project list/first-line meme
May. 23rd, 2010 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyBear did the first-line thing, and I've been meaning to do it for a while, so here you go.
COMMITMENTS
1. A Reckoning of Men (with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala)
Vethulf and Skjaldwulf did not get along.
2. An Apprentice to Elves (withmatociquala)
Tin laced her fingers together across her gravid belly and frowned along her nose at the feeble human child.
3. Shadow Unit: "Hope Is Stronger Than Love"
Everyone had had to bring a brown-bag lunch.
(4. The Goblin Emperor [waiting for the edit letter]
Maia woke to the grip of his cousin's cold hand on his shoulder.)
COMPLETE DRAFTS (no matter how bad the draft is)
5. "Hollywood and Vine: A Still Life with Wolves"
Wolves prowl the Sunset Strip. You can tell them by the way their eyes reflect the street lights.
6. "The Werewolf Laura Stiles"
Callum pushed back from his desk violently, as if physical distance could get him farther away from the collection of mistakes currently masquerading as the English 201 midterm.
7. "The Hostage Crisis on the Derelict Mistral Freighter D35-692N-C, Queen of Liverpool"
The Mistral Freighter D35-692N-C, Queen of Liverpool, had been grounded for thirty years, since the successful implementation of Chen and Tiedemann's q-curve drive had made her and all her sisters obsolete.
STARTED
8. "Thirdhop Scarp" (KMB)
The current owner of Thirdhop Scarp claims that the name is a contraction of "third hope," but this is etymologically dubious in the extreme; still improbable but far more likely is the local explanation: that if you fall off the escarpment, you reach the bottom in three hops.
9. The Second Son
On the twenty-fourth of April, Medraut dreamed of Loheris again.
10. Cormorant Child
With a shriek of protesting metal, the hatch opened, and Mule fell out of the palace-ship into the long grass of the Edrin Valley. He was trying to run before he made it to his feet.
11. The Marriage of True Minds
Sanspiro Base is a company town all the way.
12. Blue Lace Agate
They hadn't caught the shoggoth larva smugglers yet, but the head of the BPI's southeast hub had other things on his mind: "And, ah, how are you and Sharpton doing, Keller?"
13. "Under Babylon"
Mick Sharpton's howl of outrage--"oh fuck no!"--was clearly audible in the junior agents' office.
14. "Crossing Styx"
"Think of it as a vacation," Jamie suggested. Mick's reply was physically impossible, but very creative.
15. "The Brides of Nyarlathotep"
The Renault case refused to break. Snapshots of the victims had gone up on the corkboard in the briefing room, one by one, and most of the agents in the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations' southeast hub could recite their names by heart: Lydia Renault, age 27; Mary Anne Sumner, age 24; Dale Kelton, age 25; Joella Barber, age 24. And they were waiting, sick and helpless, for number five.
16. [untitled]
The windship Pellucid heeled over, her sails filling as they caught the wind called the Mariah, one of the winds that blew so steadily across the Abandon that they had been mapped more than a century before: the Mariah, the Medusa, and the Mother of Angels, which had another name among windship crews.
17. "The Tale of Two Dead Mice"
Once upon a time, there were two dead mice, white and small and sleek.
18. "(Un)fallen"
The pain is intense, sharp, and localizes itself gradually, as Vij comes closer to consciousness, into a throbbing knot on the back of ser skull, just behind ser left ear. Se reaches to touch it, groans as that wakes a whole new set of pains through ser left shoulder and arm, and only then wonders why se is corporeal at all.
19. "The Queen in Winter"
There were five queens in the creche. Beulah, Pauline, Camille, Thelma, and Katrina. Beulah was the favorite, and one night after the nurses had gone to bed, the others ganged up on her. There were only four queens after that.
20. "The Skyscrapers of Bianch'Elen"
Long ago, in a world none of them can remember, the vampires were taught to dance.
21. [untitled]
The woman in my office had been dead for five days when I found her. The smell was unbearable, but the ghost was worse.
22. Black Hart Circle
There were four in the game. Deep play, deeper than the pockets of at least two of them. Lydia Nash might be as collected as a woman choosing a new hat, but Esme Collier and Kori Fletcher were out of their depth, and Fan Carpenter didn't look any too comfortable either.
23. Carmen Stellae Mortis
We'd been hearing rumors about the Devil being in Gaylord's Creek for days before we got there.
24. [untitled]
RECORD OF DISCOVERY OF FIVE (5) CORPSES
We, the undersigned, make the following declaration:
On local date 29 Mai 2236 P.F., in the ninth arondissement of the asteroid-city of Arkhanyelika Noya, five bodies were discovered in the garden behind the Executive House adjacent to Archangel Mining Corporation Headquarters: one woman, two men, and two children.
25. "Doc Holliday Makes a Deal"
I died on November 8, 1887. It was not a pleasant experience. Even less pleasant, however, was finding that death was not a permanent and irrevocable state of being in which a man could lie quiet and be eaten by worms as it pleased them. As it turned out, death was anything but.
