How to Write a Good Opening Line

By Stephen King

所謂“萬事開頭難”，做事如此，寫作亦是如此。英國著名評論家戴洛奇在《小說的藝術(shù)》中談道：“小說的第一句是設(shè)置在我們居住的世界與小說家想象出來的世界之間的一道門檻。因此，小說的開局應(yīng)當如俗語所說，‘把我們拉進門去?！泵绹鴷充N書作家斯蒂芬·金在此向我們講述了他的訣竅——他是如何在自己的小說中將讀者“拉進門去”的。

There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes2. constitute: 組成，構(gòu)成。a good opening line. It’s a tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don’t think conceptually while I work on a first draft—I just write.3. tricky: 棘手的，難處理的；conceptually: 概念地。To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar.4. 要科學地分析如何寫好開頭，就有點兒像用罐子試圖捕捉月光一樣不可能。moonbeam: 月光；jar: 大口瓶子，壇子。

But there’s one thing I’m sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here.You want to know about this.

How can a writer extend an appealing invitation5. extend: 提供，贈予；appealing: 有吸引力的，有感染力的?！猳ne that’s difficult to refuse?

We’ve all heard the advice writing teachers give: Open a book in the middle of a dramatic or compelling6. compelling: 引人注目的，激發(fā)興趣的。situation,because right away you engage the reader’s interest. This is what we call a“hook7. hook: 吸引人的手段（如獎品、免費贈送等）。文中指的是“引人注意的開首句”。,” and it’s true, to a point.

For me, a good opening sentence really begins with voice. You hear people talk about “voice” a lot, when I think they really just mean “style.” Voice is more than that. People come to books looking for something. But they don’t come for the story, or even for the characters. They certainly don’t come for the genre. I think readers come for the voice.

A novel’s voice is something like a singer’s—think of singers like Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan, who have no musical training but are instantly recognizable.8. Mick Jagger: 米克·賈格爾（1943— ），英國搖滾樂手，滾石樂隊創(chuàng)始成員之一，1969年開始擔任樂隊主唱，他被稱為“搖滾史上最受歡迎和最有影響力的主唱之一”； Bob Dylan: 鮑勃·迪倫（1941— ），一位極具歷史影響力的美國搖滾、民謠藝術(shù)家，被廣泛認為是美國20世紀60年代反叛文化的代言人。People know those voices, they love those voices, and something in them connects deeply with those voices. Well, it’s the same way with books. Anyone who’s read a lot of John Sanford, for example, knows that wry,sarcastic amusing voice that’s his and his alone.9. John Sanford: 約翰·桑福德（1904—2003），美國作家、電影編??；wry: 挖苦的，辛辣的；sarcastic:諷刺的，挖苦的。Or Elmore Leonard10. Elmore Leonard: 埃爾莫爾·倫納德（1925—2013），美國著名的犯罪小說家，一生著有四十多本小說，其中許多作品都被改編成著名的電影或電視劇，如《決戰(zhàn)猶馬鎮(zhèn)》和《危險關(guān)系》等?！猰y god, his writing is like a fingerprint. You would recognize him anywhere.An appealing voice achieves an intimate connection—a bond much stronger than the kind forged, intellectually, through crafted writing.11. 具有吸引力的聲音能夠促成（作者與讀者之間）親密的聯(lián)系——這比通過精巧的寫作手法而形成的關(guān)系要強烈得多。forge: 鍛造，鑄造；crafted: 精巧制作的，技術(shù)精巧的。With really good books, a powerful sense of voice is established in the first line.

We’ve talked so much about the reader,but you can’t forget that the opening line is important to the writer, too. Because it’s not just the reader’s way in, it’s the writer’s way in also. When I’m starting a book,I compose12. compose: 創(chuàng)作（文學、音樂、繪畫等作品）。in bed before I go to sleep.I will lie there in the dark and think. I’ll try to write a paragraph. An opening paragraph. And over a period of weeks and months and even years, I’ll word and reword it until I’m happy with what I’ve got. If I can get that first paragraph right,I’ll know I can do the book.

Because of this, I think, my first sentences stick with13. stick with: 纏住，縈繞。me. They were a doorway I went through. The opening line of 11/22/6314. 本段和下一段中提到的斯蒂芬· 金的小說作品依次是：《11/22/63》、《撒冷鎮(zhèn)》和《必需品專賣店》。is “I’ve never been what you’d call a crying man.” The opening line of Salem’s Lot is “Everybody thought the man and the boy were father and son.” See? I remember them!

I can tell you right now that the best first line I ever wrote—and I learned it from Cain—is the opening of Needful Things. It’s the story about this guy who comes to town, and uses grudges and sleeping animosities among the townspeople to whip everyone up into a frenzy of neighbor against neighbor.15. 這個故事講述了一個新來到鎮(zhèn)上的人，他利用小鎮(zhèn)居民相互間的怨氣和潛伏的恨意煽風點火，使人們陷入了鄰里之間互相攻擊的瘋狂狀態(tài)之中。grudge: 惡意，怨恨；animosity: 仇恨，敵意；whip up: 煽動……采取暴力，鼓動。And so the story starts off with an opening line: You’ve been here before.

All there by itself on one page, inviting the reader to keep reading. It suggests a familiar story; at the same time, the unusual presentation16. presentation: 展示方式，呈現(xiàn)方式。brings us outside the realm of the ordinary. And this, in a way, is a promise of the book that’s going to come. The story of neighbor against neighbor is the oldest story in the world, and yet this telling is (I hope) strange and somehow different. Sometimes it’s important to find that kind of line:one that encapsulates what’s going to happen later without being a big thematic statement.17. encapsulate: 概括，壓縮；thematic: 主題的。

Still, I don’t have a lot of books where that opening line is poetry or beautiful. Sometimes it’s perfectly workman-like18. workman-like: 技術(shù)嫻熟的，精工細作的。. You try to find something that’s going to offer that crucial way in, any way in, whatever it is as long as it works. This approach is closer to what worked for in my new book, Doctor Sleep. All I remember is wanting to leapfrog from the timeframe of The Shining into the present by talking about presidents, without using their names.19. leapfrog: 交替式躍進；The Shining:《閃靈》，斯蒂芬·金的一部恐怖小說，該小說的成功牢固地奠定了他在此類小說流派中的優(yōu)秀作家地位。The peanut farmer president, the actor president, the president who played the saxophone20, and so on. The sentence is:

On the second day of December, in a year when a Georgia peanut farmer was doing business in the White House, one of Colorado’s great resort hotels burned to the ground.

It’s supposed to do three things. It sets you in time. It sets you in place. And it recalls the ending of the book—though I don’t know it will do much good for people who only saw the movie, because the hotel doesn’t burn in the movie. This isn’t grand or elegant—it’s a door-opener. I was able to take the motif—chronicle a series of important events quickly by linking them to presidential administrations—to set the stage and begin the story.21. motif: 主題，中心思想；chronicle: 記錄，記載。There’s nothing “big” here. It’s just one of those grace notes22. grace note: 裝飾音，是音樂術(shù)語。此處比喻“修飾性語言”。you try to put in there, so that the narrative has a feeling of balance, and it helped me find my way in.

But you can’t create a writing career based on first lines. A book won’t stand or fall23. stand or fall: 成敗，好壞。on the very first line of it—the story has got to be there,and that’s the real work. And yet a really good first line can do so much to establish that crucial sense of voice—it’s the first thing that makes you eager, that starts to enlist you for the long haul.24. enlist: 取得……的注意或支持；for the long haul: 長期地，長遠地。So there’s incredible power in it, when you say,come in here. You want to know about this. And someone begins to listen.