Friday, October 11, 2013

First Paragraph

Read Zechariah 11-14

Zechariah 14:9 "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one."

The first paragraph needs to capture a reader’s interest. For fiction, it should set the tone for the story.

Fiction might begin with one word of dialogue, but in the next paragraph it needs to orient the reader about who, when, and where. Nonfiction has several ways to write that first paragraph, too.

Newspapers want all the Ws answered: who, what, when, where, and an introduction to the why and how that becomes the body of the article. Other nonfiction first paragraphs might be an anecdote or a question—anything that will get a reader hooked enough to continue reading while also being a crucial part of the article and not just a trick.

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