Your first paragraph is your only chance for your article or book to make a good first impression.
One way to learn how to write great openings is to see what professionals do. All openings aren’t that good, but you can analyze and learn from the ones that are. How did they grab your attention and make you want to keep reading?
Amazon has a wonderful “read inside” feature. Without having to buy the books, you can read the first paragraph of six bestselling books in less than fifteen minutes. The more you see what others are doing well, the more you will naturally acquire those approaches in your own writing.
Here’s a tip: Never begin a story with landscape and weather. Grab reader attention with a character in desperate want of something, facing obstacles that make readers want to find out what will happen.
A few opening lines from authors who are connected with Story Help Groups in some way (click on the title to view the text):
From Birth to Seven by Carole A. Bell
We’ve all found ourselves scanning the rows of books in a store or surfing the web, looking for parenting answers. We settle on one or more books and make our purchases. We try to do what the books say, but we still want to strangle the kid.
Liberty Belle by Patricia PacJac Carroll
Crimson, Missouri
1859
I can do this. I will. I have to. Liberty Auraria Longstreet stared into the gold-framed mirror hanging in the tiny, church, dressing room. She hoped to come up with an answer, a secret way to escape her fate. Instead, her image told the facts. She was to be married. Today. To Thomas Garvey. And all because Mother lay so near death that her weakened condition prevented even her attendance at the wedding.
Plant My Feet by Duane Griffith
Drops of water poured from my skin as the sun radiated straight down. A stiff southwest breeze pushed against me. The noontime was hot, but on this day in April 1891, the heat I felt did not come from the sun.
Pseudonym by Dennis E. Hensley
The morning did not start well for Sheila Gray. Not only was turning thirty-three tantamount to announcing to the world, “I’m now officially a lost cause,” but at 8:45 am, someone rang her doorbell.
