One Line Can Make the Difference

Grant County Journal
One Line Can Make the Difference
October 27, 2011
Written by Janet Warren

Halloween used to be my favorite holiday. I’ve been wondering lately why I haven’t been getting ready for it this year. Sure, I started wearing my Halloween socks the beginning of October, but around here that could mean I have school spirit. I started using my Halloween tablecloth and got my witches hat out of storage (just in case). I always have to buy mini pumpkins for decoration, and put my autumn wreath on the door. But that’s it this year. I thought maybe I’m a little lacking in the Halloween spirit because my grandchildren live far away. I imagine if three-year-old Seth was here running around with his eye patch shouting “Shiver Me Timbers!,” I’d whip up a batch of Halloween sugar cookies . Then it hit me. I’m not so excited about Halloween this year because I’m on a diet.
No black and orange m&ms for me this year. No caramel corn, no chocolate, no donuts and cider. I’m one of those weird people who really likes candy corn—but only the orange, white and yellow ones. My friend Connie introduced me to candy corn mixed with peanuts last Halloween. Thanks to her I have a new tasty treat I have to give up this year. I’ve been off sugar for a couple of months now, so I’m not even craving the stuff physically—it’s the emotional craving. I know, it’s pathetic…a holiday based on sugar. I had to get my mind off of it, so I am concentrating on another love of mine. Creepy literature.
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart may not be the best short story, but it is my favorite. One of the main things in good literature is that a story is SHOWN, not TOLD. As the character tells us that he is not insane, Poe brilliantly shows us that, yes, he is.
"TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story."
What a great first paragraph! Many times when I decide if I want to read a book, I’ll read the first line and the last line. Here’s Poe’s last line:
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!" The character gives himself up to the police because he hears the beating of his own heart and in his madness is sure the heart of the old man he killed and buried beneath the floorboards is still beating.
Here’s another one by William Faulkner—“A Rose for Emily.” "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years."
There is an amazing amount of information in that first line. I was going to give you the last paragraph, but I want you to read the story and the last line would be a spoiler. The great thing about Faulkner’s writing is that you never would have guessed what happens between the first and last lines. Creepy!!!
I’m not sure why my favorite stories are about insane people. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows a woman’s descent into madness by the gnawing of a bedpost and the faded wallpaper around the room. She doesn’t TELL you the story, she SHOWS it to you.
I’m leaving the Halloween theme now (as well as the insane people subtheme), and if I was a better writer I’d be able to SHOW you that and not just TELL. That’s why I’m taking an online writing class. I am always looking for ways to improve my writing. It doesn’t have a deadline which means I may never finish it, but I am loving everything I’m learning. I needed a project to work on throughout the class. When I moved here two years ago, I met an amazing woman—Kitti Potter. I knew bits and pieces about her life story, and decided I would really like to use it as my project, maybe even write a book. I interviewed her for hours and then I interviewed her husband, Ron. I worked for days to come up with a great first line. I never did, but I came up with a pretty good middle line. "I saw him driving out of a parking lot. Our eyes locked and I could see the sadness. I had broken him. A feeling swept over me, one that I didn’t recognize. Then it hit me. For the first time in my life, I cared." Finally, after many weeks of frustration I called my friend in Oklahoma who is a writer. After telling her what I was attempting, she said, “You know you have chosen the hardest kind of story to tell, don’t you? There is no way you can write it without fictionalizing some of it. You can’t stay true to the story because you can’t get in your friend’s head.” I might be able to TELL this story, but I wouldn’t be able to SHOW it. I understand now. I can’t write this story because it’s not mine to write. I hope Kitti will write it. It’s a beautiful story of love, redemption, and human spirit. You can use my middle line if you want, Kitti, and maybe I can help you come up with a great first one!