Favorite lines from your own writing

I find this thread a little too self-congratulatory to post them, but quite a few of my "favorite" lines are not those I consider objectively the best. It's likely others feel the same way.

Have to agree with njrxll; the idea that a subjective favorite must be objectively best does not follow.

@Night - Hah, a nice Real Life shout out there.

I have no idea which lines are my 'best' ones. I just post ones that were particularly fun to write. :P

My cousin wrote these and I uploaded the full story to FF.Net because he asked me to. (He's seven.)

God, my cousin is strange.

edited 6th May '12 8:55:15 PM by Steventheman

Given the age you say he is... I don't think so, honestly.

Although I confess myself a bit sad to see that kind of language coming from a seven-year-old.

Hmm. Alright, I will post one sentance of mine that I like.

In the afterglow of her orgasm she sat on the floor of her shower in the water and steam, trailing her fingertips over her arms and staring into the fogged glass of the door until the warm water ran out.

I'm more disturbed by the politics involved (such as they are) than the swearing. Lots of kids swear.

Kind of a run-on sentence (try reading it out loud - odds are you'll run out of breath). Considered cutting it down or breaking it up a bit?

My cousin is slightly insane.

edited 7th May '12 5:37:39 AM by Steventheman

Hmm. I imagine that for most people it would be hard to say that out-loud (1). Im not intimatly familiar with the limits of sentance structure but if it doesnt violate any rules explicitly I dont see why it needs to be broken-up as opposed to staying in one piece. <- (I realized that i just tend to use long sentances in general) While it might make it more grammaticly correct i dont want to lose the feel of the line. When i get a chance i will play around with it.

Insanity is a legal concept. I dont think its possible to be insane unless the court declares you so.

(1) When I say that sentance out load (i tend to recite what i write under my breath) i inhale at the comma. A semi-colon would be a more accurate representation of the pause im taking but people get all bent out of shape about how often i use them (for that very reason) already.

edited 7th May '12 9:50:12 AM by Stormthorn

I don't think he's speaking from a legal perspective here. To rephrase for him: "I don't think that my cousin's the most mentally stable individual..."

One of my most memorable scenes from a paranormal romance parody I'm writing...

And there's also this sentence from another story I can't stop laughing about for some stupid reason:

edited 7th May '12 11:15:44 AM by RemusDDuck

Hmm. I imagine that for most people it would be hard to say that out-loud (1). Im not intimatly familiar with the limits of sentance structure but if it doesnt violate any rules explicitly I dont see why it needs to be broken-up as opposed to staying in one piece. <- (I realized that i just tend to use long sentances in general) While it might make it more grammaticly correct i dont want to lose the feel of the line. When i get a chance i will play around with it.

It's important to consider the sound and rhythm of your writing, not just the words. An overlong sentence sounds like the author's yammering on like a paranoid schizophrenic, and it's easy for a reader to get lost in it. See our Wall of Text article for more details - if you want people to read your work, make it fun and easy to read, not a chore.

In your specific case, 'and staring into the fogged glass of the door' just bloats the second half of the sentence too much. The reader should be on the home stretch by then.

There are exceptions, of course - if you want to convey a sense of breathlessness and exhaustion, run-on sentences are just fine. The key to breaking the rules, though, is to understand how they work in the first place.

While I must disagree on the matter of long sentences in general—William Faulkner, ladies and gentlemen—in this particular case, you are quite right.

This fellow is not a humble man:

"You think I'm some jackass who wants to be the next John Galt? The next Gordon Gekko? The next — God help me — Lex Luthor? No, let me tell you who I am. I'm Sigmund fucking Clark, and I climbed my way to the top of this industry on a stair forged from the broken dreams of sociopaths and idealists alike. And it's not about the money — trust me, pal, it's all the same after the first billion. It's... aw, who am I kidding? I've indulged my inner comic book villain long enough! This has been fun, but now it's time for you to fuck off."

