 Writing For Beginners
"Make a PUNCH of a beginning."
Workshops upon workshops and articles upon articles will give this same advice: write really good beginnings to draw your readers in.
Some writers liken beginnings to a "hook" - the crucial "attention
grabber." If you fail to hold your reader's interest from the first few
sentences of your piece, you can be sure that that reader will just
turn to something else.
This is especially crucial in this day and age. And, it is even more
so if you're writing for the internet wherein everything's just a click
away.
One good way to improve in this area is to collect beginnings from
published works. Re-read your favorite books and write down the kind of
beginnings that your favorite authors write. Put them in your
"Beginnings File."
Here are a sample of favorite beginnings in my file: "Nicholas was trying to concentrate on the letter to his mother, a
letter that was probably the most important document he would write."
(Jude Deveraux, "A Knight in Shining Armor") "Once upon a time in a house by the sea, lay an old woman, a special
old woman who had the gift of magic." (Lois Duncan, "A Gift of Magic") "She undressed slowly, dreamily, and when she was naked, she
selected a bright red negligee to wear so that the blood would not
show." (Sidney Sheldon, "If Tomorrow Comes") "The old woman remembered a swan she bought many years ago in
Shanghai for a foolish sum. This bird, boasted the market vendor, was
once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose, and
now look! - it is too beautiful to eat." (Amy Tan, "The Joy Luck Club")
You can copy these beginnings in pieces of paper and then compile
them in a folder or envelope. Or, you can write them down in a section
of your notebook or journal, like I do. Just keep building this file,
as these passages may provide some guidance whenever you start a
project.
Another exercise that goes along with this is analyzing what kind of
beginnings tend to grab your attention. These are some examples of
different kinds of beginnings:
Quotation or Bible verses, poetry and others.
Opinion
Question
Other kinds are: Narration, Statistics, and Shocking Revelation, among others.
Now, ask yourself: what kind of beginnings do you like the best?
Which one works for which project? What kind of beginning will work for
your current project?
Now, ask yourself: what kind of beginnings do you like the best?
Which one works for which project? What kind of beginning will work for
your current project? 
Just remember that, when it comes to writing beginnings, this rule always applies: Make Your Readers Want to Stay and Read On.
(c)1999 - 2005. Sheila Ann Manuel Coggins. All rights reserved worldwide.
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