Hey fic, how are you?

[lettered]

That first line meme is going around. I never think much or care about first lines, but I went and looked at mine anyway, and they sucked. Then I thought, even though I suck at it, I should dig up first lines I loved from other fics--and came up with exactly nil. It's not that you folks haven't written some great first lines; I'm sure you have. It's just that I, personally, dislike first lines.

I just wanna be inside the story already; I don't actually like the slow get-to-know-you dance; the "do I like you/do you like me?" kind of thing. I hate it in real life too. I hate meeting people and I hate, "So what do you do? Are you married? Where did you go to school?" I even hate the, "How are you?" part of conversations, because the part of a conversation where you get to talking about how someone really is isn't until the meaty part of a conversation, which is often in the middle. (Even if someone answers, "How are you?" with "Dismal!" the part that's interesting is why.)

Re: getting-to-know-you--about people, I make snap judgments and find it hard to shake first impressions. I know this is wrong. The only way I've been able to adjust is not act on those judgments, or say anything about them. I just have to deal with them living in my head, knowing they're false, and this means I can't form any real opinion at all about anybody for quite some time. It just makes me impatient to get to the part where they've had a bunch of chances so I can see the ways in which they are truly good, fun, and educational (because people almost always turn out good, fun, and educational. I've rarely had it happen that they don't, which is nice).

Now, books don't always turn out good, fun, or educational, but so often they're one of the three. Sometimes they're educational in ways they're not meant to be (for instance, I read the Twilight series partly to educate myself about pop culture, other viewpoints, what kind of thing tickles other people's id. I've got to admit those books were fun, too, but also not in the way that they were probably meant to be). But the beginning parts of books now just feels like a slog up until the part where I really get invested, either in the characters or the plot or some kind of theme that is important to me.

I used to love starting new books. I remember I read Romeo and Juliet on my own in sixth grade. I found it pretty difficult, but as is usually the case with Shakespeare and me, I slowly slid into it until I didn't have to stop to "translate" anything at all. It was like learning a new language, and I loved that. When I'd read Victorian novels and high fantasy in high school, I loved those big walls of text wherein you don't know anyone and don't really understand the world or culture and can't really grasp the scope of the novel you're reading, and then slowly a plot emerges and you get to know characters you love (and hate) and it's this entire world you're living in.

But it's this that annoys me now. I know I know the language and want to speak it. I know I love that world and want to be in it. But instead I have to sit there and get these slow lessons on how to speak and what to say, as if each time I'm learning to be a part of a new culture, when I've already been a part of so many other cultures that I've lost count. These "lessons" (and my frustration with them) are not inherent to the specific text. They're inherent to myself, when it comes to language (i.e., I'm the one who has to learn; they don't have to teach me), and inherent to the whole idea of reading, when it comes to getting to know the world (i.e. every text is gonna put you in a new world that is singular to that text. Even fanfic does that!).

This might explain some of my eventual impatience with high fantasy (though the rest of it can be explained by a lot of repetition in the genre). I wonder what it has to do with fanfic? With fanfic, you don't have to get to know the characters or the world. All the introduction you've got to suffer through is that author's version of the characters and world, and where they're going to go with them.

I still have an easier time getting into fanfic than I do getting into original stuff, but I've got to say that two of my favorite fic authors of all time were authors whose fics I really had trouble getting into at first. One (kita0610) because she had a singular style that was unfamiliar to me, and the other (mistful) because she had a singular characterization that was unfamiliar to me. While I'd been reading fanfic for years and years when I found both of these authors, I still think I had more patience then than I do now, and I was still too impatient to deal with getting-to-know-you at first. And these authors still stand out to me, both in fandom, but also out of all things that I've read. I'm sure there are other authors (both in fandom and out) who are as good, but there's still no other authors like them. It has to do with an originality, which requires a getting-to-know-you-process.

But now that I'm thinking about it, there are fics where I feel like I really don't have to get-to-know that much. Insterestingly, this is less because the fics are "so canon" and rather because they're "so fanon". I've read about a thousand fics like it before and I'll probably read a thousand more.

This is the case with a lot of genre stuff too--you know, you just know, how a romance novel is going to go--but with genre pro fic you've still got to "get to know" the characters. You've got to be able to tell Cecilia apart from Margaret; you've got to know that Cecilia's the dark-haired buxom lass who's interested in Roger, and you've got to know that Roger's the knife thrower at the circus. Sometimes I think the packaging on romance novels, especially the blurbs and summaries, are to cut down on the irksome work of get-to-know-you, so you can get to the part where Cecilia ends up with Roger and Margaret tragically dies faster. It ups the comfort and lessens the work to get there.

