Start Your Story With Killer Intro.

Posted by Tiger Arnold on October 4, 2009

The formal definition of an intro is a brief introductory passage. What is important is that you get the story right; it needs to encapsulate the essence or spirit of your overall point, try communicating through example. Capturing the essence is not enough; if nobody reads far enough to grasp the main point of the story then its purpose is lost.

If you have decided to write the intro, make sure that it is brief. Write a headline corresponding to the intro content because readers expect that the headline should reflect what is mentioned in the content below it. Your reader is not going to be spending much time on the intro when it talks about sports when the headline says vacations.

Even if the intro, at its end, would have captured the essence of what the author was trying to say. Ask yourself; is it short enough that a reader won’t lose patience before the writing returns to the topic at hand?

In this piece above, you can see that the intro is pretty short. This is the kind of intro that works with the audience because the reader is aware of what they are reading and absorbing it fully. The reader knows what the article is about in a broad sense and therefore they know what to expect inside the story.

Thus, if you write a very long introduction which does not relate to the headline, you would be putting down reader interest in an otherwise engaging story.

In case you use big anecdote, you must let your reader be aware of how it is connected to your subject, otherwise you will find that readers will opt out of reading your topic, even before you bring out your point.

More essence in fewer words; the function of an introduction is to convey something about your broader point.

So, what you need to do is think about your intro is a broader sense and then bring out details that will help to bring this forth clearer and omit those which don’t. It’s better to leave out details such as dates, names, descriptions and diversions when they are not relevant to the main point presented in the anecdote, as they will not distract the reader from the real point you wish to make.

Check out my site mentioned in the Author field to get even more details about this and find out more on what inspired me to write out this article.

Writing an introductory passage with utmost concern is highly important to get a good introductory passage. This is important because this is the lead to the story at hand. So, it’s important to consider your story in a broader sense and only bring in those details which bring this out and leave out those that don’t.