IDEAS
26. "The Mercy Seat" (KMB)
The terrible irony in Katharine Blood's name became apparent in her death.
27. "To Die for Moonlight"/"The Moon Key" (KMB)
I cut off her head before I buried her.
OR
Queen Titania was dead.
28. "The Bone Jesus" (not KMB himself, but in his universe)
There had been a bit of difficulty at the university.
29. [untitled]
The crime-scene tape was gone from the basketball court.
30. [untitled]
"What are you doing, sister-wife?"
31. [untitled]
The Emperor's head hit the floor with a wet thud. The body stayed upright a moment longer, and then simply collapsed; the blood jetting out of its neck soaked Moth through before he could think to move.
32. The House at the End of the World
When Sebastian Marlin became a man, there was no one to celebrate with.
33. The White Devil
Since I was a little girl, I've always told my father my dreams. Except for one.
34. Dark Sister
Nephael cannot remember Heaven.
35. Schrödinger's Parable of the Cat
Denise Blumenthal died on a beautiful spring morning in the polity of Greater Manhattan.
36. "The Kitsune's Tragedy"
My mother was kitsune. When I was born kitsune, too, she cursed the fates and slew the midwife and raised me as a daughter.
37. The Sidhetown Tigers
Jefferson Finch was a lousy pitcher, but he was the best we had
38. [untitled]
It was noon before the new wheeler said anything to me.
39. "Extract from '"I OPENED THE BOOK AND READ": SELF-REFLEXIVITY AND SELF-REINVENTION IN HÔTEL IMAGE'"
Within the novel Hôtel Image is the nightclub Hôtel Image, "dark, dubious, deviant" (15), and within the nightclub Hôtel Image is the novel Hôtel Image, prosaically bound in pea-green cloth.
And then there's another double-handful of stories that don't even have first lines yet, including "Dragons of Earth and Sky."
Seriously. Ideas are not the hard part of writing.
COMMITMENTS
1. A Reckoning of Men (with
matociquala)Vethulf and Skjaldwulf did not get along.
2. An Apprentice to Elves (with
matociquala)Tin laced her fingers together across her gravid belly and frowned along her nose at the feeble human child.
3. Shadow Unit: "Hope Is Stronger Than Love"
Everyone had had to bring a brown-bag lunch.
(4. The Goblin Emperor [waiting for the edit letter]
Maia woke to the grip of his cousin's cold hand on his shoulder.)
COMPLETE DRAFTS (no matter how bad the draft is)
5. "Hollywood and Vine: A Still Life with Wolves"
Wolves prowl the Sunset Strip. You can tell them by the way their eyes reflect the street lights.
6. "The Werewolf Laura Stiles"
Callum pushed back from his desk violently, as if physical distance could get him farther away from the collection of mistakes currently masquerading as the English 201 midterm.
7. "The Hostage Crisis on the Derelict Mistral Freighter D35-692N-C, Queen of Liverpool"
The Mistral Freighter D35-692N-C, Queen of Liverpool, had been grounded for thirty years, since the successful implementation of Chen and Tiedemann's q-curve drive had made her and all her sisters obsolete.
STARTED
8. "Thirdhop Scarp" (KMB)
The current owner of Thirdhop Scarp claims that the name is a contraction of "third hope," but this is etymologically dubious in the extreme; still improbable but far more likely is the local explanation: that if you fall off the escarpment, you reach the bottom in three hops.
9. The Second Son
On the twenty-fourth of April, Medraut dreamed of Loheris again.
10. Cormorant Child
With a shriek of protesting metal, the hatch opened, and Mule fell out of the palace-ship into the long grass of the Edrin Valley. He was trying to run before he made it to his feet.
11. The Marriage of True Minds
Sanspiro Base is a company town all the way.
12. Blue Lace Agate
They hadn't caught the shoggoth larva smugglers yet, but the head of the BPI's southeast hub had other things on his mind: "And, ah, how are you and Sharpton doing, Keller?"
13. "Under Babylon"
Mick Sharpton's howl of outrage--"oh fuck no!"--was clearly audible in the junior agents' office.
14. "Crossing Styx"
"Think of it as a vacation," Jamie suggested. Mick's reply was physically impossible, but very creative.
15. "The Brides of Nyarlathotep"
The Renault case refused to break. Snapshots of the victims had gone up on the corkboard in the briefing room, one by one, and most of the agents in the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations' southeast hub could recite their names by heart: Lydia Renault, age 27; Mary Anne Sumner, age 24; Dale Kelton, age 25; Joella Barber, age 24. And they were waiting, sick and helpless, for number five.
16. [untitled]
The windship Pellucid heeled over, her sails filling as they caught the wind called the Mariah, one of the winds that blew so steadily across the Abandon that they had been mapped more than a century before: the Mariah, the Medusa, and the Mother of Angels, which had another name among windship crews.
