(This entry wasn’t coming up correctly on the main website, so I’m reposting it.)

First Impressions was the title Jane Austen gave to her first incarnation of Pride and Prejudice. I find it fits to most books. In the beginning, not only do characters make a first impression on the reader, but also on each other. The beginning of the story must start with an important event, where impressions are made. Often, it is the entrance of someone new into the setting, or a significant change in circumstance.

In ISOLT (which I enjoy calling the novel – In Search of Lost Time – because it reminds me of Tristan and Isolde, one of my favorite legends), Proust captures the reader with startling first impressions of the characters and, most of all, with a main character we pity, a classic move to make your character relatable. The story takes off by introducing the titular character of M. Swann, provoking an exploration of the family’s impressions of him, and how they change and don’t change. Then, the narrator gains a new impression of the parents in what we call “the turning point”.

All of this created a strong first impression on me, the reader. This is exactly the kind of book I love. The language from the 19th century makes me so happy, it has always been the period I go to for my favorite books. Proust is beautifully superfluous and uses the most wonderful, long, and melodic metaphors to enhance the meaning of his words. His settings are rich, but not overstated, something I am always trying to work on in my writing. He vividly and adeptly goes about his world building in this first section, so that now I feel as if I am standing there in the story as soon as I crack the page.

This is what great writing is made of. This is what sings to my soul. This is the style that I long to write. Just how to get it out.

I find techniques of writing here that strongly appeal to me. Like I said, his settings are vivid without being overwrought and certainly are shown to us, not told. Similarly, he creates his world through his characters. This is truly great world building, a skill I am practicing.

It is his characters most of all that catch me. He describes them perfectly in the most wonderfully hidden places. And he gives them mystery. Perhaps most of all we see this with M. Swann. We receive so much information about him and yet how much do we really know?

I’m dying to learn more and must continue on. I’m learning so much about writing and the plot keeps driving me forward…