Christine - Lesson 8 (Point of View)

Characterization in Christine (Signet): Like Carrie the point of view is away from the main character (see this post). In a thriller, this technique does well to heighten the tension and increase the mystique around Arnie and his car.

Dennis does a little detective work in this section, and we get stories from LeBay's brother (LeBay's wife and daughter died in the car). His father tells him about Darnell's business dealings, and then Dennis gets a good look at the car himself and talks to Darnell. Meanwhile, Arnie and his relationship to Christine only loom larger.

Presidential reference: As Dennis looks at Christine at Darnells (122): I had looked at that new tire on that old car and thought it was as if a little bit of the old car had been scratched away and that the new car - fresh, resplendent, just off the assembly line in a year when Ike had been president and Batista had still been in charge in Cuba - was peeking through.

Exercise: Check your story to see if telling it from another character's point of view.

Christine - Lesson 7 (Dream Sequences)

Dream Sequences in Christine (Signet): I've got to be honest about dream sequences. I'm not a big fan of them while reading, but looking back on my writing, I'm horrible about writing them. Maybe I see my character's unconscious as a place to stretch out and see what's really eating at him. I now ask, why not stretch out while the character's conscious?

In Christine, Dennis is plagued by nightmares about Christine - good-old, present tense, in italics nightmares. I'm not sure how effective a dream sequence is in heightening the horror or a character's self-awareness. I know that when I wake up, whatever was in the dream didn't happen. When have dream sequences worked? Other than the book of Genesis and a movie called Dreamscape where dreams were central to the plot, I can't think of any.

I had a professor that told me that dreams are only interesting to the person who did the dreaming - and yet, somehow, I always have the impulse to tell my poor patient wife when I have what I consider a "really weird dream." From
now on I resolve to curb my habit of writing dream sequences (or at least editing them out).

Presidential Reference: I drove a mile and a half down to JFK Drive, which - according to my mother, who grew up in Libertyville - used to be at teh center of one of the town's most desirable neighborhoods back around the time Kennedy was killed in Dallas.

Christine - Lesson 6 (Be Specific)

Being Specific in Christine (Signet): It's always good to be specific. This is what makes the story come alive. On page 9, Dennis gives a flashback about when his cat died:

"When I was nine, we had a cat named Captain Beefheart, and he got hit by a UPS truck."

What makes that passage vivid is its specificity with the cat's name and the vehicle that killed it.

Here's another when Dennis wants to be somewhere else:

I sat there behind the wheel of my car, not sure what I should do, whishing I was someplace else, anyplace else, trying on shoes at Thom McAn's, filing out a credit application in a discount store, standing in front of a pay toilet stall with diarrhea and no dime.

Okay, the last one in that list is pretty funny, but I might have changed the discount store to a specific chain, say J.C. Penny.

Exercise: Check your story for non-specific people, places, and things. Make them specific.

Christine - Lesson 5 (Flashbacks)

Flashbacks in Christine (Signet): in Chapter 2 of Christine, ("The First Argument"), Dennis is in the middle of an argument between Arnie and his parents. Then Regina turns to him and say, "Dennis, I'm surprised at you." This sets off a flashback:

This stung me. I had always liked Arnie's mom well enough, but I had never completely trusted her, at least not since something had happened when I was eight years old or so.

Arnie and I had ridden our bikes downtown to take in a Saturday afternoon movie. One the way back, Arnie had fallen off his bike while swerving to avoid a dog and had jobbed his leg pretty good. I rode him home double on my bike, and Regina took him to the emergency room, where a doctor put in half a dozen stitches. And then, for some reason, after it was all over and it was clear that Arnie was going to be perfectly fine, Regina turned on me and gave me the rough side of her tongue. She read me out like a top sergeant. when she finished, I was shaking all over and nearly crying - what the hell, I was only eight, and there had been a lot of blood. I can't remember chapter and verse of that bawling-out, but the overall feeling it left me with was disturbing. As best I remember, she started out by accusing me of not watching him closely enough-as if Arnie were much younger instead of almost exactly my own age - and ended up saying (or seeming to say) that it should have been me.

