Four M's of a Strong Introduction

The hero sneaks into a top secret facility, narrowly averting various security measures to where he accesses a data point; he uploads intel on the facility to his comrades, then makes his escape, only he falls into enemy hands, and here is where the story begins.

Now, this is probably a little hackneyed. But that's because it works with an alarming consistency.

There are four M's that most strong introductions benefit from. They use these factors together to draw in readers. (Of course, you're welcome to debate these four in the comments section.)

Motion - A story that doesn't start out in motion isn't a story. Action is crucial. Your audience doesn't really buy a book for backstory. I saw an interesting thread here on Goodreads the other day. The initiator asked something like: "Which fantasy world is your favorite?" Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that question, but we generally don't flock to a story for the setting. A fantasy world has mountains, rivers, oceans, dragons (well, sometimes), and maybe even a unicorn, if the writer is into that sort of thing. But setting is only important if the action taking place there is meaningful. That being said, motion is integral, but not just any action will do.

Mentality - I'm going to use mentality here to describe a character's thought process, or the reason why they do what they do. Action for action's sake is generally useless. However, if your action serves to reveal your character, that's when it means something. Take our hero in the introduction of this article. We know he's likely involved in some manner of espionage. He didn't just decide on a whim to invade a top secret facility. We get to see who he is based on what he does. When the action reveals the character it draws in readers.

I read three paragraphs of a free e-book giveaway which I will not name here, with respect to the writer. He wrote the first page about the character, I'm assuming the main character, simply running. Now, running is good. It's action. But unless the character is running toward something or away from something, the action does very little. The character may as well have just gotten out of bed. (We'll come back to that statement.)

I read another story about a month ago where the characters were running throughout the entirety of the story. They were in a triathlon. But this story worked because it wasn't simply action for the sake of action. It gave a glimpse into the character's mentality. The character had been recovering from obesity and was running to show her family she finally could. When she passed the finish line, I cheered with her. I knew why she ran. I knew her mentality.

Mystery - Every book is a mystery, not in the traditional sense of uncovering a dead body necessarily, but in the sense that readers generally like to assemble the pieces of a story like the pieces of a puzzle. You may have seen, at one point, someone with a puzzle glued down and hung on the wall. The assembler is hardly an artist, but he feels as though he accomplished something and he wants others to know it. We meet the reader half way, allow them to assemble the pieces of the puzzle, so that when it comes time to set down the book, she still wants to read some more, discover some more. Perhaps the reader is like a paleontologist. On page one, she unearths a fragment of bone and gets excited about it. She doesn't stop until the pieces are uncovered and she can see the whole creature or at least can imagine what it might look like.

Look at our introductory example. We don't know readily why our hero is invading a top secret facility, what he uploads, or even whether he is in fact the hero. Perhaps, in the grand sceme of things, he's a minor character, and the one coming to rescue him is the hero. Perhaps he is the villain and because of the sensitive information he has just uploaded, our hero needs to stop a global nuclear meltdown.

Here again, I want to emphasize, keep any backstory until it absolutely matters. And if it doesn't, keep it for your own records but don't put it in your book. Anything that will pull readers away from the action and the hero simply isn't worth losing your audience over.

This sense of mystery may be your most important tool.

Learn the question-and-answer approach to storytelling.

Misfortune - This is another must in your introduction. Without misfortune, without friction, the plot falls flat. Generally, we want a happy ending, but how we get there should usually be filled with misfortune.

Remember what was said about a character waking up? Many stories I have read by beginning writers start with the main character waking up. It is generally the worst opening you can give to any story. No one wants to read about a character waking up with morning breath, at least not on page one. In fact, if the character is too preoccupied to sleep (a sense of misfortune), that's generally a good thing.

However, compare Brandon Sanderson's Elantris. In this story, on waking up, the main character is struck with misfortune. In addition, Sanderson put a lot of details about this character, his mentality, in this scene. And because, as readers, we know something is wrong long before we know what, Sanderson developed an excellent hint of mystery.

That being said, there are exceptions to every rule. So I would like to open this article for discussion. What elements do you feel strengthen an introduction? Remember that when we learn from one another, we become better story tellers.

Iffix Y Santaph's debut novella Impulse is the first book in a series of science fiction fairytales for young adults. It is available now from Amazon.com and other online retailers.