17. "The Tale of Two Dead Mice"
Once upon a time, there were two dead mice, white and small and sleek.
18. "(Un)fallen"
The pain is intense, sharp, and localizes itself gradually, as Vij comes closer to consciousness, into a throbbing knot on the back of ser skull, just behind ser left ear. Se reaches to touch it, groans as that wakes a whole new set of pains through ser left shoulder and arm, and only then wonders why se is corporeal at all.
19. "The Queen in Winter"
There were five queens in the creche. Beulah, Pauline, Camille, Thelma, and Katrina. Beulah was the favorite, and one night after the nurses had gone to bed, the others ganged up on her. There were only four queens after that.
20. "The Skyscrapers of Bianch'Elen"
Long ago, in a world none of them can remember, the vampires were taught to dance.
21. [untitled]
The woman in my office had been dead for five days when I found her. The smell was unbearable, but the ghost was worse.
22. Black Hart Circle
There were four in the game. Deep play, deeper than the pockets of at least two of them. Lydia Nash might be as collected as a woman choosing a new hat, but Esme Collier and Kori Fletcher were out of their depth, and Fan Carpenter didn't look any too comfortable either.
23. Carmen Stellae Mortis
We'd been hearing rumors about the Devil being in Gaylord's Creek for days before we got there.
24. [untitled]
RECORD OF DISCOVERY OF FIVE (5) CORPSES
We, the undersigned, make the following declaration:
On local date 29 Mai 2236 P.F., in the ninth arondissement of the asteroid-city of Arkhanyelika Noya, five bodies were discovered in the garden behind the Executive House adjacent to Archangel Mining Corporation Headquarters: one woman, two men, and two children.
25. "Doc Holliday Makes a Deal"
I died on November 8, 1887. It was not a pleasant experience. Even less pleasant, however, was finding that death was not a permanent and irrevocable state of being in which a man could lie quiet and be eaten by worms as it pleased them. As it turned out, death was anything but.
IDEAS
26. "The Mercy Seat" (KMB)
The terrible irony in Katharine Blood's name became apparent in her death.
27. "To Die for Moonlight"/"The Moon Key" (KMB)
I cut off her head before I buried her.
OR
Queen Titania was dead.
28. "The Bone Jesus" (not KMB himself, but in his universe)
There had been a bit of difficulty at the university.
29. [untitled]
The crime-scene tape was gone from the basketball court.
30. [untitled]
"What are you doing, sister-wife?"
31. [untitled]
The Emperor's head hit the floor with a wet thud. The body stayed upright a moment longer, and then simply collapsed; the blood jetting out of its neck soaked Moth through before he could think to move.
32. The House at the End of the World
When Sebastian Marlin became a man, there was no one to celebrate with.
33. The White Devil
Since I was a little girl, I've always told my father my dreams. Except for one.
34. Dark Sister
Nephael cannot remember Heaven.
35. Schrödinger's Parable of the Cat
Denise Blumenthal died on a beautiful spring morning in the polity of Greater Manhattan.
36. "The Kitsune's Tragedy"
My mother was kitsune. When I was born kitsune, too, she cursed the fates and slew the midwife and raised me as a daughter.
37. The Sidhetown Tigers
Jefferson Finch was a lousy pitcher, but he was the best we had
38. [untitled]
It was noon before the new wheeler said anything to me.
39. "Extract from '"I OPENED THE BOOK AND READ": SELF-REFLEXIVITY AND SELF-REINVENTION IN HÔTEL IMAGE'"
Within the novel Hôtel Image is the nightclub Hôtel Image, "dark, dubious, deviant" (15), and within the nightclub Hôtel Image is the novel Hôtel Image, prosaically bound in pea-green cloth.
And then there's another double-handful of stories that don't even have first lines yet, including "Dragons of Earth and Sky."
Seriously. Ideas are not the hard part of writing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 07:39 pm (UTC)Can I get an amen? Can I get a hell, yeah?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 09:51 pm (UTC)This makes me feel so much better about the length of my own first-lines list. (Though I finally knocked "Mad Maudlin" off, and right now don't care if it stays a Bad Draft for all eternity, because at least the bastard is done.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 08:46 pm (UTC)*nods firmly*
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 01:13 am (UTC)I am really, really, really excited for The Goblin Emperor.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 01:59 am (UTC)#17 reminds me of one of my favorite artists. Though she likes to draw rats instead of mice. Sometimes they're (http://socar.deviantart.com/art/Recalled-to-Life-20697378?q=gallery:socar/23143358&qo=28) dead. (http://socar.deviantart.com/art/Pushing-Up-the-Daisies-7215059?q=gallery:socar/23143358&qo=13)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-28 12:33 am (UTC)*shudders* I changed the first paragraph five times before forcing myself to stop. finish the book first, yogurt brain, then you can diddle the 1st paragraph till your eyes bleed. O.o