A good flashback doesn't take us away from the narrative for too long. This one (2 paragraphs) is a short and sweet. I'm often tempted to write a flashback that goes on for pages and pages - especially when still trying to figure out who the character is. These rambling tomes should be cut (see Kill Your Darlings) Also, a flashback should have a point. In this case the short narrative gives a characterization of Regina Cunningham.

Exercise: When you come upon a flashback in your story, check to see that it's short enough and has a purpose.

Christine - Lesson 4 (Point of View)

Point of View in Christine (Signet): The first section of Christine (a novel in first person) is in the point of view of Arnie Cunningham's high school friend Dennis. This employs a technique of using a narrator who is not central to the action (a technique that goes back as far as The Canterbury Tales and . . . well, the gospels).

A non-central character has the advantage of giving room for a larger than life character to stretch without being bound to telling the story (Think Chief to McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sal Paradise to Dean Moriarty in On the Road, and Louis to Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. (Although the latter proves to be a fantastic narrator in The Vampire Lestat and subsequent books).The reader gets to see the narrator as others see him. With Dennis as narrator, we see Arnie's slide into obsession, and we also see Christine as Arnie can't see her - as something to fear.

However, a non-central narrator must be interesting in his or her own right (something Dennis definitely warms to). Also, there's the problem that a non-central narrator has to be present for key events in the narrator. This can get kind of convoluted (King drops Dennis's first person narrative for the middle section of the book).

Exercise: Check to see if you have a first person narrator who is central to the story. If so, consider whether or not it would be effective to change the point of view to a non-central character.

Christine - Lesson 3 (Characterization)

Characterization in Christine (Signet): I like it when a character's physical attributes mirror his or her personality. A good example Chapter One of Christine is Roland LeBay.

It was an old guy who looked as if he was enjoying - more or less - his seventieth summer. Probably less. This particular dude struck me as the sort of man who enjoyed very little. His hair was long and scraggy, what little was left of it. He had a good case of psoriasis going on the bald part of his skull.

He was wearing green old man's pants and low topped Keds. No shirt; instead there was something cinched around his waist that looked like a lady's corset. When I got closer I saw that it was a back brace. From the look of it I would say, just offhand, that he changed it last somewhere around the time Lyndon Johnson died.

Here the reader looks at LeBay and is able to make his or her own conclusions. I especially like the back brace, that suggests something crooked is going on.

Presidential reference: Stephen King likes to mark time by presidential administrations - it's a lot more fun than saying "a long time" or "five years" (the book takes place in 1978 and LBJ died in 1973 - so the reader gets to do the math).

Exercise: Check the character descriptions in your story and see if the physical description matches the character's personality.

Christine - Lesson 2 (Conflict)

Conflict in Christine (Signet): King hits the ground running as Arnie first sees Christine in Chapter One.

"On my God!' my friend Arnie Cunningham cried out suddenly.

What is it?" I asked. His eyes were bulging from behind his steel-rimmed glasses, he had plastered one hand over his face so that it was partially cupping his mouth, and his neck could have been on ball-bearlings the way he was craning back over his shoulder.

"Stop the car, Dennis! Go back!"

Dennis and Arnie are at odds against each other over buying Christine. Simply put, Dennis is against it, and Arnie (inexplicably) is obsessed by it. King starts with the conflict quickly, and the reader is sucked into the Story.

King mines this conflict very well, while keeping the two teens friends. Then in Chapter Two, he complicates things further by pitting Dennis and Arnie against Arnie's parents.

Adverbs: As a rule, cut out the adverbs. The first line would be stronger without the "suddenly." While King warns against adverbs in On Writing, he also acknowledges that going back to his old work would reveal lots of them.

Exercise: Does the conflict start at the beginning with little preamble? Also search for adverbs and cut as many as it can.

Christine - Lesson 1 (Prologue)

The Prologue in Christine: In my post on the "Epilogue" in Carrie, I stated my distaste in Epilogues and I guess that goes for Prologues as well. A story is strongest when it starts with the Story, but I'll make a few concessions, and Christine has a pretty strong Prologue.

