Fic Meme

[a_whale_bone]

Inspired by mildredmost to try posting a little more in namespace (since Tumblr doesn't really do it for me) and to use my journal for something other than exchange letters. Let's see how long this fit of nostalgia for the old days of Livejournal lasts!

So with that in mind, I've stolen this fun fic meme:

Go through your last 5 fics and share the first and last line. Provide no context.

To the Victor (WIP)

A lot of people were surprised when Jyn Erso emerged as the victor of the Hunger Games.

"Lead the way."

Fractals

Baze sat in the shabby spaceport, weary to his bones.

"The rebellion."

A Spring Moon

The spring festival was busy.

The clouds overhead shifted, and Sarantsatsral's smile was lit by the moonlight.

Ostinato

"Hey, can I get a hand with this?"

“Yeah,” Daniel breathed. “I have time.”

Ocean Whispers

The early breeze was warm and tinged with ocean-salt.

The wind in the trees outside sounded like whispers.


What I'm getting from this, mostly, is that I don't have very compelling opening lines, and I have a tendency to end my fics with a line of dialogue (though To The Victor is only about halfway done, so maybe that one won't!) I do struggle with both opening and closing lines and tend to just go with "good enough".

I do like the opening line of To the Victor, I have to say. It's also the only one where the opening line came to me as the idea that sparked the entire story, so make of that what you will.

Comments

[mildredmost]

This is a cracking first line by the way: "Baze sat in the shabby spaceport, weary to his bones."

[a_whale_bone]

Aw, thank you! That's a triple drabble, so I probably spent more time on the opening than I usually would since there's so little space to establish scene and character.

[murderershair]

I was kinda surprised I didn't have more opening/closing lines that were dialogue, honestly. Made me realize a lot of the time what we remember from fiction isn't the literal first line so much as the opening paragraphs as a whole. I noticed several of your starting lines are setting the scene vs introducing character (the spring festival, the shabby spaceport, the breeze tinged with ocean-salt) though Fractals is both setting the scene and introducing character + situation.

[a_whale_bone]

In context of a full story I often find dialogue the most natural end point. The amount of times I've tried to write a narrative ending only to delete a meandering final paragraph and just leave it at the last line of dialogue... though I'd be lying if I said it's because I always think it's the strongest option. Often it's because I just want to be done by that point.

That's an interesting point about the openings. I think I do tend to start wider before moving the focus onto the characters. My imagination is quite visual, and I often have an 'establishing shot' in my head when I start a story. Fractals is a triple drabble, so the space constraints did mean I had to think more than usual about how to set up both the character and the setting.

[murderershair]

Oh I feel that big time, haha. Sometimes a story just sort of... peters out. It's pretty rare to get that final line that is doing something really dramatically interesting!

That makes a lot of sense re: establishing shot. I think a lot of the time as a fanfic writer, especially if it's a new canon/fandom for me or if I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of a particular character I haven't written in a while I tend to reach for a scene or moment that immediately grounds me in their voice, and then "zoom out" from there to establish the rest. I'm not sure if my original stuff follows that pattern though, since I'm generally more worried about establishing setting there.