{"id":3985,"date":"2015-02-08T07:25:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T12:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2015-02-08T07:25:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T12:25:32","slug":"come-in-sit-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=3985","title":{"rendered":"“Come in, Sit down . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"cafe

(photo: wikimedia commons)<\/p><\/div>\n

. . . Let me tell you a story.”<\/p>\n

Like the author of this recent Gawker post<\/a> about novels with compelling opening sentences, which includes many relatively recent books, I was inspired by Joe Fassler\u2019s 2013 Atlantic <\/em>interview with Stephen King<\/a>, in which King talked about the first lines of his books and why those first words are so important. His all-time favorite opener, from Needful Things<\/em>: \u201cYou\u2019ve been here before.\u201d King says he spends weeks, months\u2014years sometimes\u2014getting them exactly right, so remembers them well: \u201cThey were a doorway I went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analyzing King\u2019s Approach<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe opening line of King’s 11\/22\/63<\/em> is \u201cI\u2019ve never been what you’d call a crying man,\u201d and the reader immediately and correctly anticipates a fair amount of crying before the last page is turned. The opening line of It:<\/em> \u201cThe terror that would not end for another 28 years, if it ever did, began so far as I can know or tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fassler\u2019s interview made me think, \u201cHe\u2019s a big success, right? Maybe I can learn something here.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I visited my library and pulled all the King books they had on hand\u201418 different novels. I sat at a table and wrote out the first few sentences of each. (If you\u2019ve never done this, try handwriting passages from a book you admire. For some reason, possibly in sync with research on how people learn<\/a>, the act of hand-copying a text puts you\u2014well, me, anyway\u2014in the author\u2019s mindframe much more directly and powerfully than reading the same words or typing them out.)<\/p>\n

What the First Lines Contain<\/strong><\/span>
\nWhat I found out by doing this is that the opening sentences of many Stephen King novels have certain characteristics in common. They:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Put the reader in a precise location and time<\/li>\n
  2. Identify the protagonist, usually by name<\/li>\n
  3. Address the reader directly \u2013 \u201cyou\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. Use simple language and quotidian details, which create an easy tone (nice rhythm, too)<\/li>\n
  5. Include something to provoke a vague anxiety<\/li>\n
  6. Put the protagonist’s experience in a larger context<\/li>\n
  7. In some way invite the reader to \u201csit and listen to a story.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Three Examples<\/strong><\/span>
    \nRecently I read King\u2019s     Mr. Mercedes<\/a> (2014), which does 2, 4, 5, 6 and to some extent 1\u2014at least he gets the reader into the geographic and temporal ballpark:
    \n\u201cAugie Odenkirk (2) had a 1997 Datsun that still ran well in spite of high mileage (1-ish), but gas was expensive, especially for a man with no job (4, 6), and City Center was on the far side of town (1-ish), so he decided to take the last bus of the night (5).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    And, another example, from The Tommyknockers <\/em>(1987):
    \n\u201cFor want of a nail the kingdom was lost, that\u2019s how the catechism goes when you boil it down (5). In the end, you can boil everything down to something similar\u2014or so Roberta Anderson thought much later on (2, 3). It\u2019s either all an accident . . . or all fate (6). Anderson literally stumbled over her destiny in the small town of Haven, Maine, on June 21, 1988(1, 4). That stumble was the root of the matter; all the rest was nothing but history (7).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    A look back at King\u2019s very first novel, Carrie<\/em> (1974) shows he used these methods from the start, though his technique has grown in subtlety and creativity over time. Carrie<\/em> begins:
    \n\u201cNews item from the Westover (Me.) weekly Enterprise, August 19, 1966 (1):<\/em>
    \n\u201cRain of Stones Reported<\/em>
    \n\u201cIt was reliably reported by several persons that a rain of stones fell from a clear blue sky on Carlin Street in the town of Chamberlain on August 17th (4). The stones fell principally on the home of Mrs. Margaret White, damaging the roof extensively and ruining two gutters and a downspout valued at approximately $25 (4). Mrs. White, a widow, lives with her three-year-old daughter, Carietta (2).<\/em>
    \n\u201cMrs. White could not be reached for comment (5).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    These examples invite the reader in like a cafe\u2019s bright lights as dark is coming on. They say, \u201cSit down, listen, let me tell you about this.\u201d I wouldn\u2019t describe King\u2019s approach as a \u201cformula,\u201d because his books begin in such different ways, but rather a discipline. Early on, he gives readers a clear sense of \u201cwho, what, when, and where,\u201d and the rest of the book provides the \u201cwhy.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In My Own Writing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    So what did I learn from this exercise? I rewrote the beginning scenes of my two novels with these thoughts in mind, making several tries of it, and was sure to name the books\u2019 protagonists and place them precisely in time and location, use simple language, and forecast the larger context of the action. And I’m happier with the result. We’ll see what comes of it.<\/p>\n

    If you have some King sitting on your bookshelf and look for these 7 points, I\u2019d be interested to know what you find.<\/p>\n

    Famous First Lines<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n