Today, on Black Friday,
being first matters.
First gets the deal.
(And a lot of other craziness, too.)

First can be important.
It is with writing.

I believe…
…
…
I do believe…
as a reader-consumer or movie-goer,
we anticipate the first line, the first experience, as
brilliant.

I believe.
(Can we get an Amen heeyah?!)

I believe,
writer,
that your first sentence of ANY text
is incredibly important.
(That’s right. Say it, sistah.)

The first sentence
either pulls people’s attention
or
makes the reader put the book down,
makes the eyes flick away from the poetry,
makes the finger click away from the website text.
(“squirrel!”)

Your first line matters.

(If you’ve taken any of my academic writing courses,
you know how I harp on
making the hook of your essay or paper
bright and shiny. Well.
Same concept.)

Authors, you all know the importance of
the first line of your story.

Screenwriters, you know the importance of
the opening line.
(Perhaps it’s  not as critical as a book author’s opening line,
because it’s not as easy to walk out of a theater
as it is to put the book down. But.
Think opening image.
Think the cinematography…color, line, movement.
Think first words.
Same concept.)

The first line, the hook,
must grab.
(no argument here)

There’s more.

The first line of every chapter (or scene)
has its needs, too.

For the upcoming chapter…

We need to know WHO is there.
(give us a character’s name, and
we feel that we’re not alone )

We need to know WHERE there is.
(give us a setting to walk in, and
we feel grounded)

We need to know WHY we should read on.
(hopefully, you gave us the why
in the last line of the previous chapter.
But.
It would behoove yuh
to do it again.
WHY should I read on?)

Intrigue with leading info.
(something that raises a question in the reader’s mind
that has to be answered)

Describe with dripping words.
(something out of the ordinary
that tickles the senses)

Pull with action.
(something that implies
that there’s more movement to come)

Make your first line
matter.

* Thup