How I Write Clips: "If you don't have a solid introduction, you don't have a book worth reading. Her"

If you don't have a solid introduction, you don't have a book worth reading. Here's Ryan Holiday: "The introduction has to grab you by the throat and make a statement." "I'm trying to introduce the central metaphor of the project, the central conceit of the book." "It's very hard to figure out shape, structure, form as you go. You gotta figure that out from the beginning, or else it just becomes unwieldy."

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William Fitzpatrick@WriterScience·5d

Introductions need to do more than hook the reader and make a statement. They need to establish the value of that statement. Readers don't value hooks and metaphors; they value problems and solutions. Here's a 3-part structure for effective introductions: x.com/WriterScience/…

William Fitzpatrick@WriterScience

Hooks don't work. Readers trade attention for value. And value lives not in a topic that you find interesting but in a problem that readers care about. So what should your first paragraph do, if not hook? After analyzing hundreds of essay introductions, I found three moves that work: 1) Open on a status quo, something that readers already grant. Get their head nodding in agreement. 2) Break the status quo with a destabilizing condition. Signal this with But or However. 3) Establish the cost of ignoring it. Importantly, connect this cost to your specific reader (or to someone they care about). Those three moves set up the problem. The thesis of your essay is the solution. A problem the reader cares about beats any hook. Problems earn attention by offering value. Hooks are just a cheap jolt performing novelty.

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