It's that time of year again... Yes, somehow this game goes around EVERY MARCH. And here were are again. Opening lines from years past:
Ten First Lines March 2022
Ten First Lines March 2023
Ten First Lines March 2024
Ten First Lines March 2025
Rule: List the first line of your last 10 fics (posted or WIP, your choice) and see if there's a pattern. If you don't have 10 fics, then as many first lines as you do have! Look to see any patterns you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any (note: I skip ficlets bc otherwise it would fill up with those).
Cold Slope
Henry’s heart stutters in his chest, just a little, when he spots a blur of dark curls and brown skin across the hotel lobby.
Hurt Like Mine
Napoleon discovered he had a soulmate at a shipping facility outside of Rome
Fox in the Snow
Alex squints through the windshield as he slowly eases the car down the road, like that will make a difference in his ability to resolve anything out of the whiteout in front of him.
The End of the End (We Live Again)
The bright Texas sun spills through the curtains that Henry neglected to close last night, waking him far too early.
Future Starts Slow
The morning is bright, the breeze is warm, and the birds are singing when Napoleon steps out of the front door of CIA headquarters, like some kind of goddamned cliche.
It's a Crime (to Fall in Love)
Henry’s steps echo as he strides down the long, spartan hallway toward the sergeant’s office.
Bluebonnets and Polo Mallets
When Henry made the decision to pursue polo professionally, he had assumed, naively, that not much would change about his day-to-day life.
The Neighbourly Thing to Do
The house is silent as a tomb as Henry pads into the kitchen in the middle of the night.
Special Tour (of My Heart)
Henry hadn’t even wanted to come.
Paint Me in a Corner (But My Color Comes Back)
The ice in Mobius’s Diet Coke has all but melted by the time that Loki slides into the booth opposite him.
BONUS: A Curatorial Puzzle of the Heart in Scholarly Pursuits
There’s nothing in the world like the scent of the museum’s collections—the way the ancient, slowly decaying paper, wood, leather, and fabric mingle together, undercut by the pungent smell of moth balls and something that only imbues the magical artifacts wing.
Thoughts: The most interesting thing about this year is how so many of my opening lines are descriptive now. My old habit was much more like the "Special Tour" fic above—the snappy one-liner that sets up more of the POV character's state of mind than the surroundings. It's definitely the biggest change from previous years, which have all been pretty similar. I do think part of it is that I tend to open shorter one-shots that way, and most of these are either longer one-shots or multichaps. If I had included my ficlets, the pattern would have been more like previous years.
The other weird thing is that I actually caught up to my previous list. I've only published 10 fully-fledged fics in the last year. In previous years I barely made halfway back. I'm shook. That said, some of the "ficlets" I posted were basically whole one shots, so maybe it's just a matter of perspective. As a bonus, I did add my original story, published this year. ☺️
Thank you to @onpurposewrites and @anincompletelist for the tags this year! Going to tag a smaller subset of folks, I can never remember who does these but here goes @welcometololaland, @freneticfloetry, @loki-is-my-kink-awakening, @faketrex, @anyroomsrio, @eusuntgratie, @ninzied, @14carrotghoul, @orchidscript, @clottedcreamfudge, @pippinoftheshire, @thosegayoldmen, @justabigoldnerd, @books2beach, @onthewaytosomewhere
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