Do you hook readers with your first sentence or let them squirm off the line? There are a LOT of fish in the blog sea, so how can you improve the odds of visitors actually reading your post?
Hook 'em, and hook 'em hard. Ah, the power of the pen strikes again. Good writing captivates attention with the title and the first sentence, immediately. Be honest, did my title entice you to examine this post? I tried to write an opening sentence that would continue that momentum.
Blog readers are very efficient information sieves. We scan post titles and opening lines looking for something that snaps us into paying more attention. No snap and you risk losing your fish. No offense; I'm a fish, too. I swim from one blog to the next, searching for a fat juicy hook. Sometimes, I'm tricked and I've bitten into something that falls flat after the hook. But more often, the clever, creative hooks deliver as promised.
Baiting readers is perhaps more important in fiction than in practical blog posts. Novels don't promise anything but to entertain. So if you're readers aren't going to come away with new tips, tricks or advice, you'd better give them a good story. And the story won't be read if they're not hooked. I spent a few hours at the bookstore, my home away from home, jotting down opening lines from random novels. Here's what I found along with my reactions:
Blog readers are very efficient information sieves. We scan post titles and opening lines looking for something that snaps us into paying more attention. No snap and you risk losing your fish. No offense; I'm a fish, too. I swim from one blog to the next, searching for a fat juicy hook. Sometimes, I'm tricked and I've bitten into something that falls flat after the hook. But more often, the clever, creative hooks deliver as promised.
Baiting readers is perhaps more important in fiction than in practical blog posts. Novels don't promise anything but to entertain. So if you're readers aren't going to come away with new tips, tricks or advice, you'd better give them a good story. And the story won't be read if they're not hooked. I spent a few hours at the bookstore, my home away from home, jotting down opening lines from random novels. Here's what I found along with my reactions:
- The seller of lightening rods arrived just ahead of the storm. "Something Wicked This Way Comes", Ray Bradbury: BIG thumbs up.
- Eragon knelt in a bed of trampled reed grass and scanned the tracks with a practiced eye. "Eragon", Christopher Paolini: Eh, I'll nap instead.
- Matilda Roberts was naked as the air. "Dead Man's Walk", Larry McMurtry: BIG thumbs up.
- It's hard to imagine life before Candy. "Candy", Kevin Brooks: Eyes glazing over...
- When the red light blinked on the bedside telephone, a sophisticated recording device was automatically activated in the Paris apartment near the Pompidou Center in the lively Fourth Arrondissement. "Gideon's Spies", Gordon Thomas: TWO thumbs up.
- Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. "Lady Chatterley's Lover", D. H. Lawrence: Thumbs up.
- We came on the wind of the carnival. "Chocolat", Joanne Harris: Thumbs up.
- Wine talks. "Blackberry Wine", Joanne Harris: TWO thumbs up.
- The temperature hit 90 degrees the day she arrived. "The Valley of the Dolls", Jacqueline Susann: So? (I admit I loved this book, but the first sentence didn't hook me - the cult classic reputation did.)
- All day there are glaring omens that go undetected. "The White Bone", Barbara Gowdy: TWO thumbs up pumping up and down.
- A wind was blowing that day, old and wintry and mean. "Red Water", Judith Freeman: Blah.
- The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. "The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I", Stephen King: TWO thumbs up, quivering with fear.
- The boy's name was Santiago. "The Alchemist", Paulo Coelho: Snore.
- What's it going to be then, eh? "A Clockwork Orange", Anthony Burgess: Thumbs up.
- The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him, "WILD THING!" and Max said, "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" so he was sent to bed without eating anything. "Where the Wild Things Are", Maurice Sendak: Brilliant.
Well, you get the idea. How many of these books would you have continued reading past the first sentence? What are some of your favorite opening lines (in books)? Before you put hours of hard work into your next post or story, just remember if your first line can't hold eyeballs, nothing else matters much. Happy hooking!
