#fun story that the opening lines of a fic - much like intro paragraphs for academic papers - are often the last part I actually write

[paradife-loft]

First line meme

Tagged by: @neuxue - thanks! :D

Rules: List the first lines of the last ten (10) stories you published. Look to see any patterns you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any. Then tag some friends.

*cracks knuckles* Okay, let’s do this and... try not to feel bad about the fact that I only wrote six fics last year and only broke 10k words by the grace of one of them being longer because it was for an exchange :’)

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1. Time has slowed for them many times before: that's not new. They have a contempt born of familiarity for the torture of endurance. - (like I need a downpour) 2. In truth, the entire affair is strange. He knows, he is very intimately aware, that in a grand house such as this, much of the daily work of childrearing is placed on servants; that in the absence of the child’s parents, there’s even less of a place for a barely-accepted younger uncle to insert himself into the care of the house’s suddenly-much-more-important young heir. - (A shield for tender parts)

3. Meng Yao has sold almost all of his things, all the ones he could bring with because they were properly his - rather than scattered trappings of the Unclean Realm’s vice-envoy, inhabited like a borrowed shell - on the way down from Qinghe. - (For worse I can’t condone)

4.  Even though it would’ve been perfectly acceptable to receive Clan Leader Jin at the gates to Lotus Pier proper, Jiang Cheng has decided today to take advantage of the lack of other guests arriving at all hours, and meet Lianfang-zun and their nephew down at the docks in the town instead. - (Friends of empty graves)

5. "Er-ge. Are you sure nothing is bothering you today, besides the usual small matters? You’ve seemed distracted all through dinner. I know you said everything at Gusu is fine and your brother’s just returned, but if there’s anything at all…” - (Avoidance)

6. When the incense has finished burning, when a portion of the smoke has dissipated and a greater silence has descended on this secluded chamber in Golden Scale Tower given over, these past few days, to a distorted recapitulation of a funeral process - Jin Guangyao does not look surprised, nor does he object, to see you rise and, even hesitantly, begin to approach your elder brother’s body. - (The orchard and the soil)

7. A little girl was staring at him. He almost dropped the bark he was holding back into the jar when he noticed, and then froze like that for a few moments. - (learn to linger)

8. When a-Ling had been checked over once more for injuries; the Jin servants disappeared upstairs to help put him to bed; and the innkeep paid for the meal and rooms - Jin Guangyao found himself unusually alone, in the waning candlelight, with Jiang Wanyin. - (Worth)

9. “I can lend you spiritual energy if you want it.” - (Cradle)

10. Jin Guangyao had seen how the brothers and eldest son of Sect Leader Ceng had looked at the baby. - (Calibration)

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Hmm, well. As far as similarities go, it definitely feels like there’s a ~vibe~ here, though I’m hard-pressed to actually identify what it is. I definitely don’t do snappy prose, and I like to abuse the power of subclauses, but I think that’s true of my writing generally (especially given whose POVs I tend to end up writing from). I don’t often open with dialogue, and at least from this sample, when I do it seems to be for the pieces where the physical and exact temporal settings are not terribly relevant. Which is probably related to the fact that otherwise, I seem to like trying to cram cues to as much of said setting as I can into the first couple sentences? (Jin Guangyao likes establishing context; He Xuan apparently hates it.)

If anyone else notices anything interesting, lmk for sure; it’s kind of fascinating to look at pieces of several different fics all at once here XD I know I often feel like the opening lines are something I hate writing and mostly just want to slap on the beginning and move on from, even though they are objectively kind of important as a part of any given piece. I suppose looking at a whole batch of them here, I feel like I hate them quality-wise a little less? They’re not as bland and shitty as I usually feel like they are when I’m trying to drag them kicking and screaming out of my brain, anyway. So that’s something~

tagging..... let’s say @pyr0clast and @stripedroseandsketchpads, and then run away while I’m ahead before I start overthinking this. (and of course anyone else who wants to play!)