: King hits the ground running as Arnie first sees Christine in Chapter One. "On my God!' my friend Arnie Cunningham cried out suddenly.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.
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!"
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.
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