When my daughter was in second grade, she wrote a story. The first line was “It all started with ordinary carrots”.
Why does that work? Because it makes you want to read on. It could have started with “Once there were some carrots.” But that leads you nowhere. What could possibly happen to plain old carrots that would create a story? If you want to know, you’ll have to keep reading!
I don’t remember the rest of it, but I’ll always remember that first sentence. I don’t think my 7-year-old knew at time that she got it right. Sometimes we stumble into something that just works.
But we can learn from this. You don’t have to stumble into it. Learn to do it consciously. Write in a way that makes us want to keep going. That is called narrative drive. When you have narrative drive, you have a page-turner. It could be in any genre. It can be literary or commercial. Whatever it is, the skill of hooking our attention and keeping it should never be underrated. It can be applied to anything—a business report, a school paper, a news story, or a bestselling novel.
Homework assignment: Take one of your favorite books off the shelf and read the first page. Why does it work? Break it down piece by piece to see how it flows. How does it make ordinary carrots come alive?
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