Reason #17 Why I Want to be Stephen King When I Grow Up

This is the first reason. Go read it. It’s not long. I’ll wait.

(Back now? Isn’t that elegant and infuriating and utterly magnificent? And infuriating?)

Anyway. I’ll probably mention most of the next fifteen reasons at some point.

Which brings us to this, the subject of today’s post.

There’s a lot to chew on here, but I think this is the “pull quote” (for anyone who didn’t click over, he’s talking about the first sentence of a book and the fact that it should invite the reader in, and then how you accomplish that):

“So an intriguing context is important, and so is style. But for me, a good opening sentence really begins with voice. You hear people talk about "voice" a lot, when I think they really just mean "style." Voice is more than that. People come to books looking for something. But they don't come for the story, or even for the characters. They certainly don't come for the genre. I think readers come for the voice.”

I suspect there’s some hyperbole at work here, but he’s fundamentally right. I do want story, and characters, and (to a lesser extent) genre, but above all, I want to trust the author. Cor ad cor loquitur. If I’m going to trust you with my heart, I want to know something about yours.

So for fun (read: narcissistic masochism), I went back and looked at some of my own work in that light. I’m ruling out the screenplays, since I think that there a slightly different principle is at work. That left me with two mostly-outlined-but-mostly-unwritten novels, one drafted short story, and one short story that popped into my head six days ago - characters, plot, and setting all complete - and that has been consuming me ever since.

Now, I could analyze these to death (and have...and will...), but see, I know all of the stories. So for purposes of the “voice” test, I’m going to throw them out here and ask what you think. Here they are, in alphabetical order by title. Speaking of genre, they are all spy stories - a predilection about which I have theories, which will have to wait for another post.

I’m going to cheat a little with the novels: since each has a prologue, I’m going to give you that first sentence and then the beginning of the first chapter. With that said, have at it:

Acceptable Loss

By all rights, Yelena Zelenko should not have been in the Friedrichstrasse station that day.

Not for Profit

They asked me to change the names.

Within His Wounds: A Novel of Recusant England

Prologue opening:

Blood is curse and blessing; for a Howard, it is doubly so.

First chapter opening:

He gave his name as Mr. Edmunds, diamond merchant, neither of which was entirely a lie, though in private he would have exchanged the diamond for a pearl of great price.

The Younger Son

Prologue opening:

30th July, 1809

My Dear,

I have spent the greater part of the night praying that you have already heard the news, so that it will not be me to tell you.

First chapter opening:

My Lord Barham was late.

So. There they are. I was going to ask, Which of them make you want to read further? But perhaps I’d better take the safer route and ask, Do any of them make you want to read further? And of course the follow-up: Why or why not?

Meanwhile, I’m off to finish that short story. Whether or not it needs a new opening sentence.