Start in the Middle
Lights up. The scene is a plush office in a bustling metropolis. A large man in a silk suit buzzes a younger, leaner, more nervous-looking man into his office. They greet each other and exchange a few minutes of small talk about the national industry trends, the latest headlines, the word on the street. The bigger man asks the smaller man to have a seat, then perches on the edge of his desk and speaks in apologetic tones to the smaller man about the company’s current challenges before dropping the reason he’s called the fellow in.
The smaller man yells, “What do you mean, I’m fired?”
Curtain. End of scene — or is it the beginning?
Yes, the opening paragraph sets a tone — it prepares the audience for a looming crisis in the conversation, gives us background information, and so on. A playwright or novelist could, in fact, draw that scene out for several minutes or pages to build suspense, especially if the audience has an idea of what’s coming to the poor dope in the chair.
Or we could do this:
Lights up. “What do you mean, I’m fired?”
Which opening gets our attention faster and propels us into the scene more forcefully?
One of the most useful things my playwriting instructors used to harp about was to “start in the middle.” Atmosphere and exposition have their uses, but the story doesn’t start until something happens.
Marketing writing sometimes suffers from this kind of foot dragging. I think we have it drilled into us when we’re writing those five-paragraph essays in school: “I will now talk about this, and I will support my thesis with these paragraphs, and in summary here’s my conclusion.” It’s linear, it’s clear, and it’s easy to grade. But it’s also predictable, and if you always know what’s coming next in a marketing piece, you might as well stop reading it and get back to work.
It’s fun to tease readers that something big is coming soon if they’ll just be patient and bear with you, but they may not feel like waiting for the drum roll. If your readers or website visitors aren’t sticking around for the exciting part, try dropping them right into the exciting part instead. Save the boring part for — well, nothing, actually. Boring doesn’t belong in marketing, so throw the boring part out. Fill your audience in on the details after you’ve hooked them, because without the hook, I guarantee you the details won’t matter.
Curtain.
