Want to know how to write a good introduction?
Those first sentences or first paragraphs that’ll tease your main points, sprinkle in just the right amount of background information, and still grab your reader’s attention so they’re glued to your every word?
It’s actually not as difficult to do as you’d think. You just need to shamelessly copy the pros.
Here’s how you do it:
Deconstruct Great Writing to Uncover the Secrets of Your Heroes
You’ve heard the advice a million times, right?
“To write better, study the writing of other great writers.”
And on the surface that makes sense.
Until you actually try to do it.
Seriously, how exactly do you study great writing?
Should you just read other writers and hope their brilliance rubs off through some form of literary osmosis? Should you write out in long hand what others have typed, in hopes of similar spontaneous hand-to-brain absorption? Or should you rely on something more concrete?
Writing well is hard enough, and the last thing you need is ambiguous advice to further complicate the successful-writer puzzle.
What you really need is a cheat sheet.
Since this is Smart Blogger, let’s deconstruct one of Jon Morrow’s strong introduction paragraphs and reveal three specific writing processes that he uses to hook readers so thoroughly:
That little tugging sensation on your heart?
You’re not sure what, but something is pulling you to change. Not in a confess-your-sins-oh-ye-sinners way, but to shift directions, to embrace your calling, to finally do what you were put here to do:
You feel the ideas inside you. You sense them straining to escape. And you know your job is to set them free, firing them like a cannon into a world in desperate need of them.
But you’re afraid.
You’re afraid of quitting your job and living without a safety net. You’re afraid of the concerned, disapproving looks your friends will give you when you tell them you’re giving it all up to write for a living. And you’re afraid of not having enough money for food, of the power being cut off, of watching your family shivering and hungry, all because of your “selfishness”.
And most of all?
You’re afraid you’re wrong about yourself.
Maybe that tugging sensation you feel is just an illusion. Maybe your ideas are crap. Or maybe you’re just a fool with delusions of grandeur, and this whole fantasy of becoming a writer is just that: a fantasy.
So, you do nothing.
You cower in your safe little job. You tinker with a blog or a novel or a screenplay. And you drown your dreams with junk food or booze or shopping sprees, all the while telling yourself you’re doing the right thing.
But are you?
“No,” a little voice whispers inside of you. “No, this is all very, very wrong.”
Oh God…An Open Letter to Writers Struggling to Find Their Courage
Quite effective, huh?
It grabs your attention, draws you in, and keeps you reading.
But what’s going on beneath the surface? If you knew, you could recreate some of that magic in your own writing, right?
So let’s lay bare the first of our three techniques.
Introduction Technique #1: The Opening Question
Did you know Smart Blogger starts many of its posts the same way — by asking a tantalizing opening question?
Let’s look at some examples:
- Afraid it’s impossible to find freelance writing jobs due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic?
- Looking for creative writing gifts for the Jane Austen or Stephen King in your life?
- Google Says Guest Blogging is Dead. Is it true?
- Do you feel that? That little tugging sensation on your heart?
- So… it’s the silly season, and let me guess?
- Can I be blunt with you for a moment?
- Did you know Google can make your blog disappear from its search results?
- Have you ever wished you could peer inside the mind of one of the greatest writers in the world and find out exactly what makes them tick?
- You’ve wondered, right?
- Can I tell you my worst nightmare?
Did you notice some of the ways Jon used questions to capture your attention? I spotted the following:
- Deliberate vagueness to create curiosity
- Mentioning specific threats that instill fear
- Promising personal information (and audiences love to know more about their heroes)
Questions like these create open emotional loops that must be closed. And to find closure, you need to read the sentence that follows. Which pulls you further into the post. Sneaky huh?
In Jon’s introduction example above, he opens with the question: “Do you feel that?” When you read it, you can’t help wondering: “Feel what?” and suddenly you’re unable to resist the next sentence.
You have lots of ways to open an emotional loop. Just make sure your opening question instills an overpowering desire to discover more. Engineer your questions so that the reader can’t possibly stop reading.
And if you doubt this technique, just try turning off your television in the middle of your favorite reality television show’s final episode. 🙂
Introduction Technique #2: Delayed Transitions
Transitions are words and phrases that smoothly join two ideas, sentences, or sentence fragments.
For instance, the following sentence uses “but” as a transition:
“You want to become a better writer, but you don’t know how.”