Which is probably when I'm just looking for something really mindless to entertain me, I gravitate towards fanfic. You already know the names, descriptions, and who's going to end up with whom, which is more than you know most times on the first page of a romance novel. Romance AU fanfics are particularly comforting, because you're getting all the comfortingly predictable tropes of romance and the comforting predictability of who the characters are, what they look like, how they act and interact, etc.

Not liking beginnings is essentially lazy of me. I don't want to do the work to figure out what an author is doing, where a story is going to go, how the style will work out, who the characters are, etc. There's a lot to be learned in those parts of a story, just like meeting a person; it's instructive and mind-bending and really healthy.

That said, I do love a deeper get to know you. I hate learning your name and profession and what you did last night, but man, I do love learning why you love what you love and why you do the things you do and what your childhood was like. I love working beside someone for a year or two, that point when friendly acquaintance tips into friendship and you start hanging out and talking about things that are meaningful to you, when you only used to talk about work. Etc. All that stuff's great, and I tend to be way too circumspect and terrified of being awkward to jump right into the sort of questions and conversations I care about. Just like I'm terrified to skip the first chapter of a book.

But anyway, I just don't think about first lines that much, or first paragraphs. I know that readers who aren't me can be drawn in or tossed out by a first line, but oftentimes by the time I get to the first line, I'm already willing to read for at least a thousand words. After looking at my last twenty first lines, which sucked, I tried to find the ones I thought were my best. They were all meta:

There’s a story I’ve always wanted to write. (Ginny Weasley: Dragon Slayer)

There is a tale between every event that occurs, and a tale between written words. (The Eighth Tale, Harry/Draco)

The first review Chuck (aka chuck_writes on LJ, chuck_still_writes on im, Carver Edlund on Flying Wiccan Press) ever got on a fanfic went like this:

dean_lives, 2008-09-22 09:26 am UTC (link):um i like how sam’s friend wanted him to be slutty, and how sam didn’t like halloween.

(The Chuck Writes Story (An Unauthorized Fandom Biography), Chuck Shurley, SPN)

Trying to get Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy together is like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube: it doesn’t fit and it’s messy when you try. (The Long Way)

This is a story about the firmness of my fabu tits and the tightness of this highly fuckable ass. (The Confessional, Faith & Angel gen)

Even though it's not meta, I still like:

Lift your skirts ladies, when walking the Reeperbahn; the cobblestones, they're infants' heads. (Down There In The Reeperbahn Fanged Four historical, BtVS, AtS)

. . . though I actually like the second line of this fic much better. The rhythm never was quite right in the first line.


My best first line is probably, the following:

Harry and Draco had been married almost a year when Draco said, “I’ve put Veritaserum in the wine.” (Sex, Lies, and Veritaserum)

It presents the main characters, gives you some background info, and also presents a very interesting situation that immediately has you asking questions. Why would you tell someone you gave them truth serum, does that mean the person gets a choice to drink it, or did he say that because he drank the wine, etc. Except I find it a total bore; that fic doesn't get interesting to me until you learn the answers to those questions; the first line isn't so well-phrased or delivered that you can be assured you're going to get interesting answers to the questions it presents.

When I think about literature, I love the beginning of Lolita, but only in retrospect. It's famous for a reason! But when I first read it I was annoyed and frustrated with it; I knew it was literary and lyrical, but I didn't want to sink into it yet. I just wanted to know who was talking and what the situation was before I could give a care. In fact, my favorite first line of any story is, and always has been since I first read it, a line that is about how bored the narrator (and possibly the writer) is by beginnings, how useless they are, and how it would really just be better if we could skip past it all to the part where we already know each other:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." (Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)

Oh my God, yes, I'm someone who still likes Salinger, so sue me. (More Franny and Zooey though, than Catcher, if that makes me look any better in your eyes.) But it's pretty goddamn meta, so maybe that's why.

So anyway, what are your favorite first lines? Do you like starting to read new things? Do you like meeting new people? Do you like beginnings? How do you feel about meta first lines? How much do you think about first lines? First paragraphs? Etc?

Comments

[snickfic]

1. The next time we hang out, you should feel totally welcome to dive into the deep weird questions at the beginning if you feel like it.

2. I confess, I'm usually impatient with meta first lines. Usually I want to tell the author, "Quit telling me your telling me a story and tell me the story."

