Ten first lines

[extrapenguin]

Meme from naye via yantantether!

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.

In chronological order:
"So,” Xiao Xingchen asked, slurring his speech slightly with drink, “what do you want to do, later?”
– The Family We Find

Song Lan left Yi City with more than he had arrived with.
– Lifespring

The vast machinery behind the throne room's main doors clunked into action.
– This subject's greatest pleasure

You are a kind and merciful god.
– Ten Thousand Tears

Zhao Yunlan was not blind, but the time during which he had been had left him even more attuned to Shen Wei's emotions and body language, so he knew exactly how dejected Shen Wei was while he was giving the Damned Cat a proper motivational speech and his collar as Kunlun.
– Within, Without

Zhao Yunlan lounged on his bed in thought.
– A Very Willing Envoy

Csoru Drazharan's first full day as Empress of the Elflands was spent in a haze of smugness.
– From the Depths

Well over ten thousand years ago, a race of aliens had come to Haixing.
– Under Rusted Skies

Zhao Yunlan had for some reason received an invitation to the annual scientific charity gala – a fundraiser for basic research – so of course he took it up.
– Marked Man

"From antiquity to the present, since the beginning of mankind, has anyone heard the sound of fate or seen such a thing as fate? No, no one has." –Zhuangzi
– From Ashes of Sunlight

...in general, considering my recent propensity to mimic 1800s novelists in my love of semicolons and tl;dr sentences, these are remarkably concise! I tend to start with some setting-setting and my protagonist's name. For Under Rusted Skies, I sort of wanted the fic to mimic the canon in arc, so I started it with a canon-reminiscient infodump that let me slip in that this is the future now. For From Ashes of Sunlight, the actual first line of the fic (“Why?” Lan Wangji snapped.) didn't fit the fic at all, so did a cop-out and pasted in a Zhuangzi quote instead that'd warn people that nothing is fated, not even their OTP. *g* My favorite of the bunch is Ten Thousand Tears, though, with This subject's greatest pleasure as runner-up. They work, they are very fitting for the rest of the fic, and they have at least a modicum of elegance.

/goes back to making icons; 4/10 done for Icon Battle round 3, time to go back to iconing episode 8

Comments

[china_shop]

For From Ashes of Sunlight, the actual first line of the fic (“Why?” Lan Wangji snapped.) didn't fit the fic at all, so did a cop-out and pasted in a Zhuangzi quote instead that'd warn people that nothing is fated, not even their OTP. *g*

That's such an interesting consideration! I never really stop to think how the first line fits the rest of the story... I probably should?

I second the enjoyment of the From the Depths opening. :-)

[extrapenguin]

I always give the whole of my fic a reread before posting, and most of the time it's stayed on track, but that one is 40k long and thus there is quite a trajectory from start to finish in which things can change. It's an extra bit of polish, basically.

Hee! My tentacle porn seems to have a very popular opening line. :P