From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
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Story check: Hooking your reader
From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
Story check: Hooking your reader
- When you're checking the opening paragraph of your story, here are four questions to ask. First, will the reader know whose story it is? If the reader doesn't know who the protagonist is, there will be nothing to give meaning to the events that unfold, and worse, no one to root for. Second, is something happening beginning on the first page? Don't spend pages setting up the scene or giving us background information that we'll need later. Don't just set the ball rolling. Leap in with the ball already careening downhill. What better way to kickstart the readers curiosity than opening with something that has a clear, impending consequence. After all, how can we wonder what happens next unless something is already happening? Third, does something hang in the balance? Ask yourself, is the reader aware that something specific is at stake right there on the first page? Fourth, is enough of the "big picture" visible from the get go to give us…
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