#no grandma i don’t think you want to read my outline for a romance novel in which two rival tennis players have to pretend to be friends

[fingertipsmp3]

Family member: what are you writing? Can I read it? :)

Me: not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly

[im-auntie-social]

Tagged by the kind and lovely @ilikeblue and @zetaaa

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 authors!  

I’m still a baby as far as posting fic, so let’s do this in chronological order, oldest to newest, all JB with the exception of #1:  

1. “Heads up!” (the Novel That Won’t Die, otherwise known as Uncertainty Principle, YA, pending a near-total rewrite so I can pitch it as a rom com because “story about weirdo college students doing weird stuff and growing and whatnot” isn’t a genre unless you add romance or trauma or both. sigh.)

2. There was a hole in the Force. (You Happened to Me aka the Star Wars AU Episode 1, rated T, complete)

3. “If I didn’t know better, Tech, I’d think you were trying to run away from me.” (Love Isn’t a Sprint, It’s a Marathon, rated T, one-shot)

4. There is nothing on earth Brienne Tarth hates more than poster sessions. (Questions of Science and Progress aka Science Bros to Lovers, rated T, complete)

5. There’s one present left under the tree, but it is so small Brienne is worried Jaime might not see it. (N06: Radical Red, rated T, one-shot)

Now some unposted WIPs, in order of most likely to ever see the light of day to least likely (excluding WIPs that consist of a single line and/or I don’t want to talk about)

6. A sprawling and active community where the summer has been long, but winter is coming. Welcome to Westeros County. (what it says on the tin, rated T)

7. Jaime had been standing outside the ballroom’s grand main door for what felt like days when it eased open a crack and a large, head-tailed figure slipped out. (SWAU episode 2. Will probably be supplanted by a much punchier prologue and/or main title crawl)

8. “This is Varys, talking to you from in front of the Red Keep Theater in King’s landing!” (Singin’ in the Rain AU, lots of fun to write but it’s JBO (JOB?) and that makes me a bit nervous because it’s new for me and I don’t want to screw it up. Also still figuring out how to pull off Lina!Cersei with only canon-typical misogyny.)

9. Brienne fiddles with her StagPhone restlessly as she waits for her new student to arrive. Her new student and, apparently, her student’s nanny. (”hypothetical tutor fic,” hopefully a one-shot?)

10. When I woke up I knew three things: I was in a diagnostic and repair cubical on KingsLanding station, I had no memory, and my governor module was offline. I went to work anyway. (”murderbot Brienne,” currently giving me fits about literally every aspect. Hopefully a one-shot because a) approximately four people will read a first-person POV genre fic born mainly from sarcastic discord comments about “robot bodyguard Brienne,” and b) see above re: fits)

11. Brienne Tarth was no swan. (”ballet fic” that is also vaguely a GNC fic? idk)

12. Being a ghost is exhausting. (creatively currently titled “brienne is a ghost,” something I noodled around with for a few days during NaNo. Rereading it I kind of like it? But there are at least two really good ghost!Brienne fics already and I’m not sure this cake would add anything?)

13. (cheating because it’s still an outline) Brienne joins a knitting group consisting of Cat, Olenna, Genna, Lysa, and Old Nan. (also what it says on the tin, mostly because I miss my knitting group and also I adore the idea of giving Brienne a pack of dgaf older ladies to support and encourage her. I may have to invent a Martell grandma to round out the group....)

Patterns: Among posted fics, 3 of 4 start with “there,” which I never noticed before. Huh. I also notice I don’t actually like half of the WIP starters, probably because they’re not pithy and straightforward like the published ones? For some reason I thought I tended toward dialog for first lines but apparently not!

Favourite: While #4 is absolutely the most autobiographical, I’m always going to have a soft spot for #2. I joke that the JB Star Wars AU is the fic I was born to write, but I wasn’t at all sure anything would ever see the light of day until the prologue came together.

Tagging: Ah dang I’m late to the party and I have no idea who’s been tagged and who’s posted, so if you’re seeing this and haven’t posted your answers, consider yourself tagged!