A prologue should serve as: (1) Background - It is pretty much a character study of Arnie - as the high school loner, he has a lot in common with Carrie White. (2) Setting the Tone - Christine's Prologue does this as well. The last three paragraphs sum it up: Then, near the end of that summer vacation, Arnie saw Christine for the first time and fell in love with her. [ . . . ] How bad was it? It was bad from the start. And it got worse in a hurry. Man, I want to read on and see what happens.

First Line of Christine: This is the story of a lover's triangle, I suppose you'd say - Arnie Cunningham, Leigh Cabot, and, of course, Christine. Much better than the first line of Carrie. It kind of serves a microcosm of the whole book, and it's a great hook. Who can resist a lover's triangle.

I'm hooked by the prologue and first line, but the most interesting element of all: King doesn't tell us that Christine is a car.

Exercise: If your story has a prologue, examine its purpose. Does it serve as background? Does it set the tone?

Poll Results

Last week I put up a poll to determine the next book for my podcast. When I started this site, I thought I might go through the books chronologically, but I want to make this site as interactive as possible, so I put up a few books

And the winner is . . . Christine!

Actually, it was a tie between The Dead Zone and Christine (40 % each). Since I couldn't resist voting and cast my vote for The Dead Zone, I've nullified my vote and declared Christine the winner.

I was interested in the results. 20% of the vote went to King's second published book ('Salem's Lot). I'll be sure to put it up next time. Also, no one voted King's most recent book, Duma Key, which I really enjoyed last February. In my view, it's his strongest book in quite a while.

Carrie - Lesson 13 (Epilogue)

The Epilogue in Carrie: In "The Body" in Different Seasons, after Gordon Lachance finishes the story of Lard Ass Hogan to the gang around the fire, Teddy says, "Yeah, that's cool, then what happened?" When Gordie tells him he doesn't know, Teddy gets angry. I think of this passage every time I read one of King's stories that doesn't end until well after climax.

Carrie doesn't actually have an "Epilogue" but "Part Three: Wreckage." However, since it is only 8 pages long, for our purposes it's an Epilogue. It serves to answer the question, "Then what happened?" We see via Carrie's death certificate, an AP wire, a lengthy human interest story in the Lewiston Daily Sun and other correspondence.

I have mixed feelings about epilogues (and prologues), part of me wants a tidy economic story that doesn't need a lot of set up and wind down. On the other hand, like Teddy, I want to see what happens next. My advice would be to go ahead and write it, and cut it later. See Kill Your Darlings.

Exercise: Take a look at the Epilogue (or last chapter) of your story. Is it necessary for Story or is it simply there to answer the question, "What happens next?"

Carrie - Lesson 12 (The Ending)

The Ending in Carrie: The end of Carrie is quite effective. Here's what happens as Carrie dies:

Her rapid breathing slowed, slowed, caught suddenly as if on a thorn--
And suddenly vented itself in one howling, cheated scream.
As she felt the slow course of dark menstrual blood down her thighs.

I'm a big fan of a story ending where it began. And here we have an allusion to the shower scene at the beginning. It also contains the symbolism of blood that courses throughout the book.

Exercise: Check the ending of your story. Is there a way to link it to the beginning? Does it contain symbols that run throughout the book?

Carrie - Lesson 11 (Conflict)

Conflict in Carrie: In the "sworn testimony of Susan Snell, taken before The State Investigatory Board of Maine" the reader is treated to a classic underdog conflict. Sue Snell is being questioned before a nameless interrogator before the "White Commission". The interrogator is not listening to Sue, and righteous indignation ensues:

A. Why do you keep asking the same questions over and
over? I've told you twice already.
Q. We want to make sure the record is correct in every
A. You want to catch me in a lie, isn't that what you really mean? You don't think I'm telling the truth, do YOU?
Q. You say you came upon Carrie at
A. Will you answer me?
Q. -at 2:00 on the morning of May 28th. Is that correct?
A I'm not going to answer any more questions until you answer the one I just asked.
Q. Miss Snell, this body is empowered to cite you for contempt if you refuse to answer on any other grounds than Constitutional ones.
A. I don't care what you're empowered to do. I've lost someone I love. Go and throw me in jail. I don't care. I - go to hell. All of you, go to hell. You're trying to ... to ... I don't know, crucify me or something. Just lay off me!
(A short recess)

Whether or not the conflict in this passage is simplistic, I found this passage quite emotional. It might be simply because Sue is up against a nameless, faceless authority and she will not be heard. Her helplessness is heightened because the interrogator has been stripped of all humanity. Danger: in dehumanizing a character, there is always the possibility of cardboard characters and melodrama.

