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[personal profile] sekritomg
Post the first sentence (or several) from every WIP you're currently working on, even if it's very short. Then invite people to ask questions about your WIPs. With any luck, you'll get talking about writing, and the motivation to take that WIP one step closer to completion will appear as if by magic!



Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Denver, Colorado.

Man, that's ... amazing. So, like. This story is probably going to feel kind of sparse. Or maybe it will get heavier as it goes on. On its own I feel bad about this sentence, like, it just hangs there. But in context I think it works all right, because the conversation that begins the story is meant to be disjointed and the reader isn't meant to internalize the full impact of everything that's said until later in the story. I think. I hope. Also, time is very much of the essence in this conversation, because one of the characters is very impatient and trying to get the other character to do something immediately, and when the narrative picks up a week or so later, things are very different.

Bebe and Kyle have always had a lot in common.

This is for porn and I want to keep porn short and sweet. Who's gonna bang and how and why? No need to describe anything not related to the banging. This sentence actually answers all of those questions, in the most basic way.

It’s 10 p.m. on a Friday when Kyle is interrupted for the first time.

This is for a long-delayed story that is based on this picture, which is based on many other things, but as far as first sentences go, this one is just a description of what happens the moment after the moment in this picture: Stan interrupts Kyle, who is drawing on a blackboard at 10 p.m.

On Saturday the hippie and the Jew are kissing at the movie theater at the 1:50 p.m. showing in the back row, parkas crinkling and sneakers making sticky noises as they skid against the floor.

This is from Cartman's perspective so he'd think of Stan and Kyle that way. This story is not actually about Stan/Kyle, but how Cartman reacts to them is the telling key to his character in this story, so I put that up front.

Gradually and yet surely, Stanley Marsh began to style himself as someone — something — projecting an artifice, like a 1970s sitcom set in the 1950s.

This isn't a very good opening sentence, actually. The working title of this story, which I've been trying to finish for well over a year, is St. Rosa and The Swallows, or, Notes on Camp. The first epigraph is about artifice in camp, and that's going to me kind of the theme of the story. I think I do a bit more telling up here than I should, so maybe I'll rework it.

They were best friends when they were younger, but they aren’t anymore — not because anything happened, not because one of them hurt the other.

This is a story about Stan being a physiotherapist and Kyle being divorced that I described in some post about stories I'm not writing, but clearly I'm writing it. Slowly. I'll probably shuffle this around, but I want to get it across that life sort of took Stan and Kyle in different directions, not that there was some drama. I think I was getting into this back in the fall, when it was in vogue to write about Kyle and Stan drifting apart and getting back together. So this is mostly a response to that.

Noah’s nose was in a book when his sister called.

Sequel to this. Noah's Stan and Kyle's younger son, and he's the main character, so. Everything in the story filters through him. And he's pointedly trying to keep away from his family and pretend they don't exist. So you can see what a gifted writer I am, this is really just clever as fuck. I mean, this is more interesting than Noah is Stan and Kyle's son or Noah is a dickbag who isn't paying attention to his family, but not by much. Show and don't tell, and all that.

There lived in the mountains an old warrior named Randy, who was the son of Marvin.

No, really. Icelandic saga AU. These start with some genealogy, sometimes, so ... when I started writing this I was trying to be as formulaic as possible, because for some reason I assumed the reader wouldn't buy it unless I stuck to the conventions of saga writing as closely as possible, then little by little broke out into ... whatever I'm doing.

[RIAT intentionally left out due to massive first-line spoiler, if anyone cares.]

“I just realized something.”

This won't be the first line of this, it's just the first line of the document. This is a chapter of a longer story, though. Technically the first line of this WIP is, "It was going to be the warmest Christmas break in his memory, but Stan was still pissed." And I wrote that sentence in like April 2008, and I really couldn't tell you why. I am not the best writer these days, but I was certainly much worse back then.


Well, I ... think I learned something today? Other people should do this. I like memes.

Date: 2012-02-05 23:40 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
I am reading

I am so happy

Stan and Kyle are like having really bitchy friends

Date: 2012-02-05 23:48 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] formerdinosaur.livejournal.com
LOL it's true, and they're as hot or not hot as we imagine them, which is only fair.

Date: 2012-02-05 23:50 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
Stan: sort of hot

Kyle: have you ever seen one of those shows on Bravo where some poor woman's friends, like, make her get a makeover, and they force her to try on all of her clothes and then the hosts explain why everything she owns doesn't suit her?

Date: 2012-02-06 15:31 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
YES I have seen those shows. Kyle would vehemently defend his like, pleated pants or whatever. OR an old pair of jeans that no longer fits him. "but I'll be thin enough for these again someday! I just have to finish my juice fast."

Oh man they would try to throw away the tiny, ratty old t-shirt that he was wearing when Stan first kissed him or something. and he would snarl at them and clutch it to his chest.

also he might cry during the hair cutting portion, not because he doesn't want them to cut his hair, but because he's got a lot of FEELINGS about its inadequacy, ok.

Date: 2012-02-06 16:51 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
Everything you just described:

1. True.

2. Ratings gold.

Oh my god, I'd write this, if we were in that kind of fandom.

Date: 2012-02-06 16:58 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
haha, if only! I would tell you to write it anyway, but that would be a very ridiculous request on a post about ten other WIPs that I want to read.

Date: 2012-02-06 17:29 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
But, I dunno. It could be a mystery -- who wrote to Bravo and got Kyle involved in this patronizing makeover show? Everyone has a motive. Stan is like, "Well, you can just decline and not participate," but Kyle can't reasonably turn down a free trip to NYC and wardrobe.

Date: 2012-02-06 17:35 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
ok now I'm going to legit ask you to write this.

OR AT LEAST TELL ME WHO WROTE TO BRAVO

!!

Date: 2012-02-06 17:49 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
Probably the person he least sus-

Stan.

Date: 2012-02-06 19:07 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
lol, I would believe that if I could get my head around the idea of Stan caring about what anyone wears, ever - I SUPPOSE he was metrosexual once, hmm.

Man, there would be a lot of suspects. Cartman would do it to embarrass him, Butters would do it as a kind way of telling him that his clothes are bad, Kenny would do it so he could steal Kyle's TV while he's out of town...

Date: 2012-02-06 19:16 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
I think actually it turns out to be ... his mom.

Date: 2012-02-06 19:28 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
aww, that's perfect, actually.

Date: 2012-02-06 19:38 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
Welp, sure, I might get bored and write this. When I'm done working/eating/crying.

Date: 2012-02-06 20:37 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
This is very good news!!! I don't think it would even have to be that long, although I'd also be happy to read 20k of Kyle trying on clothes and getting defensive about his old rags.

Date: 2012-02-06 20:47 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
Oh god, I don't have time to write 20k of this. If I do, you'll know I've failed at time management forever, and some other aspect of my life is suffering.

Date: 2012-02-06 21:11 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
lol, yes, story of my life. If I'm posting fic you can assume that there are dirty dishes in my sink, I have finished only ten minutes of the two hour long dictation I need to type, and I have not called my grandmother in MONTHS. etc. also, probably, I didn't work out.

Date: 2012-02-06 21:13 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekrit-omg.livejournal.com
Fuck, I forgot to find a gym.

Oh well.

Date: 2012-02-06 21:24 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hollycomb.livejournal.com
TOMORROW

I was going to work out, but I have to for real do some kitchen cleaning when I get home, and fuck if I'm gonna do both in one day!

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