Memeing incorrectly

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There’s been a meme going around Dreamwidth recently with the following rules:

How many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fanwork title? One fanwork per line, “A” and “The” do not count for “a” and “t” (or their equivalent in other languages). Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fanwork count.

The problem with this is that I often avoid giving my fics titles, so I’ve adjusted the meme a bit to be about first lines instead. Also I reject the notion that articles should deserve special treatment. Being me, I wrote a Python script to parse my fic files and construct the list using the most recently updated fic starting with each letter, so I can rerun it at some unspecified point in the future and see how things have changed; it’s not particularly optimised but it does the job.

Here’s the list:

• “Auron,” said Braska, “I was thinking of going to the Night of Departed Souls this year.” (2025)
• Braska was once used to casting magic with his hands; that was before he began his summoner’s training. (2024)
• Coming back was a little harder each time. (2024)
• Dion’s convalescence had been long and troubling, with one day’s progress seemingly lost the next, the prince slow and quiet and sometimes barely even lucid. (2023)
• Emma’s partner Pokémon was an Eevee: it was a family tradition. (2021)
• “Fukuzawa-san recommended you to me,” said Ernest. (2025)
• Grace was finishing the washing up when Pad walked in, Mikey draped over his shoulder. (2021)
• “How does it feel?” says Auron. (2024)
• It would soon be winter. (2025)
• Jill was eleven, and a head taller than Dion at least. (2023)
• K: none
• Lulu had told her not to cry – but she couldn’t help it, knowing the part she had played in sending so many people to the Farplane. (2023)
• Masahiro arrived at his desk one morning to find a single red rose awaiting him. (2025)
• Noctis was already sitting outside when Prompto rose. (2025)
• “Oh!” said Laventon. (2025)
• Picture England in the first days of 1987. (2015)
• Q: none
• Robert normally avoided the poisoner; she was quite disconcerting. (2025)
• Spring had arrived in Bevelle. (2025)
• The door swung open at the gambling house. (2025)
• U: none
• Vargas had just knocked out the king of Figaro himself. (2021)
• “What’s up, Rei?” said Akari as Rei walked into the village. (2025)
• X: none
• “You look at me as if you expect me to slip,” they say, and it’s true. (2025)
• Zuke had anticipated spending the rest of his days quietly, atoning for his failures as a monk of Yevon. (2022)

Unsurprisingly when I’m basing this on first lines instead of titles, quite a few of the results happen to be the name of a character (no prizes for predicting the “A” and “B” ha). Anyway, that’s a score of 22/26 for a total of 269 fics. I’m amazed that we had to go back to 2015 for P (and relieved that this particular fic is not available for public consumption). Also quite surprised that FFX fics account for only seven of these, although of course most of my FFX writing recently has been One Fic (it’s S).