Exercise: Check your story for a passage in which your hero is up against an authority figure. Is the passage mined for the ultimate conflict. Is the antagonist "too human"?

Carrie - Lesson 10 (Imagery)

Imagery in Carrie: Throughout Carrie, but especially when Carrie confronts her mother for the last time, King uses religious imagery as he shows Margaret White's twisted religious views. When Margaret describes her "relationship" with Carrie's father, she uses religous images such as "the presence of the Serpent." She pictured him "walking the midnight streeets, wrestling with the devil as Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord." As Carrie stops her heart, Margaret recites the Lord's Prayer. Carrie leaves the house thinking of a Fiery Sword. (217 - 220) These images are not only quite frightening, they also serve Margaret White's characterization: they explain why she acts as she does.

Imagery like religious imagery is useful because it is kind of a universal currency the author shares with the reader. In the past writers could pepper their writing with allusions to Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and the Bible, and feel confident the reader would make the connection. Today, a writer can't be sure the reader will understand such allusions, so often it is tempting to uses pop culture references. However, pop culture is so fleeting, the references become stale quite quickly. Still, imagery is a useful tool in connecting to the reader, but be careful - it is not a replacement for Story.

Exercise: Check key scenes of your story for imagery. If imagery is there, weigh its usefulness to the Story and to Characterization.

Carrie - Lesson 9 (Tension)

Tension in Carrie: In his first published novel, King shows that he knows how to create and hold tension. It's basically a shell-game that Bram Stoker used in Dracula, in which the dark and foreboding main character is introduced in the first few chapters and then for the rest of the book the focus is redirected to how everyone else is reacting to him. This formula increases the main character's mystique and danger.

Once Carrie and Tommy are crowned king and queen, the narrative switches away from Carrie's point of view for quite a while. We hear the dropping of the blood from Chris Desjardin's point of view. Sue Snell sees the explosion. What's happening inside? We get an account from survivor Norma Watson (We Survived the Black Prom published in Reader's Digest). We get Tommy's take on his death, an AP wire report, a transcript from the White Commission Report before Carrie's P.O.V. returns nearly 20 pages later. The result: the reader is captivated (169 - 178).

EXERCISE: At the climax of your story, are there opportunities to shift the point of view to raise tension?

Carrie - Lesson 8 (Point of View)

Point of View in Carrie: At the novel's climax, there are many shifts of point of view and all are away from Carrie. The last time the reader sees Carrie, she and Tommy are crowned King and Queen of the 1979 Spring Ball at ten o-seven (169).

When the bucket of blood falls, the reader is hearing it from the point of view of the perpetrator: Chris Desjardin. Best of all - since she can't see what's going on, the action is left to her imagination - and the reader's.

The music inside came to a jangling, discordant halt. For a moment
ragged voices continued oblivious, and then someone screamed.

Then inside, the laughter began (171).

Showing the point of view from other characters raises the tension because the reader wants to know what's going on in the head of the main character. We don't get back to Carrie for quite a while, and this raises the tension.

Exercise: At the climax of your work, is there a chance to increase the tension by showing it from a minor character's point of view?

Carrie - Lesson 7 (Setting)

Setting in Carrie: A good example of setting is Billy Nolan's Car. This has as a lot to do with point of view as well. The reader sees Nolan's car through bad-girl Chris Desjarden's eyes.

Billy's car was old, dark, somehow sinister. [. . . ] The seats were loose and unanchored. Beer bottles clicked and rolled in the back (her fraternity dates drank Budweiser; Billy and his friends drank Rheingold), and she had to place her feet around a huge, grease-clotted Craftsman toolkit without a lid. The tools inside were of many different makes, and she suspected many of them were stolen. (134)

The main draw of this situation for Chris comes with a one-sentence paragraph: And of course he drove fast. This works well because we see the car through someone who is out of her element (an upper-class lawyer's daughter sees the world of lower class hood). The reader sees what excites her and why.

