jobooksncoffee:calaisreno:First Line Writer GameI was t...

jobooksncoffee:

calaisreno:

First Line Writer Game

I was tagged by both @arwamachine and @helloliriels. Thank you!

My last 10 works and their opening lines:

Equinox: Happy families are all alike.A Chronic Condition: Sherlock Holmes is jealous.Accidental Magic: It sounds like a terrible case.No Such Person: “Did you talk to Harriet Watson?”We Remain: London is known for rain, not snow.The Real You: John knows Sherlock is ill even before he tells him.Prodigal Sons: Idiots, both of them.Blank Slate: Mary died before he could formally propose.A Chamber to be Haunted: There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.Synchronicity: He’s crossing Russell Square one day, thinking about his worthless life (so worthless, he can’t think of a single thing to say about it in the blog his therapist insisted that he start), when he hears a voice.

I have an obvious preference for short first sentences. This goes all the way back to my first stories on AO3, so I suppose it’s part of my writerly style. Two of these (Equinox and A Chamber to be Haunted) borrow first lines from literature. The line from Equinox is the first line of Anna Karenina, and A Chamber to be Haunted uses the same line that begins Jane Eyre.

Am I in a rut? Are there better ways to begin a story? I like a short sentence; it gives the reader questions, invites them to read.

I’d like to tag a couple, though they may already have been tagged: @therealsaintscully @jobooksncoffee

Thank you to the very talented @calaisreno! As I don’t yet have ten stories posted on AO3, I’ll throw in some WIPs

• Will You Take Me Home? Rosie kept looking up towards the doors of her school auditorium filled with students, their science projects displayed on tables, and their parents for the school’s Annual Science Fair.

• The bowels of London. “Hey there sweetie, you again? You looking for some companeee?” she slurred.

• Security Blanket He didn’t know why he had taken it.

• Not Involved. Mycroft put down the phone and went back to his treadmill.

• The Beard “…But it doesn’t work like that!! You know it, you have to come to the Yard and fill out that paperwork!!

• Following the (Silver) Fox “Those things will kill you,” said a voice in the darkness.

• The Necessity Oh that tall glass of water, gorgeous.

Three WIPs

• Three Years: Scared, alone, cold—after everything, after all that time, all that work, still scared, still alone, still cold.

• We’ll Always Have Vasteras: Sherlock was tired, hurt and hungry.

• Title to be determined: John held his hat in his hands nervously.

Please anyone who would like to, join in! I will tag @loveismyrevolution, @elwinglyre , @totallysilvergirl , @cumbercurlygirl @discordantwords , @silentauroriamthereal @chriscalledmesweetie @greenapricot , @nade2308 , @fellshish , @annecumberbatch

Oh, cool meme! Thanks for the tag, @jobooksncoffee! 

1. Sherlock squints across the narrow, wobbling table and wishes for the seventeenth time that some idiot from behind the bar would come and shore it up with a wedge of serviettes or else just make the floor level, or whatever it would take to keep the thing from swaying precariously every time he forgets and puts his right elbow down onto it again. (Cupid’s Venom)

2. It starts with an event that takes John completely by surprise. (Nocturne)

3. John has a secret. (The Secret of Hazel Grange)

4. Interesting, that soldier fellow. He could be the making of my brother. Or make him worse than ever. Mycroft purses his lips and moves the cursor back to the start of the surveillance video, beginning it at the precise moment where John Watson rushes forward and begins to beat his brother to a bloody pulp. (Two lines on that one! This is the opening of Sine Nomine)

5.  “The National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition,” Sherlock reads aloud. He already sounds contemptuous, John thinks. Sherlock puts the pamphlet down. “What the hell is that?” (Technically that’s three lines, but they’re short! From The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse)

6. When the text comes, John closes his eyes and sighs. (Rebuilding Rome)

7. It starts with an email on a Tuesday afternoon sometime in April. (Isosceles)

8. They’re drinking tea in front of the fire one afternoon when Mrs Hudson comes up, her step a little heavier than usual to Sherlock’s ear. (Home for Christmas)

9. PS. I know you two, and if I’m gone, I know what you could become, because I know who you really are. A junkie who solves crimes to get high and the doctor who never came home from the war. Well, you listen to me: who you really are, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the legend, the stories, the adventures…Mary’s words go on, but somehow John stops listening. (More than one line there, too, but it was for the quote! From The Bells of King’s College)

10. It initially began as concern, though Sherlock wondered even then if the excuse weren’t a little thin. (In the Still of the Night)

There you have it! Tagging: all of you who write. :)