By Sabyasachi Roy
Let’s start with the elephant in the room, a.k.a. to the point: people don’t have the patience for long-winded setups anymore. Like it or not, we are in the middle of a world of endless swipes, dings, and dopamine hits. This presents a high-stakes challenge, especially for writers, how do you keep readers hooked when they’re one “ugh, boring” away from ditching your work for the latest TikTok trend? Short attention spans mean writers have to structure narratives like a playlist—each beat compelling enough to keep someone from skipping to the next track. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It forces us to sharpen our storytelling tools. Call it narrative Darwinism: adapt or get left unread.
There are exceptions to this trend, but this article will not be focusing on those exceptions.
Hook ‘Em Like a Pro
The secret to grabbing attention? Start strong. Open with a sentence that raises eyebrows—or blood pressure. Think of it like a Tinder bio: you’ve got one line to make them swipe right.
For instance, instead of:
“On a cloudy Monday morning, Sarah walked to work thinking about her overdue rent,”
try:
“By the time Sarah reached the office, she’d already Googled ‘how to fake your death.’” Curiosity piqued? Exactly.
The Next Step
Once you’ve got them, don’t let up. Use short, punchy sentences to build momentum. Throw in surprises. Keep the stakes high. People love a good cliffhanger, even in the middle of a paragraph. It’s all about maintaining that mental tug-of-war: “What happens next?” vs. “Should I check my phone?”
Now, here’s the tricky part: keeping things tight without sacrificing depth. Because yes, people want brevity—but they also crave meaning. The trick is to make every word pull double duty. Don’t just describe; evoke. Don’t explain; imply. This also means cutting the fluff. Your story doesn’t need a thousand words when 500 will do.
Modern Storytelling That Works
Need proof this approach can work? Look at Twitter (or X or whatever Elon’s calling it now). Microfiction thrives there—complete stories in 280 characters. Or consider Netflix’s obsession with limited series: tightly plotted, emotionally packed episodes that beg to be binged. And let’s not forget podcasts, where even meandering conversations are shaped into narratives with precision editing.
Take someone like Emily Varga, whose debut novel “For She is Wrath” stands out with a lovers-to-enemies storyline wrapped in forbidden Jinn magic. It navigates betrayal, revenge, and lingering love in a richly developed magical world, keeping readers hooked with high emotional stakes and dark secrets. Or Carissa Broadbent who is already gaining traction with her “Crowns of Nyaxia” series. Read her latest installment, “The Songbird and the Heart of Stone”, and you will find it is a well-paced rich vampire fantasy with themes of redemption and betrayal. All these make her work a perfect blend of lush settings with gripping tension. Or for that matter Taylor Jenkins Reid, whose books like “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” cut straight to the drama without losing their emotional core. These authors are the perfect examples for aspiring authors because they show how emerging voices in fantasy can captivate with dynamic characters and immersive worlds while maintaining the tension that keeps pages turning.
In Conclusion
Once I was trying hard to come up with the most captivating opening paragraph, and in doing so spent a whole day. My friend happened to put his eyes on it and commented, “Quite great. But, what is the point”? Thanks, but he had a point: I was so caught up in being literary, that I forgot to be interesting. So now, whenever I start a new piece, I ask myself, “Would my friend keep reading?” If the answer’s no, I scrap it. And really, it’s more about life than just writing. Surely, you don’t want to be the guy at a party who insists on telling a story that meanders for 15 minutes before going nowhere. It is the dignity of your readers — and yours too — that deserves better.
Bio: Sabyasachi Roy is primarily a Bengali poet from West Bengal, India. Writes in English from time to time. His poetry has been published in Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, FourWsixteen, Linq, Quintessence, Voicesnet, Dicey Brown, Mindfire Renewed, The Potomac, 13th Warrior, and several print and online magazines.
