How to Write Effective Beginnings

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How to Write Effective Beginnings
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Effective Beginning Strategies

• Ask questions
• State a fact
• Use dialogue or quote
• Invite reader into the scene
• Explain a problem
• Use five senses to entice reader

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Once upon a time..
My name is and Im going to write about
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Ask questions

• Where's Papa going with that ax? said Fern
  to her mother as they were setting the table for
  breakfast. (from E.B. Whites Charlottes Web)

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State a fact

• There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. (from
  Louis Sachars Holes)
• Its a funny thing about mothers and fathers.
  Even when their own child is the most disgusting
  little blister you could ever imagine, they still
  think that he or she is wonderful. (from Roald
  Dahls Matilda)

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Use dialogue or quote

• I am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big
  sister Beezus. Then stop acting like a pest,
  said Beezus, whose real name was Beatrice. (from
  Beverly Clearys Ramona the Pest)

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Invite reader into the scene

• The road that led to Treegap had been trod out
  long before by a herd of cows who were, to say
  the least, relaxed. (from Natalie Babbitts Tuck
  Everlasting)
• A sailing ship with two great sidewheels went
  splashing out of Boston harbor on a voyage around
  the Horn to San Francisco. Below decks, in the
  creaking darkness of her cargo hold, there sat
  eighteen barrels of potatoes. Inside two barrels,
  side by side, there squatted two stowaways. It
  was not once upon a time it was precisely the
  twenty-seventh day of January in the year 1849.
  Gold had been discovered in California some
  twelve months before an now, in a rush, the Gold
  Rush was on. (from Sid Fleischmans By the Great
  Horn Spoon)

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Explain a problem

• And they lived happily ever after. Not the
  Tillermans. Dicey thought. That wasnt the way
  things went for the Tillermans, ever. She wasnt
  about to let that get her down. She couldnt let
  it get her down- that was what had happened to
  Momma. (from Cynthia Voights Diceys Song)

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Use five senses to entice reader

• In the city of Ember, the sky was always dark.
  The only light came from great flood lamps
  mounted on the buildings and at the tops of poles
  in the middle of the larger squares. When the
  lights were on, they cast a yellowish glow over
  the streets (from Jeanne Dupraus The City of
  Ember)

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Grab your readers attention

• If you are interested in stories with happy
  endings, you would be better off reading some
  other book.  (from Lemony Snickets The Bad
  Beginning A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book
  1)
• My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my
  daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a
  box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and
  two tomatoes and I came back with a dog. (from
  Kate DiCamillos Because of Winn Dixie)

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How will YOU begin YOUR writing?
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Your assignment

• Choose two of the following topics to practice
  writing. Use two different effective beginning
  strategies.

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Lake Tahoe
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Disneyland
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Marine World
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In-n-Out
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A Famous Person
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Outdoor Education
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• Effective Beginnings
• Ask questions
• State a fact
• Use dialogue or quote
• Invite reader into the scene
• Explain a problem
• Use five senses to entice reader

• Writing Topics
• Lake Tahoe
• Disneyland
• Marine World
• In-n-Out
• A Famous Person
• Outdoor Education