Hey, folks,

My brain is still a little on the fritz from Readercon, which was great but also a lot for a pandemic-reinforced introvert such as myself. However, I’m hoping that a little rest will lead to clarity and productiveness (one often hopes such things) and in the meantime I thought I’d come chat with you about the fine art and craft (but not science) of opening a story in a way that engages the reader.

There’s a lot of bad and categorical advice out there about what a good story opening looks like, and because it’s a topic that recently came up in a couple of writer spaces I hang around in this seemed like a good time to tackle it. (We’re always looking for grist for the mill, after all.

I won’t be offering much in the way of categorical advice, but I have got a few tricks that have worked for me over the years. And a few things that often don’t work for reasons I can explain.