Exercise: Examine the setting of a key point of your story. Does this setting have a special meaning for the character(s) involved?

Carrie - Lesson 6 (Symbolism)

Symbolism in Carrie: In On Writing, Stephen King notes how blood had become a symbol in Carrie. It became to mean more than just "splatter." In beginning the second draft, King noticed that blood was prevalent in "all three crucial points of the story: the beginning (Carrie's paranoromal ability is apparently brought on by her first mentrual period, climax (the prank which sets Carrie off involves a bucket of pig's blood), and the end (Sue Snell, the girl who tries to help Carrie, discovers she is not pregnant as she had half-hoped and half-feared when she gets her own period)."

Still, King insists that he didn't start with the symbolism in mind. This doesn't work - as King says, "Only story is about story." But it can be an important element in a writing. "It can serve as a focusing device for both you and your reader, helping to create a more unified and pleasing work."

Exercise: Are there any recurring elements in your story? If so, what symbolism could these elements hold?

Carrie - Lesson 5 (Kill Your Darlings)

Kill Your Darlings in Carrie : "Kill your darlings" is a quote attributed to William Faulkner. This means that a writer should strike any passage that he or she finds exceptionally beautful, clever, or interesting. Why? Usually things the writer holds dear aren't exceptionally beautful, clever, or interesting. Stephen King gives this advice in On Writing, but he (like most writers) struggles with it. Here are three examples:

1. When Susan argues with Tommy over whether to ask Carrie to the prom, he states that kids don't have empathy. He says, "Kids don't even know their reactions really know their actions really, actually hurt other people." She replies, "But hardly anybody ever finds out their actions really, actually hurt other people! People don't get better, they just get smarter. when you get smarter you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it." This analogy is pretty apt, but it sounds like something Stephen King would say rather than Susan Snell.
2. Tommy finally asks Carrie out as she's leaving period five study hall. At the teacher's desk Mr. Stephens, a tall man just beginning to run to fat, was folding papers abstractedly back into his ratty brown briefcase. At the time King wrote this in the back of the fabled trailer, he had no idea he would become a celebrity. Here King appears in his own book, like Alfred Hitchcock walking down the hall in Marnie. Writers should stay out of their narratives.
3. In his excerpt from The Shadow Exploded, the author describes how Ross was remembered: "a friendly, good-natured fellow (many referred to him as 'a hell of a good shit')." Again, unless King himself were writing his non-fiction account of the Carrie White affair, I can't imagine that the admittedly funny detail would have been included.

My three examples don't wreck Carrie, and some might argue that they are the folksy kinds of things that have made King so popular. However, writers who are not Stephen King would do well to avoid them.

Exercise: Examine your work for your favorite passages. Ask yourself (honestly) if your story would be stronger without them.

Carrie - Lesson 4 (Power, Characterization)

Power in Carrie: In her book, Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway describes the power struggle that makes for good conflict: ". . . the pattern of the story's complications will be achieved by shifting the power back and forth from one antagonist to another."

The shifting of power can be seen in the scene between Ewen High School principal Henry Grayle and high-powered lawyer John Hargensen. Hargensen is coming to meet Grayle about Desjardin's harsh punishment of his daughter for the shower incident. Before Hargensen even arrives, he already seems to hold power over the principal, who sits in his office bending paper clips. Grayle makes a weak power volley by pleaing to the lawyer's concern for "the workings of justice," but Hargensen regains ground by dismissing that and cutting to the chase, saying he was there because his daughter was "manhandled" and "verbally abused." Grayle makes another attempt, saying Desjardin was "reprimanded." This doesn't work. Hargensen wants more than a reprimand. Grayle then attempts to use law against the lawyer, citing a court case that gives the school title to in loco parentis. No dice. Hargensen cites another case against a school district (Grayle knows the principal - who is now selling insurance). But Hargensen overplays his hand, and says, "When I'm done with you, you'll be lucky to get a job selling encyclopedias door to door." This angers Grayle, and he reveals he's not just a "stuffed shirt": "Let it be court then," Grayle said. From this line on, Grayle holds the power, threating a counter-suit against Hargensens's daughter.

