Nonfiction Ink

In the previous two posts we looked at how to select which opening works best for your book or specific chapters and reviewed three effective leads: the Anecdote / CaseStudy, the Quotation opening, and the Descriptive or Narrative lead. In this post we analyze five additional opening techniques.

4. ONE-LINE HOOK
The one line hook captures your entire thesis, theory, or belief in one sentence (or two short sentences). It is a powerful statement that immediately tells the reader what to expect.

Other cities have histories. Los Angeles has legends. (“L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City” by John Buntin)

5. STATISTICAL INFORMATION
Leads that contain statistical information are not reserved for purely academic books. When used effectively, they can draw the reader into the topic, especially when they reveal the unexpected.

You have a burning desire to write a nonfiction book. Join the crowd. You might be surprised to learn how many people are writing a book. According to a survey from the Jenkins Group, Inc., a Michigan publishing service firm, 81 percent of Americans feel they should write a book. They estimate that more than 6 million Americans have actually written a manuscript – just over 2 percent of the population. Publisher’s Weekly recently reported that more than 1,000 books were published each week in 2003. (“Book Proposals That Sell” by W. Terry Whalin)

6. THEMATIC LEAD
Thematic leads begin with a statement expressing the theme of your book. They engage readers through sharing a universal quality of the human experience. Or they may provide a wrap-up of your thesis. They can work well for books based on research as well as personal stories, such as travelogues, adventures, and memoir.

To go beyond the anthropological and social symbolism of wolves we must rely on the fieldwork of the researcher, for it is the researcher who confronts the questions in the minds and on the lips of the public, and who tries to sort out, in a systematic way, the factors that induce the wolf to behave as it does. (“Following the Pack: The World of Wolf Research” by Mike Link and Kate Crowley)

7. QUESTION
An effective and well-constructed question can evoke careful thought and consideration, causing a desire in the reader to continue reading. But a poorly written, rhetorical question often leads to a reader feeling annoyed, manipulated, and bored (“Do you want to make a lot of money?”)

Does your brand ace the “Worth-It Test” in the minds of buyers? In side-by-side comparisons to key competitors, does your brand prevail? If your firm is like most, very little time gets spent on probing these fundamental questions. Yet, ironically, your customers are surely asking them. Using the Internet search engines, your customers are relentlessly comparing… (“Taming the Search and Switch Customer” by Jill Griffin)

8. COMPARISON
Comparing two items, ideas, people, or places and contrasting their differences or affirming their similarities can create an intriguing lead. Comparisons or analogies can be literal, metaphorical, or symbolic. (“A good book is like a best friend…”)

The publishing world is changing. If you’re reading this book, you probably already know that. Most traditional publishers – those who front all the costs associated with publishing – are no longer risking dollars on new authors the way they did five years ago. Luckily, thanks to advances in digital printing and the Internet, new authors are realizing that they don’t really need traditional publishers. They can self-publish. (“The Fine Print Of Self-Publishing” by Mark Levine

STAY-TUNED: the final installment of How To Begin Your Nonfiction Book will explore 4 more lead techniques.

In the last post we explored how to select which opening works best for your book or specific chapters. In this post, we will look at three effective leads: the Anecdote / Case Study, the Quotation opening, and the Descriptive or Narrative lead.

1. ANECDOTE OR CASE STUDY
Anecdotes and case histories create an immediate connection with the reader and engage him or her in the human experience. Effective stories reflect the demographic of the reader and may be based on real or fictionalized people.

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. Papa came back swinging with, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” some say he called it his best work. Others dismiss the anecdote as folktale. Either way, the six-word story was born, and it’s been popping around the writing world for years. (“Six-Word Memoirs” edited by Smith Magazine)

2. QUOTATION
If you begin the first chapter with a quotation, it should speak directly to the topic and style of your book.

Andy Warhol, the successful American painter, said “In the future, everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame.” In truth, we Americans love our celebrities, and we are always creating new ones. This is becoming even more prevalent in our rapidly increasing ‘reality’ culture of blockbuster television shows like ‘American Idol’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ If you can become a celebrity, the world is yours, albeit hopefully for more than 15 minutes. (“Celebrity Branding You” by J.W. Dicks and Nick Nanton)

3. DESCRIPTIVE OR NARRATIVE LEAD
These openings tell a narrative or descriptive story. Unlike an anecdote or case history, a descriptive or narrative lead does not focus on a case study or personal problem. They may highlight description, places, people, events or an inciting incident. They are most often used for narrative nonfiction: memoir, historical, current events, travelogues, true crime and biography.

In a tourist town on the white-sun Spanish coast, an old man was passing his last years an American grandfather with a snowy white crewcut and a glint in his turquoise eyes. At seventy he was still lean and alert, with high, slanting cheekbones, a sharp chin, and those clear-frame eyeglasses that made him look like a minor-league academic. He spent much of his time holed up in his cluttered garage apartment, watching the BBC on a flickering black-and-white television, surrpunded by bottles of Jack Daniel’s and pills and his memories. If you met him down on the beach, he came across as a gentle soul with a soft laugh. Almost certainly he was the most pleasant murderer you’d ever want to meet. (“Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934” by Bryan Burrough)

STAY-TUNED: the next post will explore 5 more effective opening techniques.

Beginning the actual writing process of your first book can be intimidating. But with an understanding of the most common techniques and a few options to choose from, you should have the confidence to begin. Once you have your research completed and your outline drafted, it’s time to start writing.

The length of your beginning, the style, and the tone will depend on your specific subject. For nonfiction books the opening section is often the entire first chapter and may launch with one of the following:

1. Anecdote or Case Study
2. Quotation
3. Descriptive or Narrative Lead
4. One-Line Hook
5. Statistical Information
6. Theme
7. Question
8. Comparison
9. Directly Addressing the Reader
10. Journalistic Lead
11. Factual
12. Summary

Each of these techniques can be used to open a book or subsequent chapters.

How Do You Select The Opening That Is Right For Your Book (or Book Chapters)?
One technique for crafting an effective opening is to analyze the needs, expectations, and intent of the lead. Here are questions you can ask to determine the best opening for your subject.

• Who is your reader? Is your reader over 50 years old and retired, a twenty-something, recent graduate looking to launch a tech start-up, or a single 30 year-old mom, trying to balance career and family?
• What is the purpose of the opening? Is it to inform, entertain, educate, instruct, motivate, inspire, persuade, enrage, provoke, or connect?
• What is the promise you want to deliver? Is it how to obtain wealth, fitness, love, knowledge, understanding, appreciate, explore, travel, learn, etc.?
• What is the emotional reaction you want to evoke in the reader? Is it to capture their attention, create intrigue, make them laugh, arouse curiosity, deliver motivation, etc?
• Evaluate how well your opening lead achieves your goals. Does it speak to your reader, serve its purpose, deliver what’s promised, and evoke the intended emotion?

STAY-TUNED: the next three posts will examine and provide an example of each type of opening technique.