“What is the writer’s first job?”
Award-winning mystery novelist Reed Farrel Coleman asked the question at a recent workshop sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America.
A few attendees ventured educated guesses like “develop plot” or “sit down and write.”
Some enlightened soul soon voiced the answer Coleman was seeking: “To entertain.”
Exactly. He expanded this concept by restating it as “to engage the reader.”
The goal of the first sentence is to grab readers by the throat and convince them to read the second sentence, which is designed to propel readers toward the next sentence… and the next… and the next.
