How To Write A Great First Paragraph and Opening Scene

Write Better Now

The first paragraph has a lot to do.

It has to:

1. Grab the reader

2. Make them empathize with your character and feel like you get them

3. Feel like you, the author, know what you’re doing

4. Get them interested enough to keep reading.

One of the things I like about this approach rather than the typical approach for novelists is that it emphasizes #2 and #3 rather than just “grab the reader and keep them reading and interested.”

We talk about hooking the reader all the time.

But calling out their pain point? That second bullet? That’s something us fiction writers don’t talk about quite so much.