opening paragraph – Publetariat

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Attention spans are short! So it is very important that you grab your readers attention as soon as possible! So without further words, here is a sample of Jeff Elkins’ post from The Write Practice on how to write a great attention grabbing lead paragraph.

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How to Write a Lead Paragraph that Wins Readers’ Attention

by Jeff Elkins

Businessman screaming via megaphone to another man — “Read my story” he whispered quietly

You’ve spent countless hours pondering the plot, creating the characters’ voices, and building the perfect twist at the end that will leave readers speechless. Once everything is as good as you can make it, you publish your writing and wait. . . .

But no one reads your masterpiece.

Unfortunately, in our content-saturated age, if you don’t grab people by the throat, pull them in close, and yell, “Pay attention to me!” with your first paragraph, they won’t stick around to read the amazing story you’ve crafted.

Your Opening Paragraph Is Vital

When I was editing submissions for Short Fiction Break, if the first paragraph didn’t hold my attention, I rarely kept reading. I’m an avid reader looking for things to read. If a story didn’t keep me engaged, it had no chance of catching the attention of the average internet reader.

A scroll through my Facebook feed illustrates the problem. Here are some of the titles vying for my attention:

21 Bacon Recipes for When You are Trying to Eat Healthy
This Game of Thrones Theory Blames Bran for Everything!
15 Times Super Heroes Kill People
Amazing Movies Streaming Right Now!

That blog post you just published? That’s what it is competing with: bacon, super heroes, the entire movie industry, and Game of Thrones. I see the Game of Thrones headline and neurons in my mind begin to fire. “Yeah,” I tell myself. “I bet the whole crippled thing is just a clever ruse. Damn you, George R. R. Martin! Damn you and your ever-twisting plot!”

Read the full post on The Write Practice

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This post by Lorraine Mace originally appeared on The Writer’s ABC Checklist on 1/29/13.

This is going to be a novel approach to talking about writing a novel (excuse the pun). I’m calling in my alter ego, Frances di Plino, to guest post over the next few weeks on the subject. The reason I’m not making the posts as Lorraine Mace is that I haven’t yet had a novel published under my own name. Frances, on the other hand, is not only a published author of a crime/thriller (Bad Moon Rising published last year by Crooked Cat Publishing), but she is also in the throes of finishing off the next in the Paolo Storey series, Someday Never Comes. All of which means that Frances, rather than Lorraine, is the person best placed to give tips and advice on the long, hard slog to your first published novel.

So, bye bye, Lorraine, for now, and hello to Frances.

Let’s not start at the very beginning (even though it’s usually a very good place to start, as Maria sang in The Sound of Music).

This week’s question is: have you started your novel in the right place? Some good advice, given to me more years ago than I care to recall, was to start your opening chapter as close to the action as you possibly can.

You want to get your readers instantly involved in the plot and in the lives of the characters. You need the readers to be invested emotionally and intellectually in what happens next. Open with dialogue, action, or both, but make sure you hook your readers from the first paragraph.

Read the full post on The Writer’s ABC Checklist.

Quick Link: How to Write a Lead Paragraph that Wins Readers’ Attention

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How to Write a Lead Paragraph that Wins Readers’ Attention

Your Opening Paragraph Is Vital

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Let's NOT Start At The Very Beginning

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How to Write a Lead Paragraph that Wins Readers’ Attention

Your Opening Paragraph Is Vital

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