274 Part IV: Using Words to Entrance
Adding loops to your story: And this reminds me of.
Have you noticed how, in a novel, a writer may open up a number of loops or
storylines that run in parallel throughout the book?In one of the greatest storybooks of the world, The Thousand and One Nights,
a collection of a tales tells how King Shahriyar had an unpleasant behavioural
problem. He’d got into the habit of killing a succession of his young virgin
brides after their first night of marriage.At the rate he was demolishing the female population, the source of potential
brides began to run dry. Thanks to the cleverness of Shahrazad, the daughter
of his senior statesman and the king’s potential next victim, the pattern was
broken. Shahrazad is said to have collected a thousand and one books of
histories and poetry, fascinated as she was by the lives of kings and past
generations.Hooking people in
Once upon a time.... Have you noticed how
every great story intrigues the reader with
its opening? Think about how you’re going to
begin your story to attract attention and retain
interest. Here are some introductory lines for
starters:
‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of
my own life, or whether that station will be
held by anybody else, these pages must
show.’ Charles Dickens, David Copperfield.‘It might have happened anywhere, at any
time, and it could certainly have been a
good deal worse.’ Elizabeth Jane Howard,
The Sea Change.
‘“Take my camel, dear,” said my Aunt Dot as
she climbed down from this animal on her
return from High Mass.’ Rose Macaulay,
The Towers of Trebizond.‘José Palacios, his oldest servant, found
him floating naked with his eyes open in the
purifying waters of his bath and thought he
had drowned.’ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The
General in His Labyrinth.
‘In the beginning, there was a river. The
river became a road and the road branched
out to the whole world. And because
the road was once a river it was always
hungry.’ Ben Okri, The Famished Road.‘I am doomed to remember a boy with a
wrecked voice, not because of his voice
or because he was the smallest person
I ever knew or even because he was the
instrument of my mother’s death, but
because he is the reason I believe in God.’
John Irvine, A Prayer for Owen Meaney.