Openings make or break your travel memoir story. The reader wants to know they are in good hands—that the story will be personal, and yet relatable, that it will be specific to the author, but also reveal something universal about the human condition. Quite a tall order for an opening paragraph! Luckily, all of this doesn’t need to be achieved in just your opening paragraph. However, you do want to set the tone for the reader to intuit that all of their story needs will be fulfilled by the end.
In the first few sentences of your travel memoir story, you have two options to create a great opening that will hook readers:
- Plant a question in the reader’s mind
- Write evocatively, using the five senses, to make the reader feel as though they are there with you
By planting a question in the reader’s mind, you are immediately hooking them on your story. They want to know the answer to that question! Take this opening line as an example:
I should have warned Rand.
from Pranzo in Italy
Even that simple sentence creates several intriguing questions in my mind: Warn him about what? What didn’t the author warn him? Who is Rand? I’m very curious to find out more.
Or here’s another example:
I blinked. I missed it.
from Clear-Eyed in Calcutta
Missed what, exactly? I’m intrigued to find out. It’s that simple to plant a question in the reader’s mind. However, be aware that this question must be relevant to your story. It can’t just be an intriguing detail that is then dropped for something else entirely.
When you write evocatively, it’s as though you are casting a spell on the reader with your beautiful prose. They want to keep reading because they feel as though they are there with you, experiencing what you experience.
Here’s an example from the book Meet Me in Gaza: Uncommon Stories of Life Inside the Strip by Louisa B. Waugh.
The beach is quiet. Most of the tables and chairs have been packed away, the umbrellas folded. The carousel has just been turned off. The humid heatwave of summer has cooled a bit and now the air’s soft and warm, tinged with salt. I pass a posse of kids shrieking with joy as they splash about in the shallows. A few young men stand waist-high in the waves, their shirts stripped off and wet skin slick, bathing their horses in the healing salt water. One of them catches my eye and winks. When I wink back, he raises his face to the sky and roars with laughter.
There is no question planted here, and yet I want to keep reading for more of that evocative language that draws upon all five senses and makes me feel as though I am there, experiencing everything alongside the narrator.
Choose one of these two opening styles, and remember to imagine your reader as you write. What would be most intriguing, while also fitting with the tone and purpose of your overall story? What would be most evocative, to make the reader feel as though they are there with you, experiencing this new place? Send me your openings and I’ll give you some feedback on my thoughts!
