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  • 8-OCT-2024 | Excerpt from “Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King

8-OCT-2024 | Excerpt from “Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King

Author

Dan Bogachek
October 08, 2024

Excerpt from “Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King

Los Zapatos, which means “the shoes” (a name that secretly pleased the man to no end), was a small village not far from the ocean. It was fairly free of tourists. There was no good road, no ocean view (you had to go five miles further west to get that), and no historical points of interest. Also, the local cantina was infested with cockroaches and the only whore was a fifty-year-old grandmother.

With the States behind them, an almost unearthly quiet dropped over their lives. Few planes went overhead, there were no turnpikes, and no one owned a power lawn mower (or cared to have one) for a hundred miles. They had a radio, but even that was noise without meaning; the news broadcasts were all in Spanish, which the boy began to pick up but which remained — and always would — gibberish to the man. 🏁

  • Even Stephen King uses “you” in his narration — it pulls you into the scene and turns your imagination on.

  • The parentheses add voice to the text, they give it a feel like someone’s talking aloud.

  • These sentences land on the longer side, but they don’t drone on. How come? Zoom in and look at everything between the commas. Simple and tight, no unnecessary syllables.

You glance at your watch.

It’s 6:28. You’ve been at it since 3.
Crap. Your hot date is at 7. Running late. Sink shower it is.
Nowhere close to done editing…

“…at least all the ideas are laid out, so there’s that. Did I miss anything? I don’t think so? Ok, but how do I make it flow? I need to get the final draft to Stacey for design asap, team cutoff is at noon Thursday…”

You’ve spent dinner completely distracted. Your date just took off. You go home exhausted, plod to your desk, and crack open the laptop.

Or… it could go like this:

5:41 — you’re out of the shower and lip-syncing.
6:17 — dressed to the nines and zenned out.
7:03 — the sunset glints off your aviators as you smile hello.
8:36 — it actually feels like you’re hitting it off. Not just hot, funny to boot.
Next morning, 10:27 — polished draft ready in your inbox.
10:31 — Stacey messages back, “thanks, looks good!”

The difference?

You had Copygloss handle it yesterday afternoon.

For help with editing, email Dan:
[email protected].