Transitions include conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, yet, for, if, nor, and so), exclamations (e.g., sure, well, yes, no, and oh), and colloquial phrases (e.g., in fact, of course, and granted).
Many transitions are so commonplace that we’d struggle to write without them, but where transitioning is elevated to an art form is through the use of delayed transitions.
A delayed transition puts the transitional word or phrase at the start of the next sentence, or even the next body paragraph.
So, we think a sentence is complete.
But in fact there’s more information to come.
And we can’t help ourselves but to keep reading.
The benefits of using delayed transitions are as follows:
- Allow us to write shorter sentences, which are easier to read.
- They pull the reader further along in your posts, especially when starting a new sentence on a separate line (even delayed transitions written on the same line are one character further along in the document compared to a transition with a comma).
- They give the reader the illusion of reading faster than they actually are (remember those awesome books you read in one sitting and you couldn’t believe you read that many pages? That’s what I mean here).
- They are a bit unexpected, thus provide a mild stimulus to your reader to keep them actively reading (try giving your significant other an unexpected gift at an unexpected time 🙂 ).
Let’s see how Jon used delayed transitions with his example:
But you’re afraid.
You’re afraid of quitting your job and living without a safety net. You’re afraid of the concerned, disapproving looks your friends will give you when you tell them you’re giving it all up to write for a living. And you’re afraid of not having enough money for food, of the power being cut off, of watching your family shivering and hungry, all because of your “selfishness”.
And most of all?
You’re afraid you’re wrong about yourself.
Maybe that tugging sensation you feel is just an illusion. Maybe your ideas are crap. Or maybe you’re just a fool with delusions of grandeur, and this whole fantasy of becoming a writer is just that: a fantasy.
So, you do nothing.
You cower in your safe little job. You tinker with a blog or a novel or a screenplay. And you drown your dreams with junk food or booze or shopping sprees, all the while telling yourself you’re doing the right thing.
But are you?
Transitions aren’t rocket science, but you must practice to get a feel for what combinations of transition words flow well together and what combinations don’t.
Introduction Technique #3: Poetic Iteration (and The Rule of Three)
Poetic iteration is the deliberate repetition of certain words or constructions to enhance the impact of your writing on the reader.
It creates an enticing rhythm that captivates readers and creates a magical bond between related segments of text.
Here’s an example from Jon’s introduction:
The trio of phrases to shift, to embrace, and to finally do makes this sentence more pleasing to read and cements the feeling that this is a writer in full command of his craft.
The Rule of Three is a specific form of iteration that states any idea presented in threes is more memorable, enjoyable, and interesting. (See how that last phrase is so much more satisfying to read than simply “memorable and enjoyable” or “memorable and interesting?”)
So, what’s so special about the number three?
Three is the smallest number necessary to create a pattern, and we humans can’t get enough of patterns to help us make sense of our world.
You’ll find The Rule of Three everywhere.
- “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
- “Stop, Drop, and roll.”
- “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”
In famous stories:
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff
- Goldilocks and The Three Bears (“This is too hot. This is too cold. And this is just right,” as opposed to, “This is too hot. This is just right.”)
- The Three Little Pigs (“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down,” as opposed to, “I’ll huff, and I’ll blow your house down.”)
Even in the basic building blocks of storytelling itself:
- The Beginning
- The Middle
- The End
Neat huh?
Let’s see some more examples from Jon’s opening:
To compare a segment of text with and without iteration, let’s use an example from another popular post by Jon:
It isn’t a career. It isn’t a way to make money. It isn’t a tool for changing the world.
Notice how this reads much better than:
We don’t call Jon “His Royal Awesomeness” for nothing!
“They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano But When I Started to Play!”
Now to drive home this point, I’d like to share my favorite example of poetic iteration and The Rule of Three. It’s part of an introduction to a famous ad by legendary copywriter John Caples:
Notice how well that paragraph flowed and how hypnotized you were? Did you spot the uses of poetic iteration (such as the repetition of “I played”) and The Rule of Three (“the hour, the place, the breathless listeners”)? I bet you found some examples but not all of them.
Let’s deconstruct the text using color-coding to reveal the magic:
No wonder this is considered one of the greatest pieces of copywriting of all time!
Now Get Out There and Write Introductions Like a Pro!
