phrases of your own stories that you adore

thrihyrne posted this in her journal -

Most of you who visit this LJ are fellow fanfiction writers, and perhaps regular fiction writers as well. Last week I found that I wrote a sentence that I really loved. Really, really "Wow, that's almost as good as that one-liner by Minx that I adored" loved, actually. So…

My other writing friends: I invite you to share with me (by posting them below) your top 5 phrases of your own stories that you adore. Sentences, short paragraphs, one particular image or feeling that you think you captured perfectly and you are proud of...

I wanted to do this - but I only had one line come to me right away, out in front of the pack, as it were. But I am poking at my stories tonight thinking about this, (though I'm not sure I'll post them anywhere but here.)

But I am happy to take suggestions for lines or to narrow the field...


In the boat lay the Blade of Gondor, and he was broken.
I am so possessed by that line that I sometimes wonder if I have ever writen anything else.


edit:

I didn't think this would be so hard to do - after all, I often write just to use a single line. But the truth is, they don't seem uplifted without the framework of the story. The last paragraph of River Of Fallen Stars makes me cry still, but I don't know that it sings alone. I have a great personal love for Faramir's dream, from the opening of Arrow, and the song baby Boromir sings with Thorongil in All Of Them - but they look strange and small to me removed from their context. Maybe it's because my "context" is so small - several people posted quotes longer than my stories...


tonight I like these:


Why should I fear the dead? I was one of them, just a little warmer… though not much, and not for long.
[Halbarad]


I am sometimes a little melancholy at low tide, when the receding breakers leave me feeling stranded on alien ground. Sometime my star falls, blazing, from the sky and lies trapped in the tidal pools, searching for shade and longing for the deeps. But though the waters of Belfalas have ebbed, the waters of The Mark have rolled joyously in. Before too long, my husband's arms will surround me, lift me like a wave and offer me the depths of sky or sea, whichever will fill my need for home. And every day, I willingly fall again, to feel myself lifted by that wave.
[Lotheriel in Tides]


They try to tell us we were made from elves. Think on that, you puny, leaf-eared peace-seekers, when you think about beauty and purpose. You were just the raw material. You are pig-iron and we are steel. We have been remade, refined, perfected - fashioned, formed and forged for fury. [Orc, Slouching Toward Gondolin]


Beneath the Hill of Tears, swords of Eldar and Edain mingle, becoming one as they crumble together into rust.
[Nirnaeth Arnoediad - I'm not sure this works on its own, either...]

She shone, rays of sunlight glinting off skin and sword in a way that made him understand he could still love fire. [Faramir in Two Tongues - but it's midirection...]

Elves seemed to make everything into a song, as though they were trying to hammer their pain in the forge of their fëas until it became something of beauty, something they could understand.
[ranger in Good Hunting]

“Meriadoc, you said it was a family tree! This is Fangorn Forest!
[Gimli looks at a geneaology in Gifts]

I left the poetry alone, except I can't leave this:

A hand on a swordhilt, a hand on a bow
A kiss that consoles me wherever I go
One more day of fighting, one more day of woe
A kiss that consoles me wherever I go
[home by morning]

and I have not cataloged anything I have written out here - that must be corrected!
Have I missed an obious place? I was surprised to find most of my favorite lines are not in my unshown stories - it's about even.

(no subject)

Roper and Ebert, deux: or Will no one rid me of this turbulent beast...

on Leno tonight, mister Epics-Can-Inspire-No-Real-Passion said:
-- "I mean, come on, can we all sing 'Into the West'? No one---" --

oh, so smug... you moron. Like the average guy is going to sing out loud, in a crowded theater, a song with a difficult range, possibly alone, even if given a real chance, which - guess what - they aren't. So, you probably could have gotten the entire theater to sing the theme from Gilliagan's Island - So F***ing what? What does that prove? NOTHING except that you are a smart ass. Well, as Lee likes to say - "Everyone likes a little, but nobody likes a smart one..."

So, stand up, everybody - don't be afraid, or shy - c'mon, on your feet, someone has to carry the melody when I start to cry ---

This is for you, mister head-up-my-own-ass Roper....

Lay down your sweet and weary head
Night is falling
You have come to journey's end
Sleep now and dream of the ones who came before
They are calling from across the distant shore

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
All of your fears will pass away
Safe in my arms
You're only sleeping

What can you see on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea apale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home

And all will turn to silver glass
A light on the water
All Souls pass

Hope fades into the world of night
Through shadows falling out of memory and time
Don't say we have come now to the end
White shores are calling
You and I will meet again
And you'll be here in my arms
Just sleeping

What can you see on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea a pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home

And all will turn to silver glass
A light on the water
Grey ships pass into the West