Thanks for the tag, @clearwillow!
Here's the rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!
Not tagging anybody, because that's just not something I do. But as always, people are welcome to join in on it if they want to!
I don't have 20 stories up, so all the starting lines here are from all of my works currently posted on AO3 + one that's in the works.
She is born but seconds after her brother, much quicker than should perhaps be possible. Something Else.
Did your roommate stay out past midnight on a Blood Moon and get Taken? The Elsewhere University Darwin Awards.
Border Creek is a completely normal town. Elsewise Chronicles - The Tale of Candlewick - WIP.
She hadn’t really believed in the idea of the multiverse before. Caught in the Game. (Collab with @c-s-stars).
The return to Earth is… weird. The Stars Will Be There Tomorrow (There’s always another chance to shine next to them).
Life is all about choices. Judgement of Our Sins. (Collab with @c-s-stars).
These are just the published stories + a WIP, I've got a lot more stuck in development hell, but I'm noticing that my first lines tend to be short and a little mysterious or ominous.
My favorite is the opening line from Something Else, because to me it kind of flips the script a bit. The protagonist isn't the first born and that's important, because she's the "else" out of the two of them. This line is also repeated later in the story and it'll be repeated again at another point, because I intended it to sound and be used like the opening of a fairy tale.