Characterization: When Hargensen leaves, it is a portrait of lost power. Hargensen crossed the room stiffly, paused as if to add something, then left, barely restraining himself the satisfaction of a hard doorslam. (67 - 74)

Exercise: Find a passage where there is conflict between two characters. Does the power switch back and forth?

Carrie - Lesson 3 (Characterization)

Characterization in Carrie: Here's another gem describing Carrie's mother.

Momma was a very big woman, and she always wore a hat. Lately her legs had begun to swell, and her feet always seemed on the point of overflowing her shoes. She wore a black cloth coat with a black fur collar. Her eyes were blue and magnified behind rimless bifocals. She always carried a large black satchel purse and in it was her change purse, her billfold (both black), a large King James Bible (also black) with her name stamped on fron in gold, and a stack of tracks secured with a rubber band. The tracts were usually orange, and smearily printed. (54)

I'm not sure King would go for such an explicit description paragraph now, but this very servicable paragraph shows us a lot about Momma. It starts with a physical description of her, then goes into her purse and ends with the tracts ("smearily printed" as if the ideas printed on them are a bit askew). Everything is there because it demonstrates Margaret White's personality. A fine example of "show don't tell."

Exercise: Find a passage where a character is described. Does every element describe more than physical features but the character's personality, past, or motivation?

Carrie - Lesson 2 (Characterization, Simile)

Characterization in Carrie: Here's a good example of showing the scrupulosity of Carrie White's mother without dialogue:

But nobody came out of the Whites' place. Not even the old lady to hang her wash. That's something else - she never hung any undies on the back line. Not even Carrie's, and she was only three back then. Always in the house." (30)

Simile: "My tongue felt like a little dried-up plant." (32) In On Writing, King speaks of the value of good similes.

Exercise: Find a spot where it a character's personality can be described by his or her actions.

Carrie - Lesson 1 (First Line, Characterization)

First line of Carrie: "News item from Westover (Me.) weekly Enterprise, August 19, 1966: RAIN OF STONES REPORTED." (3)

Not too spectacular a hook. This is because Carrie uses fictional documents, book excerpts, interviews, etc. to further the narrative. The device works pretty well, like Dracula, in adding a bit of realism. Another part of me resents the interuptions, and a more cynical part of me feels the device is there simply add to the word count, making a novel out of a a novella (since then, King has proven himself the master of the novella (i.e. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, The Body, and Secret Window, Secret Garden).

The next full paragraph contains what could have been a very serviceable first line: "Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really, not at the subconscious level where savage things grow." A bit abstract, but I like the ominous feeling it dredges up.

Characterization: Mr. Morton (moron?), the assistant principal:"He tried to project the image of a lovable John Wayne figure while performing the disciplinary functions that were his main job as Assistant Principal, but did not succeed very well. The administration (usually represented at Jay Cee suppers, P.T.A. functions, and American Legion award ceremonies by Principal Henry Grayle) usually termed him "lovable Mort." The student body was more apt to term him "that crazy ass-jibber from the office." (17-8) This succeeds because it starts with a cultural reference the reader should recognize (while getting us into Morton's mind about himself). Then it shows how his vision of himself conflicts with his superiors and further how that conflicts with the students. It sucks being the middleman.

Exercise: Examine the first line of your story. Does it have a "hook" and encapsulate the meaning (or at least the tone) of the entire work?

Stephen King Is My Writing Teacher

Maybe I'm just looking for another excuse to read some of Stephen King's books again, but I'm going to attempt a blog that discusses Stephen King's writing from a writer's point of view.

Stephen King is a great writer for aspiring-writers to read because he has examples of both greatness and . . . not-so-greatness. I'm looking for examples of both.

Further, when I read Stephen King, I have a great time, and when I'm done, I want to run to my computer and share in that fun by writing. So this blog also has a selfish purpose: inspiration for me.

Let's begin with Stephen King's Carrie I'm using the most recent mass-market edition, so pick up a copy and join the fun. We'll learn so much, it'll be scary.