
How to Write an Opening Sentence - techdog
http://author-zone.com/write-opening-sentence/
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j2kun
One thing that bothers me a lot about modern writing (in news, mostly), is
that people tend to break logical ideas into teeny tiny paragraphs. The author
of this article does this, taking what is essentially a list and making it
much harder to read, reference, and track the flow of ideas. To my dismay, it
seems that the trendier the publication, the more the writers tend to do this
(although this appears to be standard style for Reuters, and I can imagine a
few good reasons for that).

I sincerely hope that good writers put more emphasis on organization and flow
than hooking readers with oversimplifications and straw men. On one hand, the
surge of sites like BuzzFeed make me think we're all doomed in this regard.
But then people like John Oliver (and his writers) who consistently deliver
thought-provoking stories give me hope.

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idlewords
Notice what an insipid first sentence the author chooses, for this of all
articles!

New Yorker articles are a good place to learn about how to pull people into
your writing quickly. No disrespect meant to the _Mother Earth News_ , of
course.

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jonnathanson
I'm all for articles like this, but I'm not for this article. If saying that
gets me downvoted, as seems to be happening to idlewords, then so be it. Some
of the advice in here is really questionable. For instance:

 _" Make an exaggerated statement, then tone it down. “In Prohibition days,
alcohol could be purchased illegally on just about every street in America.
Actually, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but in fact it’s true that . .
.”"_

No. Please do not do this. This may be the oldest cliche in the book.
Actually, it's not the oldest, but...

 _" Set up a strawman and knock it down"_

No. This insults your reader's intelligence with a trite opening, which is
precisely what the author suggests we avoid.

I don't mean to be overly harsh. The author means well. What he's really
talking about are thought-starting techniques: hacks you can use to break your
initial blockage and get something workable onto the page. That's fair. I just
wouldn't follow 50-70% of the practical suggestions, though.

Here are some thoughts:

\- Know what you want to say before you start saying it. This sounds obvious,
but it's not. A lot of writers trap themselves with cute openings, from which
they have to back out abruptly, because the openings bear no real connection
to the rest of the piece. This jars or confuses the reader. Your opening
should set the stage for what's to come. It shouldn't drag the rest of the
piece around with it. Know where you're taking us before you launch the ship.

\- Think about the most interesting, provocative, or sensuous thing about your
story. Could that thing serve as a strong lead?

\- Think of your story as a movie, or as a series of scenes on a timeline.
What would be the most interesting "opening scene" of your piece? Does it make
logical sense as the opening? If so, great.

\- Challenging or provocative openings are great _when they work_. Degree of
difficulty is high. Room for error is vast. Fall short, and you tumble into
the "set up a strawman and knock it down" cliche. Succeed, and you present a
wonderful fact, image, or statement that had never occurred to your readers.

\- Your first graf (paragraph) is where most readers will either bounce or
continue. Focus on a strong opening _paragraph_ or point, and less on a strong
opening sentence. Work backwards toward the strongest opening sentence.

\- A successful novelist once gave me this advice, which I'll paraphrase:
'Assume your readers are highly intelligent. Bad writers assume the opposite.'
Want to avoid cliches? Assume your readers _hate_ cliches, and that they'll
call you out on them.

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jtheory
Agreed, this wasn't great (and as idlewords points out, how could he use such
a lackluster opening of his own?). The straw man and exaggeration approaches
both struck me as poor suggestions in particular.

Here's my main suggestion -- the "shitty first drafts" strategy is important
with openings in particular. Take a stab at an opening, and probably fail (but
start your brain thinking about it). Write the rest of the article, polish
your ideas as you go and gain a bit more insight into what you're talking
about. Think how it looks from the perspective of a reader. THEN you'll be in
a much stronger position to go back and write a good opening.

Of course, you may realize that your inspired opening also implies a different
structure for the piece, but so be it.

~~~
idlewords
This is really good advice. Another technique that sometimes works is to chop
off the first few paragraphs of whatever you wrote. Writing can be like making
whiskey-better if you throw the first and last parts away.

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hardmath123
This is great! The hardest part about writing is getting started, and many
times it's hard to come up with a non-cliche, interesting introduction. I wish
our English teacher taught stuff like this.

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idlewords
Often it's easiest to start in the middle and leave the introduction for last,
when you have a very clear idea of what you've written, and why.

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snogglethorpe
"It was a dark and storm night."

You're welcome!

~~~
jbuzbee
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Call me Ishmael.

Anybody have any more?

~~~
mgkimsal
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

~~~
ky3
The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-
summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly
green.

