James Patterson is the world's bestselling author due to his ability to grab the reader's attention.
"For three weeks, the young killer lived inside the walls of an extraordinary fifteen room beach house" is the opening sentence of Kiss the Girls.
The opening of a presentation needs to be strong enough to catch the attention of the audience. It's one of the things James Patterson taught me during a recent conversation about his new memoir.
He said that first lines could give you an advantage. "Quickly grab your reader's attention"
Your audience wants to know what's going on. They would like to be entertained. There are four ways to get them to do something.
If they're interested in what you're talking about now, they won't care about what you're talking about later. Before you set the scene, save the agenda or schedule.
It's important to set the scene in order to get the audience into the story.
One of my favorite examples of setting the scene is a talk by a brain researcher at the TED conference.
Bolte-Taylor said she practiced the opening more than 100 times.
A blood vessel exploded in the left half of my brain on December 10, 1996, waking me up. In the course of four hours, my brain stopped processing all information. I couldn't walk, talk, read, or write on the day of the hemorrhage. I was a baby in a woman's body.
After opening, I'm all in. I would like to know what's going to happen next.
The opening scene of Bolte-Taylor's TED talk has attracted more than 30 million views.
Setting a scene is a good way to get the attention of the person listening. It is possible to set the tone and style of the presentation.
"Hello, I'm Stephen King" is often the start of a speech, according to the man. Many of his fans know that the two writers are not very close. The lines show that the audience shouldn't expect the speech to be serious and that they should just enjoy it.
Sir Ken Robinson used self-deprecating humor to deliver the most viewedTED talk of all time. I'm interested in education. This is very intriguing to me. If you work in education, you aren't asked if you work at dinner parties.
Robinson's TED talk has been viewed more than 75 million times because he started with a laugh and kept his funny insights throughout.
Put a red pencil in your mouth and write. Rewriting isn't a sign that something isn't right. It shows you're committed to excellence. When it comes to writing a chapter, most of the time is spent on the first line.
It's hard to grab any audience. It takes a lot of time and dedication to get a strong opening, but it will be worth it when your audience appreciates it.
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