As a blogger and writer, you spend a good bit of time improving your writing.
And until recently you’ve had a good excuse to ignore advice to study the greats.
But now that you’ve seen three of the most powerful techniques the pros use to sprinkle magic into their introductions, you have no excuse not to start using them yourself.
So why not see if you can use any of these techniques to strengthen your past efforts?
Open one of your old posts and read the introduction again. Opportunities to add an introductory paragraph question, delayed transition, or poetic iteration should reveal themselves.
Be sure to use them on your next post too. Remember to practice, practice, practice.
And keep studying those pros. They have more magic up their sleeves.
But that will have to wait for another post. 😉
Write on!
Shane, you’re the best. I always get a new insight or fresh perspective when I read your work. Great post. Thank you!
Shane, Thanks for sharing a Superb Article About writing introduction. I really appreciate your efforts and I will be waiting for your further write ups thanks once again.
@Noufal Binu: My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it.
@Mark: You’re quite welcome. I’d love to see a follow-up comment from you as to whether you were able to use any of this in your existing posts and future posts.
As a writer, some of this I do instinctively – poetic iteration especially. And I often use transitions the same way. Now to implement the rest – starting with a question (why don’t I do this!?) Awesome pointers! Thank you!!
@Peggy: You’re welcome. Write on!
Confession: I shamelessly stole this on one of my blog posts on my blog :
“Do you feel that?”
What a ripper of an opening line!
@Ash: That is quite an opening … isn’t it? 🙂
Brilliant thank you Shane.
I couldn’t agree with you more. So many blog posts promise the earth but deliver nothing but superficial and in many cases ambiguous advice.
It is posts like yours that offer real value through the clarity of your ideas and the reinforcement of excellent examples that provide the standard for us to work towards.
I’m a massive fan of poetic iteration, I just never knew that’s what it was. Thanks for the detailed and insightful post.
@Alex: Amazing how such techniques are hiding right under our noses, huh? I’d offer one piece of advice – if you find a piece of writing that moves you, copy it into word and deconstruct it until you’ve unlocked the magic (and also save it into a swipe file of all the great writing you’ve discovered).
Awesome post!
I’m happy to say I recognize all your three (heh) points from my own writing, especially the last two. I probably picked those habits up from your edits.
I use that Rule of Three to the point that I worry sometimes that I’m overusing it :p
But I always felt that it helped the article flow. Now I know why. So thanks for that.
@Robert: Like a stylish suit, you can’t wear it all week without someone noticing. Even if it’s a stylish suit, going overboard turns it into a sweaty t-shirt. 🙂
Shane, am going to mention something I noticed about this post- something you cleverly did.
Believe me it isn’t the clarity of your writing or breath taking way you weave the story.
It isn’t even the error free copy or the simplicity which you shared your thought.
It just this one thing- it is the way you cleverly introduced quite a number of jon’s post.
It was the dexterity with you accomplish this feat without leaving a sour not on my tongue perhaps others and it because of such cleverness I crown you Arthur reincarnate in Merlin. Thanks so much for this splendid article
@Peter: Your comment is worthy of study. And it make me laugh. Thank you kindly.
P.S. Linking all the posts in one place is also much easier on the reader than finding them manually. 🙂
P.P.S. And you did notice how I began this post, right?
That rule of three really opened my eyes. No wonder I always found sentences like that so interesting. Brilliant.
@Jevon: Designers also use the rule of three to design business cards and such. It’s all around us.
Shane, Thank you!!! I’ve been studying the “Morrow style” of opening blog posts for a while now… but coming from a non-literary background, I don’t always remember everything or implement it. Thank you so much for putting it together in this wonderful hot-to guide style. I *know* I’ll be returning to this again and again. And again. 🙂
@Sumitha: I see what you did there. 😉 And you’re welcome.
Hey Shane
Your opening of this post itself is the proof you know how to make people dive into your post without a second thought. 🙂
Copying writing style of others just make you learn how to write great and it does not make you be like that writer. You just get inspiration from him and then develop your own voice.
@Mi Muba: Exactly! Study the greats that add your own flavors.
Thanks Shane!
I always knew you were the master of brevity.
But deconstructing openings from his Royal Awesomeness opened new vistas.
I thought I got it before, but I didn’t.
Thanks for laying it bare for all to see… including me.
