Make These 5 Writing Techniques a Part of Your Opening Scene to Hook Your Readers From Page One
Opening scenes are extremely important.
It can’t be stressed enough that taking our time with the opening scenes and making sure that our reader will want to go along for the rest of our character’s journey is of the utmost importance.
Thankfully, there are definite time-tested techniques and writing skills to help us write an opening scene that will help hook our reader from page one.
Focus deeply on chapter one in your self-edit process.
Chapter one is easily our most important chapter.
It will be tried and tested the most.
The reader will test it.
The editor will test it.
Even friends and family will test and judge it to see if the rest of the book is worth reading.
Don’t hold anything back on chapter one.
Make 100% sure that it is going to draw our reader in and keep them engaged.
If they weren’t hooked by chapter one the rest of the book is pointless. Almost no one is going to read it.
How are we going to hook them?
We are going to give them a gift.
We are going to make them feel something.
Have you ever heard someone say, “we are going to watch this movie. It’s so good! Get ready for a tear-jerker!” They know from this phrase that it is going to make them cry but yet they watch it anyway.
It’s because people want to feel something.
And they will know from starting chapter one what they are going to feel emotionally by reading our book.
– Love and romance
– Heartache
– Resolution
– Empathy
– Sadness
– Horror
– Fun and excitement
– Thrill and suspense
– Adventure
What does our story promise them in the following chapters?
Give them a taste for it in chapter one.
Give them an unspoken promise that if they read on they will feel it more and feel that emotion again.
By giving them emotion we allow them to connect with our story on a deeper level.
Whatever genre your story is in use the emotion they feel to keep them going.
Give them something intellectual to look forward to.
We understand that emotion is important.
But intellectual enjoyment is important too.
What are we going to teach them about that they didn’t already know?
Will we show them how a detective solves a case?
Show them what it is like to be any one of these character types:
– Warrior
– Knight
– Surgeon
– Officer
– Astronaut
– Engineer
– Billionaire
– Genius
– Hobbit
– Wizard
5 Writing Techniques a Part of Your Opening Scene to Hook Your Readers From Page One
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5 Writing Techniques a Part of Your Opening Scene to Hook Your Readers From Page One
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What world are we going to help them see into that they didn’t know much about before?
For this we must do great research if we are really to make it intellectually entertaining.
The closer it is to real life facts built into a story the better.
There are fictional parts we create and make up but if it’s about a real life scenario. The closer we can get to giving them insider information the better.
First lines matter but they aren’t your one-off hook.
I disagree with the idea that the very first line is your only chance at hooking your reader.
Don’t get me wrong. The first line is very important.
James Patterson talks about first lines and how important they are.
He spends time crafting them and is very proud of some first lines he’s come up with.
But a strategic first paragraph can be just as powerful.
The first should reveal the feel of the emotion the reader will feel throughout the story.
If horror then fear and shock.
If romance then love.
If suspense, make the first line build suspense or thrill.
The first line should be like an appetizer to an 8 course meal.
They should know from the appetizer what type of meal it is and that the meal is going to be delectable.
The promise of conflict.
We must above all else promise our reader one thing.
Conflict.
If you can’t creatively figure out how to give your reader interesting conflict throughout the tale, scratch that story and start on the next.
Conflict is the life-blood of storytelling.
We must make our reader the promise of conflict and along with that promise, we must deliver resolution.
If we do not give them eventual resolution, they will feel cheated on the end and most likely will not bother with book 2.
Remember that in storytelling (as with all relationships in life) we are building trust and relationship with our readers.
One of the main reasons James Patterson does so well is that he made a promise to his fan readers long ago that if they grabbed one of his books it was going to deliver a certain set of promises.
What can you promise to entertain your reader with?
– Mystery
– Suspense
– Thrill
– Resolution
He made these unspoken promises to his readers and he never stopped delivering.
So fans keep coming to him because they can trust him.
That’s how we need to be.
Always making promises to our reader that if you read our story we are going to deliver what we promise.
Make promises and deliver on them and you won’t just hook your reader from chapter one but you’ll hook them through book 2-3-4-5-6 and beyond.
Start with the end goal in mind and being a great storyteller will be more possible.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
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