Tip 2: Dealing with the opening -- style and flashback

So last time we looked at finding the action.  It's so important to start with something that catches your reader's attention.  It's generally called an "arresting image." You want to arrest the reader's attention and hold it captive.

If you can combine your arresting image with similarly compelling language you have a winning opening.  A stylistic technique I am very fond of is the short, clipped sentence.  Here are some examples: "It started to hurt.  It started to really hurt."  Or "I am Batman."  Or "I am lost.  Utterly, irrevocably lost." These are short, intense, and lead the reader to immediately wonder where this is going without taking more than a second. These are two huge factors--interest and movement.  You never want your story to hit the doldrums.  The style of your sentences can make this happen even if not much actual action is happening.

Remember the material you cut in the previous post--the stuff that's just introductory? What do you do with you it?  Use a Flashback.  Flashbacks can be clumsy and distracting or they can be masterful, offering us just enough information to give us context and help us understand the bigger picture that your essay is going to communicate--the bigger picture being "the real you!"

Return to that boring introduction now.  Look for essential details.  Look for key background information.  Underline, highlight, circle them. And I mean KEY and ESSENTIAL.  Setting is usually important (time and place).  Some details that serve a clear purpose such as revealing personality quirks or feelings can be helpful, too.  But let's keep them to a minimum.  Once the initial action has started to trail off (you'd call this the falling action in your freshman English course), now is the time to throw in a short flashback that offers context.  But if you take too long, your amazing arresting image will come to naught.  So don't dally and move on to the next portion of your essay.

Now that you have your audience's attention, you don't want to lose it by going off track.  Stick to your story, move it along quickly.  And make sure you Show Don't Tell!