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25 first lines meme
Again, saw this meme on the Friends list and thought it sounded like fun: Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfics and try to find a pattern.
I'm cheating a bit, and using the re-posted old Petshop fics in this meme, since otherwise I don't have 25 fics posted on LJ/IJ unless you count the individual chapters of multi-chapter fics, in which case, "Scars" could take up the entire list by itself! Also, I thought it would be nice to have a mixture of Petshop and Snupin fics. So starting with the most recent and working backwards...
1. Leon was sound asleep, blissfully dreaming about the Count, but an annoying ringing noise off in the distance pulled him back into the waking world. (Spirits, Leon/D; Petshop of Horrors fandom)
2. Kagome and her companions walked up to the entrance of the Chinatown pet shop. (Kitsune Reunion, Gen; Petshop/Inu Yasha crossover)
3. A young man clad in jeans, t-shirt, and a red leather jacket sauntered into the pet shop. (FX, Gen; Petshop crossover with Mercedes Lackey's "Serrated Edge" fantasy novel series.)
4. "Hello? Anyone home?" Leon called out as he opened the door to the pet shop. (The Day After, Leon/D)
5. Count D reclined on his couch, sipping tea from a delicate porcelain cup. (Revenge, Leon/D)
6. "Happy birthday, Vesca!" D sang out as he walked into Vesca's open dorm room. (Fragaria Vesca, Vesca/Papa D; Petshop fandom)
7. When Snape received an invitation to a Potions symposium in Japan, he jumped at the chance--not just because he was interested in learning more about Asian Potions theory, but because he secretly wanted an excuse to go back to the love hotel again. (Watching Videos, Snape/Lupin)
8. "Please, Padfoot?" James begged in a wheedling voice. (Double Date, Sirius/girl-Snape)
9. Mr. Remus J. Lupin and guest are cordially invited to: The First Annual Werewolf Jamboree and Bake-off! (The Werewolf Jamboree, Snape/Lupin)
10. "Severus, please hurry," Lupin groaned urgently. (Snupin Meme, Snape/Lupin)
11. Snape lay on the floor of the Shrieking Shack, feigning death--which wasn't all that difficult, since he would be dead soon if the brats didn't either hurry up and help him or get the hell out of here so that he could stop playing dead and save himself. (The Return of the Slytherins, Gen)
12. Snape sighed contentedly, drifting off into a pleasant haze of post-coital stupor with Lupin snuggled up against his side. (Vanilla, Snape/Lupin)
13. The day before the celebration, Tsubasa went to see his parents, and gave his stepmother a package. (A Gift from Sweetie, Ash/Tsubasa, OCs in my Snupin Always series)
14. When he holds the dagger to my throat and looks at me coldly with absolutely no recognition in his eyes, that's when it sinks in... (Betrayed, Vesca/Papa D)
15. It was the middle of June, and Theodore had been given leave from his apprenticeship to come home for a few weeks to spend time with his family. (Fathers' Day, Snape/Lupin)
16. Severus had never expected to live through the war; he had been certain that one side or the other would kill him before it was over. (Homecoming, Snape/Lupin)
17. Voldemort had been defeated and the war was over. (A Full Moon Birthday, Snape/Lupin)
18. "Come on, Bellatrix, you can do better than that!" Sirius taunted. (A Sort of Fairytale, Snape/Lupin)
19. The day before Valentine's Day, Remus found himself browsing through the boxes and glass jars of candy at Honeydukes. (Chocolate-Covered Werewolf, Snape/Lupin)
20. The Bashir family, having found themselves on the losing end of a feud between rival clans, had fled to England from the Middle East when Severus's mother was still a young girl. (Bell Dancer, Snape/Lupin--on IJ, or friends-locked post on the lupin_snape community on LJ)
21. Severus Snape hated birthdays, particularly his own. (Happy Birthday, Severus, Snape/Lupin)
22. The children obviously weren't going to help him--why should they, since they still believed Snape to be a traitor? (Fic Excerpt, Snape/Lupin--written for "The Great Snape Escape" challenge on Snapedom, but intended to be part of a still in-progress post-DH plot bunny I've been working on.)
23. When Remus arrived at Grimmauld Place, Molly told him that Severus was in the kitchen talking to Harry and Sirius--a volatile combination at the best of times, so he hurried to the kitchen, intent upon preventing bloodshed. (A Man of Stature, Snape/Lupin)
24. Theodore was still working in Ireland on his apprenticeship; Dylan was visiting Hermione and her family in the Muggle world; and Selima had gone off with Molly Weasley to look at potential reception sites for the upcoming wedding of Bill and Fleur. (Scars, Snape/Lupin and various other pairings)
25. "Ah...ah...Aric...oh," Takeshi gasped, bracing himself with his palms against the wet tile of the shower wall. (Summer Vacation III: Honeymoon in Japan on my website or on Moonshadow, Snape/Lupin and OC pairing Aric/Takeshi)
Okay, so what have I learned? I write more gen than I thought...two Petshop fics, and The Return of the Slytherins (although there are slashy hints in the latter). And I do have another Petshop fic ("Curry") that I haven't had time to re-post yet that is mostly gen, although there are hints of Leon being attracted to D though he's still in denial about it. That's still not a lot, but I'm a slasher at heart, so it's amazing that there are any at all! ^_^ Guess that doesn't have anything to do with the first lines, though.
Hmm...I noticed that I rarely start off with anything porny; #25 is the only openly smutty line. #10 sounds porny but is deceptive, since that was the purpose of the meme. We do get a hint of planned sex in #7 and a post-coital moment in #12.
Relatively few stories open with a line of dialogue--only six out of twenty-five. Sometimes it's a statement of an action in progress: "Count D reclined on the couch," or "Snape sighed contentedly". Or often, it's a kind of summary explaining what's going on, or what has happened before the fic started: "It was the middle of June, and Theodore had been given leave from his apprenticeship to come home for a few weeks..." or "Voldemort had been defeated and the war was over".
It's not really a conscious effort, but it seems that I rarely start off with a bang, as many authors do to immediately hook a reader, say, with a dramatic action (a cop kicking in a door, or a Death Eater firing a hex at our heroes) or sex in progress. It seems like I usually open more quietly, with a sentence that sets the stage and shows what's going on. Which I suppose is a reflection of my writing style, which tends more towards characterization and description over action. It's nice to know that, though, so I'm more aware of it, and can shake things up in the future if I want to try something new.
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