September 21, 2020
17 Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention
Today’s post – showing you 17 ways to grab a reader’s attention – is authored by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English.
Fiction is an invitation to journey alongside characters, through places, with affect and a pinch of reflection.
Due to our increased inattention, the first few sentences are a hook in the sea of readers. Seeking our fish’s bite, we must answer at that initial stage: What is this text about? How will it be told?
A walk amongst bookshelves is a stroll beside infinitely many closed doors one may choose to open. Just flip the page and greet a plethora of people dealing with the most diverse situations in as many ways as possible.
Here I offer 17 sneak peeks that captivated me and might inspire you to captivate more readers. Join me on this ringing doorbells spree! (One could also label this techniques for speed dating the reader – preferences…)
Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention: Shock, Surprise, Surrealism
These ways to grab your reader’s attention revolve around destabilizing their sense of reality. It’s basically a defamiliarization process.
Mystery
It was the tenth plane to land in my city that morning. Probably a record for a city that has no airport.
Engage your characters in mysterious situations already at the beginning of the story. Present an apparently meaningless event, or something the reader cannot fully understand at this point in the story. Leaving the mystery unsolved depends on your objectives.
Unusual setting
The flowers in that forest were bigger than the trees.
Present in the first lines an unusual scenery which makes the reader attentive and curious. Describe interesting and uncommon details that make them ask themselves what is this place.
Absurdities
My son hasn’t stopped crying since he found out I served his pet dog at last Sunday’s barbecue.
Shock the reader by a character revealing something unusual, information that makes them want to know more about what happened. Present information that is impossible to ignore.
Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention: Reflection and Reversal
These ways grab readers’ attention by inspiring them to reflect on the situation, often through the use of contrasts and conflicts.
Contradictory statements
When Ana said yes in her wedding ceremony, she was sure it was the best moment of her life. The worst moment came right after it.
Start by sharing a happy or important moment in a character’s life and then create contrast by making something unlikely or bad happen.
Provocation
The more you read, the dumber you get.
Start with a shocking statement that goes against common sense. Challenge an established belief. Even if your readers disagree with it instantly, they will be curious to find out where you got this crazy idea from.
Self-analysis
Yes, I am jealous. Uncontrollably jealous. And I always thought my husband knew that. But a few seconds before I pulled the trigger, I realized by his face that maybe he didn’t know.
Start your story with a character reflecting on their virtues or flaws.
Expectations
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.
Establish certain ideas in the reader’s mind in the first sentences and then surprise their expectations by giving the narrative a different direction than expected.
Conflict
Sit down in this chair and be quiet or I’ll break every bone in your body, one by fucking one, you shit.
Present conflict (or at least the imminent promise of conflict) at the beginning. Put two characters in a confrontational situation and leave the reader distressed to discover what is about to happen.
Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention: Data and Descriptions
Vivid descriptions don’t have to be long and meandering – often this can be a bad idea. But some apt, intelligent presentation of information (exposition, in other words) can be very effective.
Characterizing the protagonist
I am ninety years old. Or ninety-four. I’m almost sure.
Start by presenting some curious feature about the protagonist, showing your readers some essential aspect of their personality.
My precious (object)
That was the first painting in history to be prosecuted for starting a war.
Present an extremely important object for the story and create tension around it. Did it mysteriously disappear? Was it a theft? An accident damaged it? What will happen if it is destroyed? What is its real importance? What if it falls in wrong hands?
Truth
Those who criticize our generation forget who raised us.
Express in a concise sentence a realization about how the world is at the beginning of the text.
Newspaper style
Dear Mr. Gavin. If I find out that you have slept with my wife again, my next letter will not be as polite nor comprised of paper and tint.
Start the narrative in a straightforward manner, presenting a news-like story, maybe an article or a letter. You may also make reference to information or facts the reader knows, or to something that is related to the theme or a character.
Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention: Perspectives and People
If you think about it, writing is an inherently subjective process. Even if you describe facts, even if you think you’re being objective, it’s all about subjectivity. And these points of view, people’s perspectives, can be a great way to grab your reader’s attention.
Comedy
My husband can only feel two things: hunger or lust. When I notice the absence of an erection, I rush to the kitchen and make him a sandwich.
Start with a joke, an anecdote or a funny event. A choice well-suited for broader criticisms (social or political commentary).
Confidant
Two years ago today our daughter died. While my wife cries embraced to a photo album, I cry relieved in secret.
