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minxyI'm jotting notes for my apocolypse_kree fic (WHAT WAS I THINKING) and getting preeeeetty intimidated, let me tell you. Teal'c, on the other hand, is calm, cool and collected. He-- huh. Hang on a sec. *scribbles madly in a pad containing all kinds of equations and chemical structures on preceeding pages.*
There is a meme going around. It calls for the first sentences of your last 20 stories (do I have that many?) You are then free to analyze at will.
1. Vala came to Teal’c at the center of a spiral: a walk through through different doors, up different ladders and crawl spaces, through different corridors than she would take than if her target were Sam, in the beating true heart of the ship, or Daniel in its low wide belly.
2. Cam’s nose is inches from barely finished concrete, a thin lacquer all that separates him from cold, man-made stone.
3. “Master Bra’tac?” The human speaks respectfully, but the enthusiasm in his voice is of one who has not seen many winters.
4. “Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said into his radio, pressing and depressing the rectangular button with his thumb slid to the side, the plastic digging into the pad of his fingers, “Daniel Jackson.”
5. Daniel doesn't remember it, but the first mission after he descended, Jack drew some of his scars back in with a blue Sharpie.
6. Jacob stands among the counsel and talks about his mission, though he cages it with words like 'we' and 'danger' and 'information' and 'critical'.
7. Samantha Carter breaks out of prison in complete silence, following the curved dark back of her former CO.
8. Daniel Jackson
Had changed.
9. Kate was unsteady; she was sure she was crossing a line, showing up uninvited.
10. Daniel woke up on Jack's side of the bed, with the sense of dislocation that a few weeks hadn't quite reassured away.
11. He drew a blank.
12. Cameron tapped his boots against the door frame in muffled thuds and backed his way inside the house.
13. Cam’s cap was bothering him; the wind was picking up and whistling underneath the brim when he turned towards the mountains, but shoving it up a few inches only served to scratch his forehead.
14. "Tell me of your mother." Ishta's gait was still easy, her steps long, and her fingers idly playing with the seeds in a shaft of grain.
15. The evening was warm.
16. Teal’c found it difficult to school his reactions to Colonel Mitchell into his usual impassivity; he also found it difficult to be overly concerned about it.
17. It’d taken a deep breath, and 20 minutes of small talk before she could get around to asking about this guy Mark thought was all she said she wanted.
18. "Shock wave incoming."
19. When Teal’c started to dream, he believed he was hallucinating again, consistently, and troublingly.
20. It wasn’t that different; it’d been hard to tell from the beginning that something was wrong, until someone failed to linger over you as their eyes tracked across the room, then didn’t hear what you said, didn’t recognize your personal space and walked right through you, man.
Analysis: I usually mention the POV character's name in the first sentence. Often I mention their entire names, but that is usually for a specific effect: a theme of identity, or use of formal phrasing because the story has something to do with Jaffa. I'm still not sure I got 1 right. 2 was written almost entirely around the image set up in the first sentence. 5 makes me laugh. 8 was an interesting and effective structure, I think. 11 is remarkably efficient at setting up it's story (go me!) but 15 is WEATHER (bad me! except it can't have been that bad, it was one of the more popular stories I've written. I bet you can't tell from that sentence which story it is, though. Rats.)
Actually, I'd be amused to see whether you can guess which story is which.
I think I wish my prose was a little more obviously differentiated speech patterns for the various POV characters. I think it's almost there, but not quite. Overall, I'm so proud of having written all these stories. I didn't even have to go back into my earlier, moderately cringe-worthy stuff (I was learning! LEARNING, I SAY.) Gods, some of these surprised me so much. When I was a child, I was driven to tell stories, was encouraged to write stories by my teachers and family. I don't know when creative writing became such a low priority for me, but I feel really happy to have come back to it.
There is a meme going around. It calls for the first sentences of your last 20 stories (do I have that many?) You are then free to analyze at will.
1. Vala came to Teal’c at the center of a spiral: a walk through through different doors, up different ladders and crawl spaces, through different corridors than she would take than if her target were Sam, in the beating true heart of the ship, or Daniel in its low wide belly.
2. Cam’s nose is inches from barely finished concrete, a thin lacquer all that separates him from cold, man-made stone.
3. “Master Bra’tac?” The human speaks respectfully, but the enthusiasm in his voice is of one who has not seen many winters.
4. “Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said into his radio, pressing and depressing the rectangular button with his thumb slid to the side, the plastic digging into the pad of his fingers, “Daniel Jackson.”
5. Daniel doesn't remember it, but the first mission after he descended, Jack drew some of his scars back in with a blue Sharpie.
6. Jacob stands among the counsel and talks about his mission, though he cages it with words like 'we' and 'danger' and 'information' and 'critical'.
7. Samantha Carter breaks out of prison in complete silence, following the curved dark back of her former CO.
8. Daniel Jackson
Had changed.
9. Kate was unsteady; she was sure she was crossing a line, showing up uninvited.
10. Daniel woke up on Jack's side of the bed, with the sense of dislocation that a few weeks hadn't quite reassured away.
11. He drew a blank.
12. Cameron tapped his boots against the door frame in muffled thuds and backed his way inside the house.
13. Cam’s cap was bothering him; the wind was picking up and whistling underneath the brim when he turned towards the mountains, but shoving it up a few inches only served to scratch his forehead.
14. "Tell me of your mother." Ishta's gait was still easy, her steps long, and her fingers idly playing with the seeds in a shaft of grain.
15. The evening was warm.
16. Teal’c found it difficult to school his reactions to Colonel Mitchell into his usual impassivity; he also found it difficult to be overly concerned about it.
17. It’d taken a deep breath, and 20 minutes of small talk before she could get around to asking about this guy Mark thought was all she said she wanted.
18. "Shock wave incoming."
19. When Teal’c started to dream, he believed he was hallucinating again, consistently, and troublingly.
20. It wasn’t that different; it’d been hard to tell from the beginning that something was wrong, until someone failed to linger over you as their eyes tracked across the room, then didn’t hear what you said, didn’t recognize your personal space and walked right through you, man.
Analysis: I usually mention the POV character's name in the first sentence. Often I mention their entire names, but that is usually for a specific effect: a theme of identity, or use of formal phrasing because the story has something to do with Jaffa. I'm still not sure I got 1 right. 2 was written almost entirely around the image set up in the first sentence. 5 makes me laugh. 8 was an interesting and effective structure, I think. 11 is remarkably efficient at setting up it's story (go me!) but 15 is WEATHER (bad me! except it can't have been that bad, it was one of the more popular stories I've written. I bet you can't tell from that sentence which story it is, though. Rats.)
Actually, I'd be amused to see whether you can guess which story is which.
I think I wish my prose was a little more obviously differentiated speech patterns for the various POV characters. I think it's almost there, but not quite. Overall, I'm so proud of having written all these stories. I didn't even have to go back into my earlier, moderately cringe-worthy stuff (I was learning! LEARNING, I SAY.) Gods, some of these surprised me so much. When I was a child, I was driven to tell stories, was encouraged to write stories by my teachers and family. I don't know when creative writing became such a low priority for me, but I feel really happy to have come back to it.