Mastering the Scene Drop Intro: A Powerful Start for Any Writing Piece (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Today's move is a helpful one because it helps us begin a piece of writing and it can help us begin almost any piece of writing. If you're like me, getting started is the hardest part, knowing what are those first words and sentences I should put down on my blank page. Today's move that's going to help us do that is a scene drop intro. Let's take a look at a scene drop intro by Michael Levy writing for the New York Times. The tattered remains of an orange tent flap in the wind. A single rope dangles from a 300 foot wall of rock. The sound of crampons squeaking on snow and ice breaks the silence. Only one backpack appears and it belongs to Yost Kobusch. So in this article, Michael Levy is actually writing a profile. It's a piece of informational writing about a hiker, a mountaineer really, who is the only mountaineer who is trying to climb Mount Everest in the winter this year and he is the only man on Mount Everest. Now he is not writing a narrative. This is not a story about this hiker. This is a piece of informational writing about the hiker. However, Michael Levy, our writer, starts with narrative. And that is the heart of a scene drop intro. Instead of starting with facts, instead of starting with information, the writer drops the reader into a scene of a story. So that from the very first words and sentences, we feel like we are standing right there witnessing this action unfold. After this scene drop intro, Michael Levy is going to get into the facts. He's going to get into the interview that he did with this mountaineer. He's going to get into the details of the information he wants to share. But he lures us in and makes us feel a part of that information by beginning with a story. One way he does this is by using sensory details. We get some visual details here and here. And we get some sound details right here in the middle. He's painting a picture of the action so that the reader feels like they are in the story standing right beside this hiker. I also want to point your attention to something interesting that Michael Levy does right here. He actually starts with two sentence fragments. The tattered remains of an orange tent flap in the wind. A single rope dangles from a 300-foot wall. The interesting thing about beginning with this fragment and then moving into these more complete sentences is it kind of pushes the reader deeper into the story. That incomplete thought up top, the tattered remains of an orange tent flap in the wind, leaves the reader wanting more. And so it propels the reader into these complete sentences that follow. Let's take a look at other writers who use the scene drop intro. So here are some questions to help you decide if you want to use the scene drop intro. Are there places where you want to propel your reader into the heart of your writing? And you might be able to do that by beginning with some narrative elements. Do you have a piece of writing where you would like a way to begin that feels interesting and gripping but doesn't feel cliche? Where could you use some visual elements and some sound details to bring your reader into the story so they're standing right beside you, the writer, in the middle of the action before you follow up with argument or analysis or facts? Thanks for watching. Please like and subscribe so you don't miss any mini-moves for writers.