Why is a Great Opening Important?
1. Writing is a way to communicate with our readers.
2. We want our readers to not only enjoy our writing but to also be intrigued.
3. As writers we want our readers to be "hooked" from the very beginning.
4. Without a great lead our readers may not be interested in our writing.
Techniques for Writing Great Openings
-Circular: look at your ending and ask yourself, "Can I begin with those closing words?"
-Dialogue: scan your writing until you reach your first quote and consider moving it to the start of your writing
-Climatic: find the point of greatest tension and move those words toward the opening (the climax of your writing helps to give your lead immediate energy)
-Action: start your writing off with your main character doing something
-Sound Effects: begin with a series of noises that will contribute to your writing
-Set the Scene: start your writing off slowly by setting the scene as well as the mood of the story
-Ask a Question: a thought-provoking question makes the reader wonder
-Famous Quote: establishes credibility from the start of your writing
Famous Authors Who have had Great Success with Their Openings
"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses on its turning"
-Natalie Babbit Tuck Everlasting
"Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true. I have lived most of my thirteen years in Bybanks, Kentucky, which is not much mroe than a caboodle of houses rooting on a green spot alongside the Ohio River." -Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons
"It was not that Omri didn't appreciate Patrick's birthday present to him. Far from it. He was really very grateful-sort of. It was, without a doubt, very kind of Patrick to give Omri anything at all, let alone a secondhand plastic Indian that he himself had finished with." -Lynn Reid Banks The Indian in the Cupboard
2. We want our readers to not only enjoy our writing but to also be intrigued.
3. As writers we want our readers to be "hooked" from the very beginning.
4. Without a great lead our readers may not be interested in our writing.
Techniques for Writing Great Openings
-Circular: look at your ending and ask yourself, "Can I begin with those closing words?"
-Dialogue: scan your writing until you reach your first quote and consider moving it to the start of your writing
-Climatic: find the point of greatest tension and move those words toward the opening (the climax of your writing helps to give your lead immediate energy)
-Action: start your writing off with your main character doing something
-Sound Effects: begin with a series of noises that will contribute to your writing
-Set the Scene: start your writing off slowly by setting the scene as well as the mood of the story
-Ask a Question: a thought-provoking question makes the reader wonder
-Famous Quote: establishes credibility from the start of your writing
Famous Authors Who have had Great Success with Their Openings
"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses on its turning"
-Natalie Babbit Tuck Everlasting
"Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true. I have lived most of my thirteen years in Bybanks, Kentucky, which is not much mroe than a caboodle of houses rooting on a green spot alongside the Ohio River." -Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons
"It was not that Omri didn't appreciate Patrick's birthday present to him. Far from it. He was really very grateful-sort of. It was, without a doubt, very kind of Patrick to give Omri anything at all, let alone a secondhand plastic Indian that he himself had finished with." -Lynn Reid Banks The Indian in the Cupboard
