Thursday, July 8, 2010

The Center of the Cinnamon Roll

I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing, which is a non-fiction memoir/how-to guide about writing. It is a phenomenal book and I am sure I'll be blogging more about the many nuggets of insight scattered throughout the book.

However, the first thing that jumped out at me as I was reading was the section where he recalls meeting his wife. He includes a brief retelling of how they met, followed by "a year and half later, we were married."

It says a lot about me that I feel a gaping hole when I read that, like the center of my cinnamon roll is missing, the best part of the story. To me, it's all about how you met and fell in love. The rest is good, but it's the outer layer, not the best part. It would be the equivalent of saying, "I think we should have a baby" and then having the next chapter skip ahead to the kid's college graduation. What happened in between there? That's where the yummy stuff is.

To be fair, he does flesh out their relationship throughout the book, paying due homage to his loving wife, but I couldn't help but feel cheated out of the gooey center. I guess that's why I have entitled this blog "Love Stories"- because those are the types of stories that really resonate with me.

What about you? What's the center of your cinnamon roll?

3 comments:

  1. As a reader I LOVE the details . . . which is probably why when I write I end up with 300,00 word epics - I don's want to leave anything out!!

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  2. To me it seems logical. That period, in my experience, is one long string of hot sex. It's what comes later that builds on something other than that.

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  3. Ditto. That's what I write about. We met, and then what happened...
    I do love Stephen King though.
    I should probably read that one again.

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