I’ve talked on several occasions about the importance of beginnings and endings. Whether in regards to your entire manuscript, the chapters or the individual scenes, it is important to use these moments to hook your reader.
Now I’m going to break this down one step further, to talk about sentences and paragraphs, and the concept of front-loading and back-loading.
Let’s look at each of these writing techniques individually.
Front-loading
This entails putting the important details, special information and keywords at the front of sentences, headings and/or paragraphs.
Why use front-loading?
- Identify the theme or purpose of the sentence/paragraph
- Readers are less likely to get bored
Examples:
The room was filled with stuffy scientists.
🡺 Stuffy scientists filled the room.
My body registered the shock.
🡺 Shock ricocheted through my body.
I could block out the stench, the sense of Gideon’s body wasn’t so easy.
🡺 The stench of garlic and second-day socks I could block out, the sense of Gideon’s body wasn’t so easy.
And of course, if you’re looking at promoting your wonderful story, front-loading is a must.
Enter my competition and win a free copy of my new book.
🡺 Win a free copy of my book—enter my competition now
Back-loading
In contrast to the above, back-loading entails placing the important details, special information and keywords at the end of the sentence, heading and/or paragraph.
By using this technique, sentences/paragraphs are highlighted with powerful endings, instead of hiding these strong themes in the middle of the sentence/paragraph where they can be lost.
Why use back-loading?
- Hook the reader into reading the next sentence, paragraph or scene by ending with a strong word or series of words
- Ends your sentence, paragraph or scene with a bang
- Strong themes are highlighted and not lost somewhere in the middle of narration.
- Ending sentences with strong words can help speed up the pace of your writing
Examples:
I plonked his patty and onions onto the grill, then turned back round to glare at him.
🡺 I plonked his patty and onions onto the grill, then turned back round to give him the glare.
Sue Williams, Murder with the Lot
Jayda retaliated with an eye-roll and a grumble from lack-of-sleep.
🡺 Jayda retaliated with an eye-roll and lack-of-sleep grumble.
Michelle Somers, Lethal in Love
"Sure, because I can see why you'd need to sell knickers using night-vision goggles."
🡺 "Sure, because I can see why you'd need night-vision goggles for selling knickers."
Janet Elizabeth Henderson, Lingerie Wars
Now, take a look at these paragraphs. See how the last word, even the last sentence, is designed to pack a punch.
Lacy moaned. Normally Sue’s perkiness didn’t bother her. But normally, Lacy didn’t have a murderer hiding in her bathroom.
🡺 Lacy moaned. Normally Sue’s perkiness didn’t bother her. But normally, Lacy’s bathroom didn’t shield a murderer.
Christie Craig, Divorced, Desperate and Delicious
I might have blinked— I’m really not sure about that either— and when I looked again, Elizabeth was gone.
🡺 I might have blinked— I’m really not sure about that either— and when I looked again, Elizabeth had vanished.
Harlan Coben, Tell No One
If I wanted to hide somewhere there’s no way I’d choose Rusty Bore. A hundred and forty-seven residents and every single one of them is watching. No one here forgets a thing. Especially your mistakes.
Sue Williams, Murder with the Lot
His suit was torn, blood staining the shredded sleeve.
🡺 His suit was torn, the sleeve shredded and bloodstained.
Sue Williams, Murder with the Lot
As with all writing craft, use front-loading and back-loading with discretion. Pick your moments. You won’t use this skill with every sentence or paragraph, but you will want to use it for those moments of impact or emphasis.
As you edit, why not take a look at your sentence structure? Can you tweak the word order to maximize impact? Are there opportunities to start or end sentences/paragraphs with strength? With strong words or strong themes?
And that’s all folks!
I hope I’ve given you food for thought on how to load your sentences or paragraphs for impact.
Firstly, thank you all for coming back this month. I really appreciate every one of you reading, commenting and sharing my posts.
Once again, I’m offering one lucky commenter a half hour skype session to discuss anything writing related. It could be your query, your synopsis or 300 words from your current work in progress. Yes, you heard right. We get to chat, face-to-face—or computer screen to computer screen—about whatever it is about your writing you’d like to discuss.
To enter the draw, please comment below and share the most surprising or useful thing you’ve learned since reading my Simply Writing blogs. Or perhaps you can pinpoint exactly how you’ll tweak parts of your current WIP to front or back-load.
Any and all comments welcome! I love reading your feedback and input each month ☺ and much as this blog isn’t set up for notifications, I always ALWAYS answer your comments. So make sure you pop back to check my replies ☺
If you’d like extra chances to win, share links to this blog on any or all social media sites. Tag me so I know you’ve shared, and the more shares, the more times I’ll place your name in the draw.
A name will be drawn in a week’s time, around Thursday 18th July and winners will be notified on the blog, so keep your eyes and ears peeled. Make sure you revisit the blog or watch my facebook posts to see when I’ve picked a winner ☺
Thanks so much to you all for stopping by. I won’t be blogging in August—it’s a crazy month and of course we have the fabulous RWA conference to look forward to. I hope to see many of you there. Please pop over and say ‘hi’. ☺
Have a fabulous month, and I’ll see you all again in September ☺
Michelle xx