@Todd: My pleasure. I think the color-coded deconstructions are what truly do the best job of describing techniques. You can also use this technique with fiction books. I’m a big fan of Larry Brooks and I did a color-coded deconstruction of his story engineering principles. Look at the photo on this guest post I wrote for him: http://storyfix.com/the-help-seeing-the-structure-in-living-color-literally
Color coding for the win.
You rock Shane!
I am a great fan of Jon since the days of his reign at Copyblogger and he is indeed a great writer and you are also a genius to be able to deconstruct Jon’s writing this easily.
I learnt a bunch of new techniques that I will surely be implementing in my future articles.
Thanks for this awesome piece Shane!
@Joseph: My pleasure. I call Jon “Jon Tzu.”
“Tzu” Sounds cool! Is that Chinese or Japanese?
Shane, trying to deconstruct your post, I discovered you used question just as Jon.
You also used delayed transition which are: To, And and Until.
Not only that, you also used poetic iteration of threes i.e. The word should.
Those were the few I caught in your opening. You are really something.
Hi Peter,
Shane is really copying Jon and he is doing perfectly!
Great stuff, Shane!
I always instinctively felt the power of the delayed transitions, but some editors really don’t like it when writers – even occasionally – start a sentence with “and”. I know it’s not something we want to do all the time, but thanks for giving me permission to keep that particular tool in my writing toolbox! 😉
@Leanne: Glad you liked it. Yeah, don’t want to use too many delayed transitions, but Jon’s used them to great success. Write on!
Did you really steal these techniques?
Or did you master them and make them your own?
I will remember this post as I struggle to craft spellbinding openings, to create content that draws the reader through my writing and to emulate great writers like you.
Thank you, Shane, for teaching such a powerful lesson.
You’re welcome.
I don’t consider myself a great writer. Skilled perhaps. I do better with editing. With this post, I had the talented Glen Long polishing this post for me, so I’m lucky.
What are you doing there, Dave?
Yes, I saw!
Excellent application of the Opening Question, the Transition, and the Three Rule. I must say I find it Fabulous.
Looks like you have read it well, understood it, and are now applying it Beautifully. Nice one there.
Guess what?
I am now heading straight to your blog!
Great pointers Shane! The Rule of Three is something I’ve been exploring within my business relationships as well. As humans, we seem to form memories very easily when it comes to being exposed to an idea or person three times. When I meet someone in my networking group, I always try to make sure in the next couple weeks I see them in person or make contact with them at least three times. It is indeed a charm! It makes sense because we live in an extremely distracting society.
@John. Good point about using the rule with people. It’s everywhere indeed.
Shane, this is brilliant. I need to remind myself, as you have done here, to twist and turn the tricks of writing into the art of copywriting. Desconstructing the masters (Mr. Morrow and Mr. Caples) and applying them to the screen. Teasers need to be used in Social Media, titles, subtitles, and every sentence until the end. The story, per Aristotle on up, is encapsulated into each post.
Thank you!
@Lee: So glad you enjoyed it. The twist and turn of art indeed!
You Know What?
You just changed my life! My Writing Life, My Blogging Life, My Conversational Life – All done neatly in this one post!
I would not have guessed, No way would I have expected what immense message awaits me, how that message would enlighten me, inspire me and literally liberate me.
Is this not wonderful?
No, that question is rhetorical.
Because I, You, They know this is the kind of post we all should have read.
Back then in College.
Farther Back in High School.
Nay, Right from Elementary.
God Bless You Plenty.
I am enjoying this already!
@Tope: Man, that was a wonderful and memorable comment. So glad you truly appreciate it.
Thanks for this. The rule of three was amazing.
@Kush: The rule is fantastic. The rule is magical. And, yes, the rule is amazing. 🙂
WOW! These are some great ideas to use! I’m going to have to use them!
@Jose: Excellent. Then one day people will be referencing one of your posts instead of Caples.
Shane,
Thank you for this blog post. I have been having a ton of trouble with my introductions. This is perfectly timed, thank you. I have really benefited from your knowledge and Jon’s. What I have learned studying your resources has landed me some decent success with one of my blog posts on linkedin publishing http://linkd.in/1mYkVNS.
Thank you again,
Austin Iuliano
@Austin: Excellent! Makes me feel good knowing I helped you like that.
Write on good sir!