3. I'm definitely less patient getting into new books than I used to be. There's a particular flavor of in media res that's popular in thrillers and certain action-oriented SF and fantasy that drives me up the wall, which opens with someone shooting at us and goes on for pages and pages of further shooting and running before we find out any context. I haaaaate those. I hate them even more when they then flash back earlier in the story to get that context. NOW I HAVE TO GET TO KNOW EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN. (At least SPN seems to have finally broken that habit. Now if only it were still good...)

4. I definitely put a lot of weight on first lines when deciding what to read, especially fic. We've discussed summaries before, and a lot of what I said then applies to first lines as well: ideally it should tell me setting, character, and/or conflict. However, I can do without any of those things (and more easily than in summaries) if the first line suggests that the author can write. Imagery and rhythm will hook me and keep me for a good long while, even if we've got pages of setting to go before we hit a single character. (China Mieville's The Scar is like this, and yet I memorized the first five or six paragraphs of pure description because the writing was just that good.)

[lettered]

1. Meeting people I know from online is a lot different. We already did a lot of the get-to-know-you. Also, meeting people from fandom is different--both online and in real life. We can both start talking about something we're really interested in right away, then get into all of that, "And what do you do?" later, when I'm actually far more interested in that kind of stuff. I've loved hanging out with you because I already feel like I can talk to you about way more stuff than most of my other rl friends. We should do it again!

2. Do you like meta fics?

3. I hate them even more when they then flash back earlier in the story to get that context.

I actually don't mind this. Sometimes I feel like it's done for no reason, which annoys me. But I was thinking about it recently, and realized there are some excellent reasons to use it. For instance, right now I'm writing a story that's very quiet and peaceful and has a lot of people talking, relatively uneventful. But the ending I had planned was quite actiony. I felt like the action-packed ending really didn't fit, as basically the first 75% of the story promises you one kind of story and the last quarter is something different. One answer is just not to write the story, or make it two separate stories. But sometimes peaceful situations do make a sudden turn to violence. One way to warn the reader that this will happen is to give them a piece of it in the beginning.

That said, I think it works better in series than in say, a novel. Novels are long enough that the part leading up to the action ending would feel confusing and maybe even like a chore, although the quiet parts of books are usually what I prefer. However, if you're promised something else at the beginning, you wanna know how you got there. That's why I think it works on a show like SPN. That said, I don't think that SPN was exceptionally thoughtful about the way they used this tool; lots of times I feel like shows do it just to grab your attention, which I kind of resent. So anyway what I mean is I see both sides of this issue.

4. if the first line suggests that the author can write.

Yeah, see, idk, first lines like this just annoys me. I feel this way about the first pages or the first 500-1000 words, but when I read a first line that's super poetic or something I just conclude the author is trying too hard.

[snickfic]

1. We should! Yes! I have discovered the bestest little coffee shop here in Auburn - much better than the Starbucks we never made it to.

2. Sometimes? I love The Chuck Writes Story, for example. I enjoyed bits of Cabin in the Woods. I love Buffy and The Princess Bride. It occurs to me that maybe I prefer meta stories that approach the meta from a humorous or a horror angle, rather than a, IDK, serious drama angle? (Your Ginny the dragon slayer story, for example, felt like it was trying to... instruct me? Shame me? I wasn't sure. Of course, it's always possible that a lot of the disconnect there was due to me never actually reading HP. :) )

3. That example you give about establishing tone so the actiony bits of the last part of the story don't feel so abrupt makes a lot of sense. I think I've mostly seen it used, as you say, as a cheap way of heightening tension.

4. I guess I don't need something that's super poetic in the first line; when I say I want evidence that the author can write, I mean something like this opening line from China Mieville's The Scar: "A bottom below the lowest cloud, rock breaches water and the sea begins." Strong imagery, precise yet elegant grammar, interesting verb. (I actually memorized the first five paragraphs or so of that novel, which area all description with no characters in sight, because I like his prose so much.)

[jjhunter]

I'm still pretty pleased with this first line:

• 'In the years after the war, Jem rarely talked about how he earned his Purple Heart.' (a thing with feathers, To Kill a Mockingbird)

I especially like it because it manages a similar sleight of hand to canon's first line, in that it gets at the emotional core of the story but the story that follows is not at all from Jem's perspective.

I do like reading new things. I read quickly enough that other people's first lines are like the first tinge of taste on my tongue when I first sip a glass of wine, and the sensory impressions of the following lines cascade almost immediately after. When I write, however, finding a first line that clicks for me like a title does is the hook that permits the rest of the story to be pulled forth afer.