Make the reader a confidant of the protagonist. Create a sense of intimacy by making the character reveal their secrets and most personal desires. Make the reader believe they have complete access to the character’s thoughts.
Running Against the Clock
I woke up to the scent of vomit. Before I could remember exactly what happened, I peeked at my watch and realized I had just under ten minutes until my boss came into the office and found me in my underwear.
Establish a time limit at the beginning of the story for the protagonist to finish a task or reach a goal, making clear the disastrous consequences if they fail in this mission.
Meaning
It may sound cliche because I haven’t fallen in love for a while, but every time we’re near my heart skips a beat.
Use metaphors to describe and illustrate the emotions of your characters. Play with the meaning of words.
Puzzling Question
Do you know the secret to triple your income without changing jobs?
Put an intriguing question in the reader’s mind. You don’t necessarily have to write the question down. Extra points if it’s implicit in how the narrator begins the story.
A Word of Advice
Remember that after such an intro you’ll have to maintain interest in the story at each scene, managing the expectations set out in the first few sentences and paragraphs.
A confident style and an original perspective on the theme of your story are the most effective elements to capture the reader’s attention.
Or, as Julio Cortázar said: “better to have aesthetics without passion, than its terrible opposite: passion without [the adequate] style.”
9 Comments
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I promptly stored a bookmark for this post.
My favorite? Expectations. I’ve seen that one before, in various forms, and it still startled me.
I’m with you: every single scene has to start (and end) with something that keeps the reader’s interest, and pulls them into a scene, and then into wondering what will come next.
I remember reading somewhere that, when you are finished, you should make a long list consisting only of the first and last lines in each scene – and it must tell the story. I don’t think I can tell the story that way – too much plot would have to go into statements that are not designed for that – but every First line/last line pair in my novels gets extra care, and often finding those two lines is what gets me started writing that scene.
Interesting observation on the first/last lines. Perhaps a bit too absolute, but I think it alludes to something definitely true: The beginning and end of narrative structures (paragraphs, scenes, chapters) naturally draw more attention. Which means, an author should make an effort to pack as much punch as possible there.
As in many little writerly ‘tricks,’ this one can be used on TOP of everything else.
You always have a first and a last line – make sure they work.
I didn’t mean it to be absolute, but it has become part of my process, planning the entry and exit from a scene as part of the scene itself, making each scene a complete unit. I think the pace is helpful.
All structure is artificial to some extent, and the story is not a straight recitation of ‘reality,’ but it says to me ‘the author is planning your experience here,’ and points to skill and awareness – which lets the reader relax into the construct.
I didn’t mean it as criticism against your perspective, only against the original premise, calling for the entire story to be told using the first and last line. 🙂
I fully agree with your take on it.
Don’t worry. Even if it were criticism, it’s legitimate – discussions of opinions don’t bother me unless they are deliberate trolling.
Also, your experience is far more academic – I have no expectations of myself in that direction. I’m self-trained and I read that somewhere (about first and last lines being used to tell the whole story), and I don’t believe it – you can’t tell a whole story with only the shocking lines.
But it made me really look at those lines, and delight in finding the right ones.
Funny thing is, I can’t start to write UNTIL I have those lines. I think it is the extreme plotter in me: they are the beginning and the end, and must be a set to feel satisfying.
They also come more easily once you have the practice of thinking them important. And for my ‘process,’ which involves writing and polishing each scene, in order, before moving to the next, and not looking back much, it is crucial to having the ‘ducks in a row’ feeling.
I think of it as almost having a series of short stories, all set in the same universe as the SFF writers do, except you MUST read them in order. Very controlling, I am.
Not a big problem, as most readers DO start at the beginning, and keep going until they get bored.
One of my favorite last lines (after a scene of hard negotiating in NETHERWORLD, under construction):
The Sword of Damocles had left a line in blood on the back of his neck.
A personal favorite last line is from Frankenstein:
He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.
To add to the ongoing conversation, one of my favorite paragraphs, which prompted me to the read the whole (rather short) novel the very first time I picked it up, is the very opener off of Alejandro Zambra’s Bonsái:
And what follows is just as fascinating:
What a lovely example! It reminded me of a scene from an old Brad Pitt film, Legends of the Fall — a rather melodramatic, not too great film, but the scene was:
Brad Pitt’s character asks his younger brother who’s just gotten engaged about his fiancée:
“Have you fucked her yet?”
“We’re talking about my future wife!”
“Oh, you’re not gonna fuck her?”
“No!”
“No?”
“No! I’m planning to… to be with her.”
“Well, I recommend fucking.”