How do you write an opening that doesn’t come off as an info dump but intrigues readers and intrigues agents enough to make them want to represent you or accept the story or the book?
I really think that on one hand, you’ll get this advice that you’re supposed to have this amazing hook at the beginning and stories that get published and books that get bought have these amazing hooks at the beginning. I’ve seen some books like that.
But the majority of books that I read don’t really have that. And when I see a writer trying to do something like that, I can usually smell it a mile away and it feels like that writer is trying to manipulate me.
What I think really works is to ground the reader in a given scene, in a given time/place, with a certain character. Let the reader know where the characters are, what the chronology of events are that’s happening, and let the reader start to see the different characters doing things in scene.
To me, establishing that and starting a connection with the reader, that’s a really great building block.
From there, intrigue pieces will come up. You can’t get all the important information in right from the beginning. But as you start to bring in some information, other things will create intrigue, and that will keep readers reading if you’re really doing the story well.
If you go back to the Conroy Pyramid, once you get that meaning, sense, and clarity, that’s where I think it’s important to start. Then the other things like intrigue, mystery, and questions will come up after that.
I also think one tip that I’ve heard that’s useful is to use in your first sentence two words that don’t often go together.
I’ll leave it to you to figure out good examples of what that is.
