I advice

Image by yours truly © Sprague Thomson 2020

In all words lays truth, in all words, truth lies; truth lies in all words.

Whether it is prose or poetry, my personal preference for texts to read starts with those that begin with a seductive sentence.

To start a sentence with the self as the center point of attention is a kind of insult to me as the reader. Some people told me to make my writings more personal. I fail to see how I can when I use the word I too much. Especially first sentences that start with I are a thorn in the eye.

The usage of the nominative singular pronoun, used by a speaker in referring to himself or herself, is in most cases avoidable and should, therefore, be evaded. When Shakespeare would have written 'I am, yet I am not,' he would never have touched upon the legend his short sentence of being has evoked over the ages since people read his works. The question is; what language do we like? To be liked doesn't come with the being I, in this case, me, I am not important in this sentence when I'm able to avoid the nominative singular pronoun, my message becomes stronger almost immediately. Hence the exaggeration.

A first sentence for whatever piece of writing should therefore never start with the first person. Almost never. It is what you or I want to tell what is important, that you experienced something is of such importance, you wrote it down. Yet when we start our text with I we immediately self center the story. It sort of shows we tell our story only for ourselves. In that sense the I is not an invite but a fence. This story is mine and my ego has the absolute right to tell it. Of course, you do. But don't start your text with I when you've got a compelling story to tell.

The subject of your story is what it makes important, or, hopefully, interesting to read. What you want to convey is first and foremost important to you. To compel with a story you tell, you'll need to make the story more important than yourself. Only then you will catch the eye of a reader who checks for first sentences. Only then will you be able to transform your story from what is important to you, too may well become a tale which is important to everyone.

Who am I to say this? Well, I'm most certainly not a hotshot writer, or not yet. So don't take it from me as a writer; take it from me as concerned reader.
The formats with which people nowadays constrict themselves to say whatever they want most often doesn't lead to good writing, it may lead to good soundbites until the day we've gotten used to it. Good soundbites aren't good writing, soundbites are supposed to be heard, like the bitten word says. But hell, what do I know, I left the snake-pits of those outlets over a year ago. All, very much to my liking.

It's like the anchor who says who he or she is before they start saying something. They introduce themselves. Alison Cooper or Rachel Maddow don't need to say 'I'm,' we all know who they are. They've introduced themselves so much it has become almost an insult to their viewers like they have to be remembered of who the talking heads are because otherwise, the viewers would slide into early dementia.

That's the last reason to avoid your I in the first sentence. Hopefully, you are the one who wrote the story. And yes you may introduce yourself, but please do that only when absolutely necessary.
Introduce your subject as a necessity in itself, and let the subject introduce you.

That's my humble advice for your writings, I hope you can and will use it so we'll have better stories to read.

© Sprague Thomson 2020

When you like my words or the illustration, also consider:

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