🥑 find your purpose

“Why am I reading this?”

Whether or not the reader asking this question out loud, you have the opportunity to answer it in every scene. Make your answer a good one.

Consider these opening lines:

Violence. Mystery. Discovery. Justice. Those are the promises being telegraphed here. But instead of a classic whodunit, the author sets up a different kind of story.

“My name was Salmon.” “I was murdered.”

This story isn’t about solving a crime. It’s about processing the grief of your own untimely death. And these word choices tell us what kind of story we’re getting into.

When you’re revising your scene, ask yourself: What’s the purpose of this scene? Then shape your opening line to draw the reader into that purpose.

Next time: emotional perception.

Want feedback on your own scene starters? Reply to this email with an opening line from one of your scenes and I may use it in a future Bite.

Thanks for reading Avocado Bites!

^{Avocado Bites is a publication of Avocado Tree Press, LLC, that helps you revise your stories one bite at a time. We love working with indie and traditionally published authors on fiction manuscripts—and if that’s you, welcome to our target audience.}

^{Ready for a sample edit? Here’s our site.}

^{Addison Horner is the chief editor of Avocado Tree Press. Here’s his newsletter. It’s different but still pretty good.}