Today, for our first-page analysis, we’re going to look at Revival, by Stephen King. Little needs to be said about King and his being the king of the horror genre. I’ve read many of his novels over the years, and some I loved and others I didn’t. His style has changed a bit over the decades, but readers of his novels have high expectations and enjoy his trademark storytelling.
If you haven’t been following these weekly forays into best-seller first pages, be sure to read through them. By looking at various genres and authors, you’re getting to see many ways a first page can draw readers into story. What’s interesting to note, to me, few of the novels we’ve looked at have any dialogue. Many have prologues, and most have been solely narrative—as is the case with Revival.
Writers are often urged to start their opening scenes in the middle of action and/or dialogue. But clearly that’s not a requirement. Sure, it can be easier to pull readers in with action and showing. It’s more challenging to engage readers in a thoughtful discussion, especially theoretical or abstract or philosophical. But often great authors start their books this way, as we’ve noted in recent posts. And Revival is no exception. Continue Reading…