P.S. Wait until my next guest post comes out. Approximately 337 flabby words and phrases that weaken your writing. Took me a few years to compile and complete — one letter at a time it seems.
I look forward to it!
What a tease!
That actually made me gasp in excitement. And then I had to chuckle at myself for getting so excited about a promised list of flabby words. Sometimes I feel like I’m becoming more and more of an oddball.
Seriously though, I’m around a “next-episode-of-Game-of-Thrones” level of looking forward to it. Cannot wait!
Shane,
Do you feel that? It’s the sonic boom from the riotous applause that this post deserves. These techniques will be seen in my very next article. Well, at least one of them will be!
Thanks very much.
@Stephen: I love the sonic boom from riotous applause. Thank you.
@Robert: Those 41 and counting color-coded edits I did for student guest posts inside the Guest Blogging program show some of the flabby words and phrases that will be in my next guest post, so those can keep you busy until then. 🙂
Yeah, I know. Those edits are little goldmines. I already collected quite a few from them.
But still, having them all in one big list makes it a whole lot easier 😉
Great post, Shane. Thanks for putting this together. I appreciate it. It’s posts like these that gives bloggers hope. It gives bloggers inspiration. And it gives bloggers the opportunity to be better writers. 😉
@Aqilah: 😉 You’re most welcome.
When you say it seems so easy. You know what you are talking about. You are confident in your words. You are Shane Arthur 🙂
And, what about us?
Few people will reach your level of writing and there is nothing wrong in it. Writing helps me understand myself. It tells me what I’m capable of and brings me down to earth when I’m flying in the sky dreaming about becoming the next Jon Morrow.
Because there are not many writers I was able to find you and Jon Morrow and stick with.
I used a question in a couple of my articles, but I didn’t know about the delayed transition and the rule of three tehnique.
I will deconstruct articles and I hope to learn from it.
That’s defenately a great tip to learn writing and it’s rare
@Ion: I’ve been studying language rules and mechanics since middle school. It’s a fascination with me, and my abilities with writing took all that time to grasp. Jon can’t move his body, so he devotes his life to the written word and works all day each day to sharpen his writing skills to interact with people.
Writing is in no way easy. And I searched this article for that word and I don’t see that I used it. I did say, “Writing well is hard enough ….”
But, I have a saying and it goes, “Write or die.” In other words, if you tell yourself that you’d rather die than not master the craft of writing, you will indeed master the craft of writing. You will do it. Just have faith and kick some butt.
Shane is there an app for browser that allows you color text while reading? I could deconstruct masters work directly from the broweser.
Hi Shane,
Great post. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to shorten the opening lines of my blog posts. This really breaks it down for me.
As an FYI, the colour-coded example doesn’t display for me in Chrome, but it works in IE.
The John Caples example is superb.
I look forward to your next post.
@Bryan: Thanks for letting me know. I’ll pass that along and hopefully get that fixed. We had one hell of a time getting the styling to stick in any browser before posting it live, so I’m not sure what is the issue. Glad you liked the post.
This is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Shane!!! Will be incorporating many points in the epic post I am writing now.
@Emily: Go forth and write epically! 🙂
GREAT post Shane! I just took action on what you suggested and changed a new post of mine on LinkedIn. It was fun! It was exciting! It was successful!
Thank you for your skills, clarity and care.
@Michael: That’s what I love to hear. Write on!
Shane,
One of my weakest points “or at least that’s what I thought until I read this article” is writing. And yes, I was told over and over that copying other writers’ copies is the way to improve that, except that they never told me “How” to do that!
You’ve nailed it Shane. You really have and made it crystal clear it made me feel that writing and learning from other writers’ work is not that big challenge after all if you know how to do it.
I relay on writing for my business a lot since I do have several blogs and followers. In addition of that, I am starting a new blog with a new journey which depends solely on attracting as many readers as possible. With the discomfort I had before reading this post, I thought I might never be able to do that, but not anymore.
Thank you Shane, thank you very much and looking forwards to reading more of your coming articles to enjoy and.to learn from too 🙂
@Ahmed: Thank you for the great comment.So glad you liked it.
