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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 th

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.

jtheory 12y ago
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 12y ago
  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.

jtheory 12y ago

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 12y ago
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.