By Sean Brenner
“Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.” — Terry Prachet, The Hogfather
Writing intros can be a painful process.
A blank page can be intimidating to the point that just making the effort to start is difficult. Where do you begin? This question can become overwhelming, and eventually, just thinking about it puts you off.
A good intro has a lot to cover. It needs to introduce your topic and the major points you make in your manuscript. It also has to get readers interested enough to keep reading, and to do so quickly and succinctly. It can be frustrating trying to make it all work.
For any kind of writing that needs an introduction, from a blog post to a report, the function and basic structure of an intro is typically the same as it is for college essays. You might have more freedom with formatting and presentation than a college essay gives, but the basics are the same. You start with a hook—a quick sentence or two meant to attract the reader’s interest and prime them to think about your topic. Then, you briefly introduce the core elements of your topic and present your thesis, the main argument of your manuscript.
It’s a simple format, but it can be grueling to get right. Fortunately, there are a few tricks you can use to ease the pain of writing intros. Here are two of my favorites:
Do It Later
Just because your finished product will start with the intro doesn’t mean you need to write the intro first. Many writers start in the middle and come back to the intro later, after they’ve fleshed out the bulk of the manuscript. This helps because writing the body section will clarify your topic, making it easier to introduce.
Sometimes people think of writing as a linear process, a matter of translating the abstract concepts in your head into concrete sentences on the page. But writing is more dynamic than that. The idea and draft inform each other as you write, shaping and refining each other.
When you start with the intro, it might be your first attempt at clarifying your topic—while trying to address the different aspects of your topic succinctly. By starting with the body instead, you’re developing your topic first, making it easier to summarize in the intro later.
Start with the Thesis
In a college essay, an introduction culminates in one sentence that clearly states your main argument or objective. Whether or not you include a thesis statement in your final manuscript, writing one at the beginning of your process can help you clearly summarize your topic.
Think of it this way: your thesis is what your intro is supposed to build up to. Working backward allows you to know what you’re building up to. You’ll get a better idea of what concepts you need to introduce before diving into the main topic.
From there, you just need to figure out a good hook, which is also easier when you know what the hook is going to transition to. The hook is an emotional connection. It should incite a strong feeling, curiosity, or tension in the reader, encouraging them to keep reading. Most importantly, it should transition smoothly into your thesis, so that once the reader is invested, the structure of the text gives them no choice but to keep going.
Getting Started is the Key
As I wrote in my last post, a lot of what’s intimidating about beginning a manuscript stems from not knowing where to start. These two methods will help you get something on the page, and more often than not, that will motivate you to keep writing. What matters is that you get words on the page; once you’ve done that, the whole process becomes much easier.
Next time you get stuck on an intro, try one of these methods. And let me know how it goes in the comments below!
Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar forms of content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars lore for Frontier Media and Star Trek for Trek Central. You can learn more about his work at Imagined Worlds Writing Services and find him on Bluesky.
