David Morrell by The Successful Novelist

Author:The Successful Novelist
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The First Page 105

He strolled, leisurely, into the park.

I stared at that sentence for a long time. Is there any other way to stroll except leisurely? I asked myself.Why would a writer begin a novel on such a lethargic redundant note? Strolled? And why the commas to emphasize “leisurely”? I turned to page two where a character let out “a blood-curdling scream.” At that point, I fris-beed the book into the “awful” basket.

Common sense tells us that the first sentence, the first paragraph, and the first page are where a book makes its strongest impression. Then why would anyone, especially an unknown author desperate to make an impression, begin a book with a page of listless description? Or an ordinary day in the life of the main character? Imagine that you’re in a crowd, trying to attract someone’s attention.You need to jump higher, wave stronger, and shout louder than everybody else. That doesn’t mean you’re required to begin with “The shotgun blast blew the groom’s head apart, spewing blood and brain all over the white dresses of the flower girls at the wedding.” That might be more waving and shouting than an editor would appreciate. As Gene Kelly says in Singin’ in the Rain,“Dignity, always dignity.” But at least, my shotgun example is better than the put-me-to-sleep “He strolled, leisurely, into the park.” (Love those commas.)

I recommend that beginning novelists go to a large book store once a month, the kind that has a huge section of novels marked

“new releases.” Read the first sentence/paragraph/page of every one. Don’t pay attention to the type of novel it is. Mystery, romance, thriller, mainstream. Makes no difference. What you’re trying to identify is writing that, because of tone or incident or whatever, grabs your attention.You’ll be amazed at how many first pages don’t manage the job. But we’re not interested in those.

What we care about are the ones that do grab our attention.

Without imitating, use them as examples. Raise your standards.

Keep remembering my former editor trying to read manuscripts on the noisy train or on the weekend when he’d much rather be 106 THE SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST

with his family. Above all, pay attention to first sentences. The following are some of my favorites.

He was an old man who fished alone in a skin in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

—Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

—Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

—Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, trans.

Gregory Rabassa

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

—Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

It was a pleasure to burn.

—Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

For an extensive list of great first sentences, see Georgianne Ensign’s Great Beginnings.

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