1. Beginnings

2. The Dramatic Lead You would usually be born from your own mother’s stomach, but not me. I was adopted. I was born from a teenager’s stomach. (Grade 4) Whenever I got into trouble, my mother always had a straight look at me. I would start to cry then, not out loud but in my heart. In 2004 my family canceled Christmas.

3. Starting with Dialogue “Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.? ( Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White )

4. Leisurely Lead

5. Beginning at the Ending One day last spring, Louis, a butcher, turned into a fish. Silvery scales. Big lips. A tail. A salmon.

6. Introducing the Narrator “Call me Ishmael.” ( Moby Dick) “I live at 165 East 95 th Street, New York City, and I’m going to stay here forever. My mother and father are moving. Out West.”

7. The Misleading Lead “The morning of June 27the was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.” (The Lottery – Shirley Jackson)

8. Other Ways to Introduce Questions: “Did you know that the sucking power of an infant is five times stronger than that of an adult?” Intriguing Detail: “My parents met in Saigon in 1988, the Year of the Snake.” Sentence Fragments: “A 42 year-old man. A man of heart and soul.