourites stories on those concepts.
opening lines meme Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!
Both @caldeniablue & @mia-cooper tagged me so I gave it a go. Mind you, I am not a prolific writer so…
Never ask questions about women’s toiletries. It’s none of your business.
Tom Paris was happy. He was more than happy, he was in fact - ecstatic.
It had been a long week, Chakotay decided as he input a minor course adjustments into Delta Flyer navigation computer.
I was not meant to hear it. It was a drunk, off handed remark, intended for someone else’s ears.
There were voices, so many voices… shouting, screaming, demanding, probing… then Her.
“Right, someone remind me again why I agreed to this?” the Captain asked wincing as the needle piercing her shoulder blade nearly made contact with the bone.
We are back in the Alpha Quadrant. Unexpectedly, amazingly, incredibly … suddenly - because you’ve kept your promise.
The transporter beam had barely finished the re-materialisation process yet ensign Munroe could tell she was being dismissed just by meeting the steely glare of the First officer.
It is most difficult to describe to a non vampire the World a vampire perceives around them.
Snowflakes danced lazily through the night sky, paying no heed to the silent figure on the porch.
As I sit here in this quiet corner, away from the immediate bustle typical of this time of day, I silently observe my soon to be interlocutor as he slowly makes his way through the evening crowd.
An earsplitting scream ripped through the night waking him violently from his slumber.
“Second thoughts commander?” Captain Janeway inquired of her first officer, attempting to fit into her costume.
Thunderous applause and cheering could be heard somewhere outside the pitch dark tunnel sheltering the small team.
“Are you ready Captain?”
“Oh god Chakotay! Stop, stop! It actually hurts!” Kathryn hissed.
Just another hour or so.
Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager was not a happy camper.
Comfortable… warm.
Jean Luc Picard was cold, wet, and above all else - miserable.
All but one are Voyager stories as I’ve found I write these characters more easily. Like Mia I seem to like establishing the action in the first line, or kicking off with dialogue and using the second line to place the scene.
My favourite opening line: #5- the angst is strong with that one.
My favourite fic from this lot: #10 - I am a sucker for fluff, even when I am the one writing it (yes, crack!fic is a close second).
Tagging@coffeeblack75 @ussjellyfish, @seemaunbound, @susann-noir and everyone else who feels like participating. :)
I wasn’t tagged… but I do want to play
opening lines meme
Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!
Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!
Oh man now I’m worried I have lame opening lines, let’s have a look shall we. Thanks @elephant-in-the-pride-parade for tagging me for a bit of fun! (And I love your opening bit from Tom in Eden’s Deception )
1. He sat brooding in the captain’s chair, his whole body dark and on the verge of forlorn.
2. Ensign Kashimuro Nozawa walked down the corridor with a bit too much spring in his step for zero-seven hundred hours.
3. The holodeck was the last place he expected to find her.
4. The high flow diesel pump was cold on her hands and Bahar lamented not putting on the knit gloves that were sitting uselessly on the passenger seat inside the cab.
5. The comm chimed and Kathryn Janeway pursed her lips knowing who it must be, final exam scores hadn’t even been posted and he was already trying to shake her down for the results.
6. The room felt wrong.
7. Everything was groggy.
8. Kathryn paced around her quarters for the millionth time, trying not to check the chronometer, every second passing was a moment lost.
9. The vast stretch of space ahead seems relatively calm, illusion or not, that is our state at the moment.
10. “I can’t believe you think boxing is more challenging than velocity!” reproached Captain Janeway, twisting her features up in mock indication, enjoying a bit of flirty banter with her gorgeous first officer.
11. Captain Kathryn Janeway was greeted by various members of her crew as she walked the halls of Voyager, her precise steps and command presence the epitome of a Starfleet Captain.
12. The grizzled old Starfleet Academy Dean was laying out the schedule for the term, detailing his expectations for each professor to have their syllabus and curriculum finalized by the end of the week, when a combadge chirped within the conference room.
13. “Cadet Trax and Cadet Russo, am I boring you with the importance of body language control when meeting new species?”
14. Chakotay handed Tuvok a phaser.
15. The room was dark and sweltering.
16. All throughout dinner he was more reserved than usual, he missed several opportunities to flirt with her and she was immediately worried something was wrong.
17. Kathryn was lying on her chaise lounge reading when she heard him enter.
18. “Lieutenant Tuvok to Captain Janeway. Please respond.”
19. The Commander entered sickbay at the end of his shift, his shoulders slumped and eyes desperately searching.
20. Captain Janeway responded to Admiral Nechayev’s question about yet another first contact situation in the Delta Quadrant.
Man I feel like my opening lines are a bit cringe when I stack them all together. Also two of them are way too similar . I seem to start a lot of them with the word the, so maybe I need to be more creative. I guess my favorites are 6, 9, and 19. Now I’m inspired to write better opening lines and go find the fics for some of the cool opening lines from other people.
P.S. also FU Wattpad for effing up the emoji uses and dropkicking your pm off a cliff and cursing the entire universe with the update from last year no one likes watching 2-3 unskippable ads after every chapter in a fanfiction and I used to be able to download my entire library for FREE when I joined can the old Wattpad come to the phone RN??? I don’t why I cried but I think it’s cuz I remembered for the first time since I hated you that I used to love you will the real slim watty please stand up
my search history ranges from “how much did a mango cost in mumbai in 1919” to “which damaged artery can threaten life” and honestly i feel bad for whichever FBI agent is spying on me
