P30 – Day 8: The First Five Seconds and You
For, usually and fitly, the presence of an introduction is held to imply that there is something of consequence and importance to be introduced. ~ Arthur Machen
You’ve seen that Mentos & Coke video, right?
The one where the guys with far too much time on their hands decide to shove some Mentos candy into a 2-liter bottle of Coke and run for their lives, since two seconds later, the chemical reaction turns the bottle into a streaming geyser of crazy cola-scented fun?
Explosive Exposition
Your first paragraph needs to explode like a minted bottle of soda, because if it doesn’t, a large percentage of people won’t bother reading any further. All of your excellent content, no matter how well-crafted or well-researched, will end up in a virtual drawer somewhere, gathering bits of cyberdust.
You have, literally, one shot to grab those customers by the face and make them want to devour the rest of your product. That means that of all the parts you’re writing over the next week or so, the introduction is going to be the most important.
How you do this is going to be largely dependent upon your audience. Are they excited by facts and figures? Are they creative, storyteller types? Do they want to be heard, empathized with? Maybe they’re more of a cause-and-effect audience, and need to be shown the problem before they can accept your solution.
The audience will dictate the form your exploding bottle has to take. And no matter how you feel about sales, make no mistake — your introduction will be selling the rest of your content.
ACTION TASK:
Feel free to leave this until later if you want to get a handle on the rest of your content first — for some, leaving the introduction until the very end is a much better strategy, and for others, writing that killer introduction will set the tone for the rest of the writing. (Which is why we’re mentioning it first, rather than waiting.)
If you’re a set-the-tone type of writer, reread your first paragraph. (Or think about it before putting pen to paper.) If you were your target audience, how would you react to it? How would you need to be reached, captivated, intrigued? What would make you want to read the rest of the work? What would make you feel like the writer knew you and was talking directly to you?
If you’re more of a write-it-last type of writer, keep your introduction in mind while you’re writing other things today. Be thinking of ways you can introduce your material to your target audience that will explode like a mint-filled bottle.
TOMORROW:
From grabbing the attention to keeping the attention…we’re going to talk a little bit about your headings and subheadings, and some great ways to keep people interested and engaged all the way through. Now get writing!
Elli and Tim
