What if the opening lines of this epic were written in the style of these 12 genres?
A thread.

I analyse the opening in my article in @ConversationEDU. https://theconversation.com/4-ways-to-teach-youre-sic-kids-about-grammar-so-they-actually-care-144353 1/14

Action:
"The moonlight struck the leaf where the little egg lay."

Transitive active verb (struck) showing energy moving from one thing (the moonlight) to another (the leaf). 2/14

Horror:
"There was a leaf in the moonlight. And on that leaf, lay an unsuspecting little egg."

Foreground the objects of the setting, positioning the character as vulnerable. 3/14

Drama:
"Moonlight. A Leaf. A little egg. Lying."

Each story element brought to the foreground as a minor sentence for, well, dramatic effect. 4/14

Nior:
"A little egg lay on a leaf, moonlighting."

Active sentence presented matter-of-factly. Degree of suspicion placed after predicate via continuous verb (“moonlighting”). 5/14

Romance:
"There it lay.
A little egg.
On a leaf.
Alone in the light of the moon."

Relationship established between the setting and the subject “there it”. Leaf profiled (zoomed in), then moonlight with the immediate scope of the moon (zoomed out). 6/14

Thriller:
"A little egg lay on a leaf. Above, moonlight shone."

Two discrete settings, the latter removed by deictic preposition “above”. Feeling of something watching us. 7/14

Young adult:
"The light of the moon shone on the leaf where I, a little egg, lay."

Cheeky one here, but I notice teenagers love appositives (“a little egg”). 8/14

Fantasy 1:
"The moonlight stretched from the heavens to the leaf where a little egg lay."

Active verb (“stretched”) guiding the reader to scan across the scene in fictive motion. 9/14

Fantasy 2:
"The leaf had just about enough of the little egg and its lying, and sought the help of the moonlight."

Because, well, objects can talk. 10/14

Dr Seusse:
"A little egg lay in the light of the moon
The mooniest moon that ever had mooned
And the egg, it lay, in its eggerish way
On a leaf of a truffula tree"

Prosody, inventing words with conventional inflections and all that. 11/14

Scifi:
"In the light of the alien moon, the biomechanical egg lay on the genetically enhanced leaf."

Headache inducing use of adjectives. Definite articles (“the”) establish futuristic normality. 12/14

Whodunit:
"It was in the light of the moon. The leaf had been lain/laid on by a little egg."

Foregrounding the something that previously happened (but what?) via empty pronoun + verb (“It was”)
PS: Is it lain or laid? 13/14

Magical realism
It happened a few nights after I saw that little egg lay on the leaf in the light of the moon.

Establishing connection between narrator and egg via determiner (“that”) hinting that something magical might take place. 14/14