Dazzle Them From The Start

So you may have a great story. You probably do; I’m constantly amazed at how many really great stories are out there, and how many gifted storytellers. But the reality is that if you don’t have a great beginning to your great story, then you’re losing the bulk of your readers.

I do a lot of writing and advising on web content, and the number-one rule for the Internet generation is this: you have between five and seven seconds to capture someone’s attention, to keep them reading on. That’s it. And the rule doesn’t stop applying just because someone is moving from sales content to fiction—people take their selves with them, after all. So as a novelist or short story writer, you have the same challenge: grab them from the very beginning, or lose them.

Unfortunately, most writers want to follow the rules of good storytelling, which include the imperative of building to a climax, and use the beginnings of their stories to begin that building. They point to authors of the past century to show how well that method works, to the classics that are still studied in schools all over the world.

I say unfortunately, because we don’t live in that time anymore. Sure, you can write your stories however you’d like; but don’t be surprised when they don’t get the attention you believe they deserve. We’re writing for a different audience these days, and that’s the real point, isn’t it? We write for someone else, and because of that, we have to follow their rules, their preferences, their needs. Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws was a mega-success, but he’s been quoted as saying that he couldn’t have made that film now: the beginning, he’s said, is too slow for today’s audiences.

I’m not saying to throw away everything you know about storytelling. You still need to build to that climax. But what I do want you to do is pay more attention to the beginning of your story. If it’s lackluster, potential readers will pass you by altogether.

My solution? Dazzle them from the start.

We all make fun of Bulwer-Lytton, but “it was a dark and stormy night” isn’t a bad beginning. It gives context. It gives mood. As long as the next sentence contains something riveting—either action or a surprising thought—it can work.

Sometimes we can learn from the movies. Look at the opening scenes of movies like Vertigo (featuring a rooftop chase), La Dolce Vida (a statue of Christ suspended from a helicopter), and Inglourious Basterds (a conversation about milk and rumors that quickly takes a Tarantino twist). In different ways, each one of these is a riveting beginning.

It’s a fallacy to say, as many do, that you must begin with action; but you must begin with something, give the reader a reason to keep reading. Arousing emotions in your reader is the best way to draw him or her in: fear, curiosity, joy, amazement, distress … all of these can work. It’s a matter of seeing what might work in the context of your story.

Having a lackluster beginning is a sure way to lose readers. Look at your beginning and imagine how you could turn it around, make it seize your readers’ attention, hook them into the story. Surprise them, shock them, dazzle them. Try several beginnings: how can you introduce this story with a twist at the beginning as well as the end, for example? How can you surprise the reader who thinks she or he knows what this is going to be about? Dazzle them now, and keep them for the duration! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!