Katy Terrega, determined to make the sale, reached through virtual space and grabbed the intended editor by the throat. Far from offended by her bold - if viselike - grip, he was, instead, taken pleasantly off guard. Not able to resist the pressure, he delved quickly into the body of the lead paragraph.

His attention thus secured, Katy allowed her grip to relax, if only slightly, as she proceeded to tell her story.

~

And to think I was going to start this story with “Writing a good lead is as important in porn as it is in any other genre.”

Now, some of you might have continued to read, even in the face of extreme boredom, assuming I’d get to the juicy part eventually. But most of you would have yawned and then clicked your way right off of the page.

An editor, charged with keeping his readers’ best interests (not to mention their pocketbooks) in mind, is no different. As a matter of fact, an editor is even less likely to continue perusing a listless piece than is an average reader. Readers can take a chance on a dull story, they’ve lost nothing but a few moments of their time if it goes nowhere. An editor, however, has a vested interest in each and every piece that comes across his desk. It’s his reputation, and likely his paycheck, at stake, so you don’t dare bore him. He’s probably got a whole bunch of articles waiting to be attended to and he’s not going to waste much time on one that doesn’t start off with a bang. At best, you’ve got a paragraph to wow him and convince him to at least take a longer look at your piece.

In that first paragraph you’ve got to do several things. One of your most important goals is to show off your writing skills. An editor will look no further if it’s obvious that he’s dealing with an amateur. So take the time to craft that opener to perfection. Pull out all the stops as far as sentence structure and grammar. Make sure that your sentence lengths are varied, your tenses are consistent and that each sentence starts off differently than the last. Of course it goes without saying that you’ll need to edit well, also. Nothing like misplaced periods and mistakes in capitalization to turn an editor off.

You’ll also need to infuse that first paragraph with the tone of your story or article. Is it a straight-talking, graphic story, or a more thoughtful piece, full of nuance and evocation? No matter what your story’s bent, you’ll want to let the editor know right away what he’s about to read.

The basics of setting, plot and character should be included in your lead, also. Readers (and editors) want to be able to place all the action before they settle in for a good read. But don’t just “tell” your readers where, how and with whom this story is going to take place. You have to “show” them.

For example, a fiction piece about a man obsessed with his neighbor’s pretty feet could start this way:

“I live next door to Annabelle and she has the prettiest feet of any girl I know. I like to watch her while she sunbathes in the back yard. Sometimes I think that I’m getting obsessed because I like to look at her so often. I even dream about her.”

Or, if you actually want to sell this piece, you could start it another way:

“It was the delicate arch of Annabelle’s left foot that was my undoing. I was drawn to the finely boned curve - gleaming with a hint of suntan oil - as she sunned herself that hot July day. Peering through a gap in the wooden slats of the fence that separated our yards, I realized that Annabelle’s foot was quite likely the loveliest of any I’d ever seen. Of course, I didn’t know then that it was to haunt my dreams for many months to come.”

In the above paragraph I’ve tried to include all the necessary bits of information that will inspire an editor to continue reading. I’ve set the tone via the narrator and his rather flowery, obsessed speech, plus I’ve given a voyeuristic sense to the story. I’ve indicated the setting, or at least the point at which the action starts. And I’ve also given a hint of the plot; we know that dreams of his neighbor’s feet are going to complicate this man’s life, even if we’re not sure how yet. Hopefully the editor will be intrigued enough to want to know how this story is going to play itself out.

That’s your job as a writer, to convince first an editor, then a reader, that he does, indeed, want to find out what happens to these characters. Don’t be afraid to grab ‘em by the throat first thing; while it may seem a rather aggressive way to do business, they’ll thank you for it in the end.

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Katy Terrega has been writing about sex for eight years and her credits include Gallery, Swank, Playgirl, Penthouse Forum and many others. She also edits a free newsletter for sex writers as well as a paid subscriber site for same - Sex-Writer.com Both feature articles, market listings, reviews, calls for submission, all geared toward fledgling as well as professional sex-writers.