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“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” That’s the first line in George Orwell’s 1984, which is a 75 year-old book that seems based on what’s going on right now in our world.

But that’s for a different post.

This is about killer first sentences.

For reasons unclear to me, most of us are taught not to drop our listeners right into the action like that.

But when every second – every word – counts when it comes to a listener’s ever-shortening attention span, I say grab ’em by the ears with that very first sentence.

Say something so compelling, so unexpected that it forces them to turn the volume up and actually listen, right there as you begin after your song ends.

Take the first sentence in Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” 

Killer first sentences draw your listener in closer.

They generate instant anticipation and create listening, real listening, rather than passive hearing.

We can’t wait for what comes next. That’s what you want every time you speak.

Think about what you want to say.

Thank about how best to say it.

How to shock their ears.

How to surprise and upend expectations.

You’ve only got a few seconds to either hook ’em or lose them to the din around them.

Make your first few words killers!

*inspired by an article in Ad Age