Tuesday, 15 January 2008

JOE R. LANSDALE IS A GENIUS

Here is the opening paragraph of prolific Texan writer Joe R. Lansdale’s 1999 novel, “Freezer Burn” ...

“Bill Roberts decided to rob the firecracker stand on account he didn't have a job and not a nickel's worth of money and his mother was dead and kind of freeze-dried in her bedroom.”

In 35 words, Lansdale introduces his novel’s chief protagonist, his situation, his problem, and the action he intends to take as a solution to his woes ...

Some writers couldn’t manage any of that with 35 pages.



From 2007, Samuel Jackson “Stack-O-Lee” from “Black Snake Moan”

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