Writing Meme!
To pass the time for you while I reread His Majesty's Dragon and sequels and finish Victory of Eagles.

Post the first lines from your last twenty-five fics and see if there's a pattern (or something like that).


1) There is a turtle swimming through space, with four giant elephants and a flat disc of a world balanced carefully atop its meteor-pocked shell. That’s no less believable than a police box travelling through time and space.
-The Dalek Invasion of Discworld, Doctor Who/Discworld

2) I freely admit that I have a really bad sense of timing when it comes to women.
-A Modest Proposal, Dresden Files

3) Road trips, Molly decided, were definitely out.
-Four Ways Long Distance Relationships Don't Work Out, and One Way They Definitely Do, Dresden Files

4) Murphy stares at him, her expression totally blank. “Dresden, what exactly were you thinking? No, forget that, were you thinking?”
-Asking for Trouble, Dresden Files

5) The church was empty, silent apart from the creaking of the doors and the Doctor’s footsteps on the carpet. He frowned.
-Ten Times Trouble, Doctor Who

6) Sophie was laughing helplessly in the corner, Calcifer convulsed with cackles, and even Michael was having a hard time muffling his giggles. Howell did not think it was remotely funny, but that was his family for you.
-What Planet Are You From?, Howl's Moving Castle/Torchwood

7) The Brain was not pleased with his new minion.
-World's Greatest Criminal Mind, Pinky and the Brain/The Great Mouse Detective

8) The slender, gothy young woman eyed the terminally skinny anthropomorphic personification and said, “I don’t think this blind date thing is working out.”
-Blind Date, Sandman/Discworld

9) They always used lightning.
-It's Always Lightning, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Star Wars. Not fond of this one.

10) He was clever, that was the hell of it, clever and witty and peculiarly stupid in that way that I could never once resist, witness the Doctor.
-The Hell of It, RPF/Doctor Who

11) “Approval,” he says, and she laughs at him.
-Honor, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Mulan

12) She shoots him a glance over the rim of her glass, smirks, and says, “Nice gun.”
-Explosive, Firefly/Doctor Who

13) He met her again when he dove behind a wall to avoid a line of bullets and landed facefirst in her breasts.
-Bang, Firefly/Doctor Who

14) Harry Dresden was not amused on a number of levels.
-Practicality, Dresden Files/Harry Potter. Proved surprisingly popular. Apparently people like bazookas.

15) “MRS. HUDSON!”
-Ridiculous, Sherlock Holmes/The Great Mouse Detective

16) The shouting could be heard down the hall.
-The Usual, Harry Potter/The Lord of the Rings/Arthurian Legend. I'm thinking this one should be retitled "Beardsley's," though.

17) There was another one out there.
-You Are Not Alone, Doctor Who/Magic School Bus. Sequel in the works.

18) The TARDIS lands him on some godforsaken planet where they still used elements, when she was still fighting him, before he made her submit. Still, they have metal ships, and a certain level of sophistication. He realizes this when he pokes his head out the doors to see where he was and comes face to face with a ring of blue fire so hot it singes his face.
-I Can't Decide, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Doctor Who

19) They didn’t talk about it for the longest time.
-The Sound of Silence, the Sarah Jane Adventures

20) The stories were lovely, full of mystery and danger, joy and sorrow intermingled. His mother’s soft voice would weave tales of the Crusades and Sir Ian of Jaffa; his father would tell of Yataxa the goddess with pride in his face. Daleks and Voord and Zarbi lived alongside Kublai Khan and Robespierre and Nero, heroes and villains and those in between, glorious things his parents had seen and done.
-Listening, Doctor Who

21) “I dunno,” Jayne said, and stuck his foot out to get a better look. “Not sure ‘bout the spikes.”
-Special Discount, Firefly, Puck's fault

22) Rule number one of being me. It’s always vampires.
-Surprise Attack, Dresden Files

23) There is not much to do in these quick, quiet seconds besides think.
-The Space Between the Seconds, Doctor Who

24) Camera on Sozin as he outlines his plot for taking over the entire nation to someone off screen. He mentions the death of the Avatar and the danger of the Air Kingdoms, says something about “the task you were born for.” He may mention that it was emotions that brought down the Avatar and nearly brought him down. Long, wonderful, impassioned, menacing monologue, beautifully performed. He turns around, says, “And you will help me defeat them.”
Cut to a Dalek. “AFFIRMATIVE.”
-Doctor Air, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Doctor Who. Apparently very few things cannot be improved by adding "Cut to a Dalek."

25) Today, not to put too fine a point on it, sucked.
-Harry Dresden and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Dresden Files


Hmm. General patterns seem to be me playing with language more and more. I start out messing around with Space Between the Seconds and by the Dalek Invasion of Discworld I've nearly gone overboard. Thank you, darling beta! A few of these, namely all the Dresden Files fic and The Dalek Invasion of Discworld are me consciously trying to mimic the author in question. Interestingly, I've only started out with dialogue in three fics; I was under the impression that I did it a lot more. I also seem to start out right in the middle of the story and explain things later. Very Doctorlike of me, I think. So! What do you think?