[lettered]

Oh, man, I hate titles too. But I also like the middle part of sips of wine the best. Not the first taste and now after you've swallowed, but when it's in your mouth. This is interesting.

[natlyn]

I don't think much about first lines and find few memorable. I will say that my favorite first line is "The day after my grandfather died he came down to breakfast." Unfortunately I do not remember the title of this short story or who wrote it. I believe it first appeared in either The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction or Asimov's sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The line immediately clues you in that something very odd is going on.

Now that I'm thinking about first lines, I think it is the ones that set the tone of the story from the jump that I like--either by a display of the narrator's voice or a hint (or huge clue) about the direction of the story or both. Meta ones can be great voice displays but I get annoyed if that navel gazing lasts for more than a few sentences at the start before telling me actual stuff.

[lettered]

That is a good first line. Actually, now that you've supplied that line, I want to modify my position, because I do very much like first lines that present a very bizarre situation right off the bat, that makes you want to find out what's happening. Especially ones that give you the premise of a story, right off the bat. I say "a story" because it doesn't have to be the premise of the story that's being told. For instance, it would be alright with me if the story for the line you quoted wasn't really about the grandfather at all. I'm trying to come up with lines like this, and the only one I can think of off the top of my head is: There's a man in the habit of hitting me on the head with an umbrella.

Meta ones can be great voice displays but I get annoyed if that navel gazing lasts for more than a few sentences at the start before telling me actual stuff.

I love the meta ones that are very direct, such as, "This is a story about the end of the world." I don't like the meta ones that are actually metaphysical, such as, "Existence is a strange thing."

been saving this because I wanted to think about it

[likeadeuce]

I find this all fascinating because I am borderline obsessed with beginnings, and (in a different way) with character introductions. And it's not that I rely on them to tell me whether to keep going but that I love that process of learning the specific voice of a new author/ the particular terms of the world that I'm entering. There are lots of things I've enjoyed that I was skeptical about at first, but if a story grabs me from the very beginning, it's pretty much got me hooked.

Mid-story character entrances tend to be some of my favorites (do you feel differently about those than about beginnings, or do you also wish that they'd get on with it?) I'm talking about the part where we have already been grounded with/ gotten to know the viewpoint character and then they run into somebody new who changes the terms of the game. Maybe I patterned on The Wizard of Oz? Favorite character entrance ever, though, is Aragorn in the Fellowship movie.

Re: approaching character entrance as a writer -- in fanfic, where you assume most readers already know the characters, I always try for the character's entrance to portray them at their most essential, and for the first line they speak to sound like them, because that's the reader's signal of which Spike or Buffy or Tony or Steve they're going to get in this story, which elements of their many-faceted personalities the story is going to be about.

BTW, I never would have thought of this in relation to getting to know people in real life but it would actually be fascinating if they are related because I have a pretty hard time *remembering* people that I've met, and I usually have to be introduced once or twice before it sticks -- like, when my brother introduced me to the woman he's now married to, in the context of 'this is my new girlfriend' I basically went through all of dinner before we both established that we had in fact met before, at a group event, and were able to reconstruct conversations we'd had, but I still had no impression of meeting her before. I don't think this is a super unusual way to be -- I feel like I have similar conversations all the time re: folks who have met in casual group settings -- but for whatever reason I tend to be really conscious of it (maybe because I tend to babble to strangers a lot at social events so I'll be remeeting the person and going WHAT DO THEY ALREADY KNOW ABOUT ME?) And possibly, the level to which I am conscious of this makes me really want character introductions in my writing to stick.

For what it's worth, I like all the fist lines you list a lot. I don't think you necessarily have to be super conscious of them as a writer for them to have an impact on readers like me who are very interested in how a writer chooses to start a story.

/infinite babbling

Re: been saving this because I wanted to think about it

[lettered]

Mid-story character entrances tend to be some of my favorites (do you feel differently about those than about beginnings, or do you also wish that they'd get on with it?

I love character introductions! Although I have to say I don't think about them very much. When reading, it's just a part of the story for me. I will notice if I feel like the character entrance is "written"--i.e., if it feels like the author is trying too hard to have a character make an entrance, or if I feel like the author is trying too hard to make me like the character. Otherwise, I just say, "okay, new person, whatever" and don't think much about it until they get knit into the plot. I usually don't like or dislike new characters, and only decide to like/dislike them once I've been with them for a while.

In writing, I try to introduce characters in a way that a) fits the character, b) fits the story. This basically means I don't think of character introductions as Character Introduction, but just as what happens next in the story. The part I do really think about is how soon a character gets introduced. I think it's generally bad form to introduce a character in the last quarter. Even the last half is a little sketchy. First quarter or third, I feel, should introduce the cast, and if someone doesn't get introduced they should at least get mentioned or hinted at. There are exceptions to every rule, of course.

