Do you ever wonder how on earth you’re going to keep people reading and engaged in your story? You’re not alone if you ponder this question, especially if your memoir is dense with facts and figures, as was the story of one woman I worked with.
But I have something to share with you that might help.
You know the feeling when you start reading something and it hooks you in straight away? Maybe it’s an article, or a chapter in a book. Whatever it was, there was no way you were putting that thing down.
Chances are, the writer started with a paragraph that was written to entice you to read more.
They might have started with a question, or raised an issue you’re interested in. They might have said something funny, or summarised an issue so that there was no way you could stop reading.
This is the power of those first few lines. This is the power of the sexy first paragraph.
I used this trick a lot as a journalist. It took some thought. I needed to work out what my key angle was going to be and think about ways I could weave that into the first few lines.
When I say it took some thought, I mean, often I’d interview someone, or a group of people about an issue. And then when it came to writing the actual article I’d need to pause for a moment to summarise the main angle of the article. Another way to explain it is I’d need to get to the heart of the issue I was writing about and then try to get that across within the first few lines or paragraphs.
To give you an example, I did the occasional article about old community halls that needed more people to sit on their committees.
Now, I could have just started that nice, community focused article by saying ‘The Hill Hall needs more committee members’ or I could have dreamed up a more interesting way to start it, for example: ‘Doreen Maurice makes a mean scone and she only breaks them out at Hill Hall committee meetings. She’s hoping to entice three more people to join this year.’
To coin a phrase that a master journalist photographer shared with me a few years ago, I’m seeking out ways to explain the ordinary in an extraordinary way.
And you can do the same.
I worked with a woman, let’s call her Sally, a few years ago who had spent hundreds of hours compiling a book that was dense with her family genealogy. It was made up of names, dates and facts about her ancestors.
The challenge was, it had no story. You’d open it occasionally as a reference book, but it made for hard going for those reading it. She was worried none of her family would read this book she’d poured so much into.
So we worked on going through that book and introducing story lines. We tried to dig up interesting facts about her family and made those stories more prominent. We brought in colour and personality. And we used those sexy first paragraphs to dive into the chapters.
The story soon became much more readable and now she has a record of her family that future generations will enjoy reading.
Have a play and see if you can improve on your first paragraphs.
Hope that helps,
Charlotte
PS if you’d like someone to go through your story and give you some feedback and coaching about it your sexy first paragraphs and other challenges you’re having, this month you can get that service for free as part of a bonus Editing Package I’m offering to people who join my online course Write Your Memoir. This package offers four hours of proofreading and editing and is valued at over $400. You’d need to use it within one year, so it would be an incentive to get writing! We are only offering 10 of these, so get in quick while they’re still available! This could be the thing to finally get you working on your story. Find out more about Write Your Memoir here.
Charlotte Squire 