Thank you, Shane! As a quivering introvert who has recently entered that fearful realm of public speaking, I’ve discovered that these same copywriting (storytelling) techniques also apply to public speaking. Hook the audience with a tantalizing question, use delayed transitions, and wield poetic iterations with conviction. How is this relevant? The fact is that many organizations have to pitch proposals and present their work live. The default is the droning PowerPoint presentation given without panache, without lyrical use of language, and without any passion or conviction. I can tell you from witnessing this first hand that whoever walks in and and “performs” using the copywriting tactics you outlined, will mop the floor with their competition. Looking forward to more of your articles!
@Aphro: True about the public speaking. Whatever you are speaking about, you surly had to write out what you’d discuss in the presentation. And these rhythmic techniques transfer well to the spoken word.
At one point in my life I was a computer instructor. The most important part of the class (or presentation) to nail is the opening. You have to set the tone for what to expect and get people excited and involved. Hook them with flair in the beginning and they love you.
I’m a huge fan of Jon Tzu…lol and I love your post Shane. What I love about opening questions is that if you do it right, you’ll engage the reader and spark the reader’s curiosity to delve deeper into your post. I believe its a great way to make an awesome first impression.
@Sheeroh: I’ve read Jon’s stuff for so long before noticing the specifics. Amazing what it hidden right beneath the surface. Glad you enjoyed it.
Shane – thanks for this wonderful surprise! The best and most practical advice on writing I’ve come across in a loooong time.
Fab stuff. Now over to me, do it.
I wish me good luck, and more post from you :-]
And to you, thanks a bunch, again.
@Beat: Love comments like this. Thanks. And write on!
Seriously guys – I can’t keep my hands off boostblogtraffic!!!
Yet another practical, insightful, exceptional post. Thanks Shane.
My biggest takeaway is – practice, practice, practice.
Guess what I’m doing now?
@Fiona: “Guess what I’m going now?”
Umm, tantalizing me with a tantalizing question? 🙂
@all: Hey, can you all tweet this post for me? Happy Friday regardless.
I wished you’d write more posts, Shane! This is excellent!
Copying the Greats of Advertising is always a master class. I think copying the techniques of best-selling authors is paramount too. It’s no surprise that some of the Advertising Greats have also written best-sellers. And vice-versa. Both forms of writing pull heavily on each other’s techniques for pulling in readers and keeping them hooked.
And, it’s also nice to see you promoting the use of “And” as a sentence starter. It’s a favourite of mine. As is the dot … dot … dot … or elipses (however you spell it 🙂 ) technique because of it’s leading power.
@Tom: Thanks. Yeah, I wish I’d write more post too, but my editor brain won’t shut off long enough to let my writer brain have any fun. 🙂
Shane – All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you. I am going to reread and apply your advice to my writing.
@LeAllyson: My pleasure. Write on!
Very cool stuff, Shane! Thanks for sharing.
Definitely trying this for my next blog post!
@Elke: Excellent. Do a follow up comment and let me know how it went.
Hmmn. Have not read it yet but I cant just wait to digest it fully when I get home> Fro just glancing at the contents, it is so so awesome
Shane, this is easily one of the top 5 articles I’ve ever read in my life. I’ve applied the outlined techniques in the blog post I’m currently writing and the quality has improved tremendously as a result.
Thanks.
@Lucas: Wow! I’m honored to get such a great comment. Thank you.
I don’t mean to be contrary–or insulting–because I do think Jon writes pretty well, but as a matter of fact I’ve thought about that very opening you single out, and I have a much different take:
In answer to your question–“Did you know that Jon starts 72% of his posts the same way”–I didn’t know the exact percentage, no, but I’ve most certainly noticed that the overwhelming majority of his posts (and so many others in this niche) do start that way (how could you not?), and I’ve long thought that, rather than being compelling and provocative, these openings have the reverse outcome: they’re dulled. They’ve become mannered and cliche, and because of that they achieve the opposite of their intended effect. They read formulaic and transparently so. It’s become a stylistic mannerism–which is one of the (many) pitfalls of the write-by-numbers approach.
I’m not trying to be hypercritical or rude in saying any of this–and of course I only speak for myself here–but one must call em like one sees em.
I think that that opening method — the interrogatory method (you know the one I mean, right?) — is, first of all, played out, so much so that I honestly don’t continue reading a great many of the articles that start this way, in part because I’m too busy throwing up my hands, and, second of all, even before it was played out, it’s a little too obvious, isn’t it? At any rate, I never quite bought into into it.
@Ada: Opinions vary.
What a great post, Shane.