Favorite character entrance ever, though, is Aragorn in the Fellowship movie.

Oh man, it's really good, right? That shot with the embers and his eyes and the shadows and ughhhhhhhhhhhhh ALL MY STRIDER FEELINGS. When I first read the books I was so in love with Strider. When I found out he was Aragorn I completely lost interest in him. I don't remember the books well enough to say how "accurate" the intro of Strider in the movies is, but I can say it fit all of the feelings/desires/expectations/hopes I had for a movie!Strider.

the level to which I am conscious of this makes me really want character introductions in my writing to stick.

This is really interesting. I think I'm pretty good at remembering people? Not really names, or personal information, but I know a familiar face.

I like all the first lines you list a lot

Thanks :o)

[stultiloquentia]

I like the way Elizabeth Bear puts it: "The first line should hold the key to the rest of the story." It's more suggestion than rule, not always doable, but it reminds me not to waste time either grabbing the reader's attention or getting the story underway. I like the challenge of thinking of attention-grabbing first lines, even though I'm not always happy with my best efforts. Of my own, I'm fairly fond of, "'Fuck, fuck, fuck!' bellowed Spike, and burst into flames."

I love other people's first lines because it's fun to see how much I can learn about—not the story, but the author that quickly. I love it when a first line is so witty or lyrical that I can tell just from the brainpower on display that I'm going to enjoy letting this person tell me a story for an hour. I don't have a satisfactory answer for, "Do you like beginnings?" because I like beginnings I like. I don't mind a leisurely intro to the characters and scene, before the action kicks in, as long as the intro is compelling in its own way. I do really like pilot episodes of TV shows, maybe because they're time-compelled to be tightly constructed.

Hm, hm, I do know what you mean about liking fanfic because you can dive right into a world/relationship/known character's headspace without a hundred pages of David Copperfield. I've been thinking about AU romances, lately, though, and noting that the diving in has a caveat. Once the characters meet, I DON'T want them to fuck, or even date, right away. I want a slow, delicious, friendship-heavy build. Oh, here's want I want! I want to fall in love with the characters quickly, but I want to watch them fall in love with each other slowly! Yes? :)

As for meeting people -- I'm really not a smooth cocktail conversationalist, but I think I'm getting better at it. (This has been the year of the unexpectedly hopping social life, equal parts fantastic and appalling, I suppose due to the fact that I'm equal parts introvert and extrovert.) And by better at it I mean better at skidding past them Red Sox and finding an entry into a proper conversation. Context makes a huge difference in how much I like meeting new people. How much do I expect, from the context, that I'm going to enjoy them and have things in common? I've been meeting lots of awesome people, lately, through mutual friends, so my answer, for now, is, "Yes!"

[lettered]

it reminds me not to waste time either grabbing the reader's attention or getting the story underway.

haha. I guess I feel like doing anything but getting the story underway is a waste of time.

I love it when a first line is so witty or lyrical that I can tell just from the brainpower on display that I'm going to enjoy letting this person tell me a story for an hour.

I must be bitter and cynical. Lots of times I feel impatient if the first line is really witty/lyrical/whatever. I feel like the author is being flashy, trying to catchy my attention, and I assume that the rest isn't as good as that first line. I feel eager to spend time with the author when the first page or first 500 words are terribly clever, but first lines make me pretty meh.

I don't have a satisfactory answer for, "Do you like beginnings?" because I like beginnings I like.

Makes perfect sense!

I've been thinking about AU romances, lately,

Me too. I LOVE THEM. So much more than romance novels, and I'm not sure if this is the reason why.

I want to fall in love with the characters quickly, but I want to watch them fall in love with each other slowly! Yes?

Yes. Completely yes. I really love slow-building love stories.

And by better at it I mean better at skidding past them Red Sox

Yes but now I would want to talk to you about the Red Sox because I just watched the Ken Burns Baseball documentary and it is awesome and now I finally understand so much Red Sox history and fantaticism and wow, I can't believe that guy sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees to mount a theater production but actually, I suppose my Red Sox conversation would not be any good because it would be historical anecdotes instead of current events.

Context makes a huge difference in how much I like meeting new people.

This is true. I like meeting people at fan cons, for instance. ...Though actually I still find it rather nerve-wracking and wish I could skip to the part where I'm not nervous already.

so my answer, for now, is, "Yes!"

Yay!