Hook your Reader From the First Sentence: How to Write Great Beginnings
By: Lucia Zimmitti
Let's face it: when you send your writing off in the hopes
it will be published, every word is important. You
wouldn't give yourself permission to get sloppy after page
37, assuming the editor can handle choppy prose or
"inventive" spelling if she made it that far. But what you
may not realize is that the beginning of your manuscript
is by far the most important part because it
will encourage an editor to read on or to toss
the whole thing aside. After all, you may have crafted an
admirable middle or a breathtaking ending, but no one will
get there if your beginning is mediocre.
Despite the fact that more books are being published than
ever before, the publishing world is more competitive than
ever before. Agents and editors are inundated with
staggering heaps of unsolicited manuscripts, and it is
physically impossible for them to plow through -- in their
entirety -- every one. The beginning is the only chance
you have to make the right impression.
Face it, unless you have to, how often do you
push through a book when you're under-whelmed by the
beginning?
Which brings us to some rules for great beginnings. There
are exceptions to every rule, of course, but often those
exceptions are only successful in the hands of experienced
writers or those with multi-book deals. For the writers
who make up the majority, it pays to heed what the current
market demands.
Make your beginning shine:
~Start with action.
"Action" doesn't necessarily mean a fist fight or an
explosion or a sky-dive gone awry. Action means starting
your book or story at a compelling place, with a scene,
with something at stake for your characters. Look closely
and you may find that you have pages of material that
shouldn't be in the beginning. They fill in some important
blanks for readers, but that backstory can safely be moved
to somewhere after your opening.
Don't start your story with history -- start it with a
riveting now that grabs the reader by the collar
and doesn't let him/her turn away.
~Never put dialogue or straight description in
your opening lines.
To clarify: Dialogue is fine in the first scene. Actually,
many experts agree that first scenes without dialogue
don't achieve their potential. This is because the most
compelling reading material involves tension between
people, and people usually talk to each other. However, if
your very first lines are dialogue, it's impossible for
the reader to understand who is speaking right off the bat
(or why s/he as a reader should care), since the reader
hasn't had any history with the characters.
Similarly, description right up front will not pull your
reader into the story. Not because it confuses or
disorients them like dialogue does, but because static
description can be dull and plodding and doesn't tell the
reader anything about the story (the action, the story
problem) itself. If the setting is somehow crucial to your
first scene and you feel you must start there, limit it to
one or two sentences and then get right into the meat of
the scene. There will be time for description later.
~Make sure your writing is accessible and
engaging.
Your beginning is not the place to try out some
experimental stylistic device or to stump your readers
with a puzzle. You want to make your readers think, but
you don't want them to feel stupid or say, "Huh?" If the
reader feels frustrated and confused right away, you can
bet they won't sign up for 300 more pages of it.
~Set up the story promise.
You've seen shoppers at bookstores. They scan the bookflap
for a description, and, if that intrigues them, they'll
flip to page one and skim the opening to see if it's the
kind of book they want to read. Immediately make it clear
what kind of story yours is. Don't start with a
knock-knock joke if it's an essay about a serious subject.
(Although there's room for humor in almost any piece, it
must be appropriately woven into the work and not tacked
onto the wrong place. But that's a subject for another
article.) Don't start with the point of view of a
character you're planning to kill off by page three. You
get the idea.
Readers like surprise -- they don't like to feel
disoriented.
~Always remember that boredom kills readership.
If you're bored when you write the opening, if you fall
asleep at your desk when you reread it, and if trusted
readers can't stop yawning when they review it, what makes
you think strangers you send it to will be riveted by it?
Readers have more choices than ever before (in print and
online), and they will not stick with you past a few dozen
words if they're bored. Make sure your beginning glues
your readers to the page, wide awake and eager for more.
To discover more ways to give your writing the best odds
in a highly competitive market, visit http://ManuscriptRx.com
and sign up for "Write Through It," a free, monthly
e-newsletter that offers tips on writing more clearly and
effectively.
About the Author
Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is
a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators and the Editorial Freelancers Association.
Her fiction and poetry have been published in various
national literary journals, and she has taught writing at
the high school and college levels.
