100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019
Begin at the beginning
Five ways to write a strong beginning
Many writers work their way into a paper, letter, or story as if they were feeling their way into a dark house. They use the first few pages, and sometimes considerably more, as a kind of writing warm-up. There’s nothing wrong with writing three pages of junk before you get to information that matters, as long as those three pages are extinct before the final draft. In other words, don’t include your warm-up exercises with the manuscript.
Study the beginning of your story carefully. You might discover that with the first 200 words you are “getting around to telling the story.” Look at the first sentence. Is it substantive? Is it doing some work? Or is it merely background information about what you haven’t quite begun yet?
Bad |
Better |
I’m writing this memo because Sam Moroni has fled the country, and I need to replace him quickly. |
Sam Moroni has fled the country, and I need to replace him quickly. |
Obviously, no one is going to stop reading a memo because of five unnecessary words, but many writers use three pages to say “I’m writing this because . . .”
Cross out every sentence until you come to one you cannot do without. That is your beginning.