If a post doesn’t add something to a reader’s life, then it shouldn’t be written.
Thanks for the insight.
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Great stuff. I might add one other thing — didn’t read every response so forgive me if I’m repeating, but the writer uses vivid words that build a physicality to the story. He writes of tinkering with a blog or small job, for instance. He uses visual cues rather than mental abstractions. Too many newer writers wallow in vagueness, when they should be depicting images with words. Nabokov described writers as being on par with painters.
@Ed: I agree with you on Jon’s use of vivid words. He wrote the following after all: //smartblogger.com/power-words/ 🙂
Thanks for taking time to add to the conversation.
Shane, I thought I understood writing, but you just showed me how much I need to go back to the drawing board. I think what did it for me is the opening question.
I couldn’t even wait to finish…I wrote this down
Can you feel that? The silly little butterflies jumping around in your tummy? Encountering blogging was love at first sight!
@TemiTope: Glad you benefited from this. The learning process never ends. If it did, what fun would that be, right? 🙂
Shane, you are awesome in teaching, you know. I am coming to your blog since last couple of days and read couple of articles and I truly amazed the way you wrote all of them. Shane, you are a great teacher.
This is something huge and will take time to intake and digest for me and above all there is so much to learn from this piece of content. I am sure this is going to be a very much helpful resource for me. Thanks Shane, thanks for sharing and educating me.
@Sam: How did I miss such a wonderful comment like this for so long. Sorry and thank you. Teaching is indeed in my blood.
Shane, Thanks for sharing a Superb Article About writing introduction. The learning process never endup.
@Hitasoft: Indeed it never ends. And as I mentioned before, what fun would that be anyhow, right? 🙂
I found this article has been quite informative. And I extend gratitude for your commitment to write articles that are authetic, educative and inspiring.
@Paul: Thank you kindly good sir.
Fabulous. I use a lot of these techniques, myself, so I love seeing them here.
It can be tough, but look at your opening paragraph through two other people’s eyes — someone who knows next to nothing about your topic and someone who knows more than you. Will they be sucked in? Would you?
Again, thanks for this post. Even a seasoned old writer like me can take this one to heart.
Glad you liked it, E.J.
Write on!
You are right, Shane.
I liked all the strategies.
For a newbie blogger to attain success in blogging, copying helps a lot. Hell yeah! Like babies explore the surroundings and imitate others, and grow.
Most of the time most of the bloggers find themselves difficult in churning out intros. In those cases the above strategy helps a lot.
Intros and titles are the welcome stuff for visitors. It should be catchy and appealing. It should make visitors stopcand read your posts. Using personalistic approach and making the topic clear immediately helps a lot.
Cheers,
Akshay Hallur.
@Akshay: Cheers to you too. And write on!
I’m late to this, but thanks @Shane. This is a great post that’s inspired me to revisit my old posts, to write better intros, and to hone my craft. 😉
In fact, I tried it out in my latest post “The Three Qualities of the Best Camera” and it was quite fun.
Specifically the structure was this:
– Opening question
– 3 common counterpoints
– A delayed transition
– My three qualities that make a camera the best
@Andre, my pleasure. Glad you used it with your post. Well done. Now you won’t be able to write a blog post without thinking about this concept. 🙂
Glad you liked it, E.J.
Write on!
Confession: I shamelessly stole this on one of my blog posts on my blog :
“Do you feel that?”
Shane,
Making the visitors stay for a while on our page relies on our very few first sentences. Recently, I adopted these ideas. Getting starting with the questions to feed the curiosity.
And, I go with your point, using transition words makes our content simple and easy to follow with shorter sentences. I could see a drastic improvement in content readability with the transition words.
Thanks for the tactics revealed.
Regards,
Jessica.
Hey Shane
Awesome stuff. I always enjoy your writing. I carefully look at your every word and try to copy you. Is it right?
Wow, excellent post… This is really a great article and a great read for me. It’s my first visit to your blog and I have found it so useful and informative specially this article.
Thank you so much…
Congratulations on having 1 of the most sophisticated blogs I’ve come throughout in some time! It’s just incredible how much you can take away from something simply because of how visually beautiful it’s! You’ve put with each other a great blog space –great graphics, videos, and layout. This is absolutely a must-see weblog!
Super helpful article – love it! I will definitely try this on my next blog. Thanks!