The Big Questions

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by Jennifer Stewart

What a day! I've just finished performing an autopsy on an elephant!"

"I have to wash my hair tonight."

Whenever you're writing something for general consumption, there's one thing you have to do, and that's grab the reader's attention.

There are as many ways to do this as there are writers - but there's a simple test to determine the effectiveness of your opening - and that's to ask yourself, "Who cares?"

Take another look at the two statements at the beginning ... which one makes you want to eavesdrop on the rest of the conversation?

Do we really care if the speaker has to wash his/her hair? Probably not.

But an autopsy ... on an elephant? Now there's something you don't come across every day!

The Big Questions

The big questions here are not, "What's the meaning of life?" or, "Will you marry me?" or even, "What will you give me on a trade-in?"

The big questions to be answered when writing, are the five W's:

Go back to our opening statement - you know when (today), you know who (I've just finished...) and you know what (an autopsy on an elephant).

Be honest, aren't you even a little bit curious to find out where? And I bet you'd love to know why!

So, whenever you're writing, keep these questions continually in mind.

The Inverted Pyramid or BUF - BILL

"The Inverted Pyramid" is a popular term with teachers when discussing writing - it means that you start with the strongest material and let the details follow.

But I always think it's a bit misleading - I have the image of an upside down triangle - and to me, that means that all the masses of detail would come first and the important point would be the final point.

A better way to think of the process is the BUF BILL technique - BUF is an acronym for Biggy Up Front - and it is a perfect way of explaining the way to get your reader's attention. (BILL is Big Idea Little Later.)

Whatever you decide to call it, you need to look at your material and decide whether it would be better to hit your readers with your main point first - BUF - (and then fill in the background), or gradually build up the details, culminating in your most important point- BILL.

Some Examples

• If you were trying to attract members to a business venture, you could start with a success story, then explain what steps your readers needed to take to share in this. "Garth Hopper started with a backyard worm farm and he's just sold his 25th franchise!"
• If you were writing a column for a magazine on dating experiences, you could open with a story of woe. "After waiting for six months to attract his eye, they're finally going out. It's D-hour minus 30 minutes, she's spent an hour at the hairdresser's, another hour stuck in a traffic jam - but now all she has to do is slip into the little black dress that could have paid her rent for the next three months. It's been hanging in the spare room all day so that it would be ready. She even remembered to shut the door so that her new Doberman puppy wouldn't be ...able ... to ... Prince? ...Here boy! ...Prince? ... Prince??

Keep these points in mind when you're writing anything - your web pages, business letters, formal reports, chapters for that great novel or your diary entries. (Who knows? You might be famous and people will pay a fortune to read your diary ... may as well make it worth their effort!) Once you have attracted your readers' attention - the next challenge is to keep them.