The Beginner’s Guide to Medium Introductions

How you begin a story can make or break it

You just spent hours putting your heart and soul into your Medium story. You edited each sentence. You tweaked your title and subtitle. You ran your story through a grammar check tool.

There’s only one important thing you didn’t do…

You didn’t make your introduction compelling enough.

You are kicking yourself. It shows up a couple of days later when you check your stats and you find your story had a low read ratio.

Have you been there? I have and I’m going to show you in this story that how you begin a Medium story can make or break it.

What makes a story introduction so powerful?

Stir your reader’s curiosity. You should always think about this when you write your stories. Curiosity is like a magnet that pulls your reader into your story and makes them want to read on.

Right behind your title and subtitle, your introduction is the next most important thing. Your introduction must capture the reader immediately with a compelling story or they will move on to the next Medium story.

When you are writing your introduction, you should ask yourself. Is it fresh? It is different? Can I add humor? Is it interesting? Does it make the reader think differently about a topic? Does the reader understand the story within the first paragraph or two?

What’s the goal of an introduction?

To better understand the power of an introduction, you should be mindful of its purpose. The main goal is to draw in your reader and give them a teaser for what your story is about.

Generally speaking, it consists of three main components: grab’s the reader’s attention, explain the reason for why the story was written, and explain how the story will address the problem that was presented.

To grab your reader’s attention, you need to hook your reader from the start. A first good impression is critical. Then, you need to present the reason for your story, confirm your story’s importance and give them reasons for why they should keep reading. Finally, you should explain how the story will address their problem with a solution. It’s important to quickly get to the point of your story. In other words, your introduction should set expectations.

Let’s dive into the good and bad of my Medium introductions so you can see an introduction in action.

Here’s an example of my best introduction

The death of a loved one. Divorce. Loss of a job. Financial obligations. Getting married. Moving to a new home. Chronic illness or injury. These are some examples of life’s stresses.

What is stress? Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It is your body’s reaction to challenges and demands. So, what causes stress? Stress is caused by being under pressure, facing big changes, worrying about something, having responsibilities that are overwhelming or times of uncertainty.

What worked with this introduction?

I provided some good examples of life’s stresses to relate with the readers. Maybe they are experiencing one of them. Then, I went into what is stress and what causes it, so everyone is on the same page.

What could have been better?

This story is one of my highest viewed stories to date, so this was a successful introduction because it brought people in to view the story. However, I could have mentioned the point quicker and I could have teased some of the simple tips. I put in the subtitle that I was going to cover 5 simple tips so that gave me “air cover” for a longer introduction.

Here’s an example of my worst introduction

Improvisational theatre, or improv for short, is a live theater environment where the plot, characters, and dialogue of a game, scene, or story are made up in the moment.

What you are watching on stage is created spontaneously by the performers.

The most important rule of improv is: “yes, and”

It’s the fundamental pillar of successful improvisational.

What worked with this introduction?

It was good at explaining the “yes and” and how it comes from improv. I show the importance of “yes and” in improv.

What could have been better?

This story has a lot of views. The headline drove interest because readers wanted to learn how “yes and” connects with their career. The story is one of my lowest reads and has a low read ratio. This shows that I didn’t set the expectation with the read good enough upfront. It wasn’t until the eighth paragraph where I asked the question: “what does improv have to do with your career?”

Key components of a strong introductions

You can see that one introduction brings the reader in more while the other one doesn’t do that as much. Both introductions don’t get to the point of the story quick enough. They both take a while to set up the story. A good introduction has a good hook and tells the reader upfront what they are going to get.

A strong introduction has a good hook — a place where you grab the reader’s attention, then it has a transition where the hook relates back to the topic of the story. Finally, you end the introduction with one sentence that expresses the main idea.

How can you improve your introductions?

First off, you can learn from my success and failures. Second, you can tell a story about yourself upfront that shows your readers your personality and how you were impacted by the topic you are talking about. Third, you can tell a story putting yourself in their shoes. For example, in my how to rebound from a bad day at work, I start by saying:

Some work days bring you to your knees. It’s important to realize that everyone has bad days at work and you may be making it worse.

It shows that I relate with the reader that everyone has bad days. What’s important is how you react to them. Another option for improving your introductions is by telling a story about someone else that’s real or made up. This story relates to the topic you are discussing and how that person faced a problem and how that person overcame that problem and became successful. The most compelling stories describe a conflict or problem and then resolve that conflict by the end of the story.

During the writing process, when should you write your introduction?

It can be easy to write your introduction when you first start writing your story. To be the most successful, you should write your introduction last. Why? The direction of your story may change as you write. What you initially thought was the theme of your story may change during the creative process. You’ll have a better idea of your story after you are almost done with it. Then, you can brainstorm on how to write-up the perfect introduction to hook your readers.

Bringing it all together

Writing introductions is tough, even for the most experienced writers. The bottom line is that you should harness your reader’s curiosity. Your headline should capture their attention in a sea of headlines. Your subtitle should pull them even more by adding details to your story didn’t have enough room to say in the headline. Then, the first three sentences of your introduction should hook them even more.

You need to get your readers to say “wow, that’s interesting, I want to read more to see how it ends.” It’s like why traffic stalls on a highway when there is a car accident. Everyone slows down to see what happened. They are curious about what happened and want to get more details. Once you master this technique, your writing will improve as you pique interest and then delight them because you set expectations. Success is about meeting those expectations.

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