More on first lines

[lettered]

A little over a week ago I did a post about first lines. It took me a while to get to all the comments, sorry! Now I have more thoughts.

I have two different modes when reading. One is "committed" and one is "shopping". I am usually committed when I start reading because: 1) the summary was interesting!, 2) It's by an author I like!, 3) It was recommended by someone I like or respect!, 4) other. When I am committed, it doesn't matter what the first line is, because if I've clicked on the fic or opened a book for that reason, I'm planning to give it a chance, and I don't think just one line is much of a chance.

When I'm shopping, I'm looking for something specific. carmenwoods brought this up. I might be looking for a particular ship, character, characterization, trope, treatment of a trope, kink, etc. The first line also doesn't really matter to me when I'm doing this, because I have a tendency to skim until I find what I'm looking for; then I read that part, and if it seems to be what I want, I'll go back to the beginning.

These two different modes are probably better explanations for why I don't care about first lines.

ETA: Oops. The point of this post was to ask: are either of these modes familiar to you? Do you have another reading mode? What are your feelings when beginning a new story, what influences those feelings? If you "shop," what methods do you use to find what you need? And if you "commit," what are things that will cause you to commit?

Comments

[likeadeuce]

In fanfic, I'm usually committed based on author or characters or an interesting summary...and then I'll hit the back button if the writing is inept or it hits a characterization note that rubs me the wrong way (this is not hard, I'm rather finicky).

But as I alluded in my response to your earlier post, my interest in first lines isn't really about whether or not I want to read the story but about figuring out what kind of deal the author is making with me.

(BTW, also re: previous post, we may have different views on storytelling but we have similar views in re: Strider and THAT IS WHAT MATTERS ;))

[lettered]

my interest in first lines isn't really about whether or not I want to read the story but about figuring out what kind of deal the author is making with me.

I find this interesting, and also find myself unable to identify. I think it's cool, but I suppose it's just not the way I operate? Anyway. That's awesome.

[rabid_bookwyrm]

I am usually committed if I know and like the author. Other than that, if it's a rec from someone I like or something I found on an AO3 page or someone's Pinboard, I'm shopping. I'll start at the beginning and read, but if the characterization or style isn't to my taste I'll bail. I may still try other stuff by the author, if it was in someone's archive and I wound up there because I liked something else they did. But I'll usually only keep up with authors where I liked a significant majority of their work.

[lettered]

I try to keep up with some of the authors I'm friends with, but often our fandoms diverge so that gets hard. If I don't know the person I have to really get into them to read all their fics. I see what you mean!