Time in Story Openings
by Susan J. Letham
Question: I signed up for a writing class at college, and I
love it. We do personal research topics. My personal topic
is to research stories that start with time and practice
writing my own time-based starters. Why is this important?
And can you tell me how to best do this?
Answer: Personal research projects are an excellent approach
to learning about writing for two reasons: they force you to
read, and they force you to think about what you read.
- Find reading material
Pick up a pencil and visit a library or bookstore. When you
get there, go to the fiction section and skim as many
opening chapters as you need to until you have a selection
of ten or so that deal with time. When you have a good
selection, copy, type, or Xerox the openings so you can make
notes and highlight passages on your copy. The first couple
of paragraphs will usually suffice.
- Analyze your material
When you've done that, read the openings you selected. Take
time to think about what you read. What kinds of time, time
periods, and what events do the authors describe?
You'll find there are several categories of time you can use
in an opening. Here's one of those possibilities:
- The passing of time: Aaron Elkins' "Skeleton Dance"
In the passage below, Elkins is trying to show that a long
time has passed between two events: the events that led to
bones being in the cave and the discovery of the bones. He
does this by describing the process of decomposition and
decay in one tightly written paragraph. The words are vivid
and accurate but not emotional. He offers information, not
opinion.
Read the excerpt once to pick up the story, then go back and
read it again for analysis.
Once, the thing in the cave had been a man, but that had
been long ago. As the years passed it had lain buried in
the rich, red-brown humus, slowly decomposing, its
nourishing organic wastes feeding successive generations
of flatworms and beetle grubs. Then, as the soil settled
and fissured, the blowfly larvae had come, followed
inevitably by streams of ants and earwigs, and, later
still, by the busy rodents of the valley: wood rats,
field mice, and squirrels. Over time the protective
covering of soil had been largely scratched and worn
away, allowing most of the bones to be pulled apart and
many of them hustled off to forest dens and lairs, there
to be gnawed at leisure.
Aaron Elkins, Skeleton Dance (Morrow, 2000)
As you read, observe the way in which the author has used
precise nouns: not vague and generic terms like "insects" or
"insect life" but specific insect names like "flatworms and
beetle grubs" and "ants and earwigs." Precise nouns create
strong, explicit images in the reader's imagination --
exactly the images you want the reader to have.
The same is true of the verbs: the earth has not been
"moved" or "disturbed," both of which are weak and fluffy
descriptions, instead it has been "scratched and worn away."
Those words offer the reader strong, active images. It takes
effort to scratch something away and it takes time to wear
it down, and precisely this passing of time was the main
idea the author was trying to put across in this passage.
In the same vein, the bones themselves have been "hustled
off" and "gnawed" rather than "subjected to animal-life
influences" or some other such euphemistic puff. The
combination of both slow and active images creates interest
and keeps the passage moving.
- Writing Exercise
- Think of processes that take a long time to complete, and
write your ideas down.
- Choose one process from your list, and write about in the
same style Aaron Elkins used in the opening passage of
"Skeleton Dance," which you have just read.
- Don't limit yourself in your first draft, simply get your
thoughts onto the page. In your later drafts, aim to
whittle your word count down to around 120, the length of
Elkins' example passage.
- If you want to, analyze the number and relationships of
verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives in the example, and
compare the outcome to your own results. If your writing
doesn't seem to work, look closely: If you find that you
have more adjectives (and fewer nouns) than Elkins,
replace your adjectives with specific nouns. If you find
that you have more adverbs (and fewer or weaker verbs)
than Elkins, replace your adverbs with strong verbs.
Approach each of your time openings in the same way, by
asking yourself what, exactly the author is trying to
describe in each one. Analyze the kind of words used. Then
brainstorm situations similar to the one in the book
example, and try to write your own examples using the
opening you found as a model.
© 2003, Susan J. Letham
Susan J. Letham is a British writer, creative writing tutor,
and owner of http://www.Inspired2Write.com . Sign up for
classes and competent 1-on-1 coaching. Pick up your no-cost
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Permission to reprint this article granted to L Kanter by Susan Letham, 24 March 2004
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