"Listen—I know you don't speak English, but the language of a sword point resting on your throat is pretty universal."

Lennik’s eyes narrowed, and his voice descended to a whisper. “Alright. Who are you?”

“You already know who I am: Vala Landas, daughter of General Valoraz of the Eastern Elf Army and the greatest warrior in the Outreach. But even after I told you all of this, I got only your first name and your alias. If Harland hadn’t dropped the ball this morning, I don’t think Poole and I ever would have figured you out.”

Lennik sighed in exasperation and turned away. “Okay, what do you want from me?”

“What do I want?” she asked innocently. “I’m just trying to make conversation.”

“Right, and you came on this voyage because you love boats.”

“Something tells me you don’t trust me.”

Lennik scoffed. “I trust you to propose something ridiculous within the next three minutes. Then I’ll tell you that you’re crazy if you think I’m going to Kingswall, and you’ll give me some impassioned speech about duty and honor or some such nonsense, and I’ll brush them off as naïve bullshit. Still, you’ll persist.”

edited 9th May '12 10:38:51 PM by Lennik

Letting Go was posted...seven years ago, now. God, was it really so short and yet so long?

I'd almost forgotten it.

edited 11th May '12 3:08:08 AM by Night

"Love is for muppets. Soldiers stick together."

"Ironic, only in its absence do I remember what pain is."

edited 17th Jun '12 3:35:05 AM by PsychoFreaX

"...and looking up at me, as though he’s bored of a conversation that almost, but not quite, happened."

edited 16th Jun '12 3:59:45 PM by Yej

Not exactly a line, but in one panel of a comic I made, a character took out a mirror that had "Poorly Drawn Objects Inc." written on it. :P

edited 16th Jun '12 4:54:32 PM by Egghatch

"Life is a weird thing. It's full of joy, pleasure, and love. But at the same time, it's filled with violence, heartbreak when the love ends, pain, suffering and misery. When you live, all the strong emotions in your life that come from the great and terrible things that happen in your life seem to mean everything. When you're in love, the other person means everything to you. When there is pain, the most important thing is to stop whatever is hurting you. All these emotions control your thoughts and the most valuable things in your life constantly changes. But then you die. You no longer feel anything. All the accomplishments you achive, the love you feel, the misery you endure... leads to absolutely nothing. Life leads to nothing. It is a sick joke, played by existance itself into making you think life has meaning. But it doesn't, and it would make absolutely no difference if you never existed. Because of this... all life must cease."

This is said by the big bad, trying to justify destroying all of existance.

My main character Roul freely expressing his rather blasphemous sounding modus operandi:

“I need no one watching my guard. Even though I am an apostate, I will help those in need, whether it be you or even a Corvus spy that seeks to assassinate me. Tonis, stay out of my arguments for at least one time,” Roul said to both Tonis and Ximun. He looked out towards the nearing Asturanian coast to help ease his anger at the captain’s words and continued, “In the world Roulas and Myriam fought for and died for in vain, the world would be free of its demons; free of a tyrant such as or worse than the Novus Lux. I can only dream that the princess too seeks a world much like the heads of House Costanza sought.”

Ximun responded, “Surely you jest in your fantasies from those books that you read.”

“No, Ximun, you jest. As long as I can reveal the secrets of the Novus Lux from my studies, then the world will truly see the sun- the sun of salvation as opposed to the moon of the Santorum. No man or woman can bring another enlightenment; he or she can only help pave the way to salvation, not rapture them and hold their hand like a mother to her child. You, Tonis, the princess, nobody, not even a former priest like I am is a pawn of a higher force. This is why I use my magicks even though I am no longer a man of the cloth. Let me be labelled a necromancer! Let me burn on the stake as a petty criminal!” Roul spoke back to Ximun in a slightly mocking tone.

edited 5th Jul '12 11:01:56 PM by SpellcraftQuill