HERE'S THE THING . . . .

If you're not sure how to introduce a narrative or short piece of information, use this shortcut. Simply start with . . . 

"Here's the thing, . . . "

It's okay. This is a draft. You're in creation mode. It's totally fine to use a trite, cliched opener.  You're going to come back later and take it out. 

Variations work just as well . . .

"Here's a thing . . . ."
"There was a time when . . .."
"Know this . . .
"Note: . . . .
"One surprising thing about this is . . . ."
"I think that . . . ."

Rachel Syme tweeted this idea, and I wanted to expand on it because I mentor a group of writers. These short openers accomplish three important things.

1. They open the door for you to get to the heart of what you're trying to say.  You can get your ideas on paper before those ideas are gone, evaporated into the regions of your brain where thoughts go to be forgotten. Have you ever spent twenty minutes trying to craft an introduction or transition to your main point only to forget some of that main point? Great ideas are armed with a ticking zeitgeist. "This isn't nearly as good as what I was thinking twenty minutes ago."

2. This also makes you trust that it's okay to write first-draft junk. That's why it's a draft. You're going to come back and fix all those cliched openers. The more you can trust that it doesn't matter what your first draft looks like, the more you can capture those brilliant ideas while they're still brilliant. You'll turn them into written art later.

​3. After you take out those openers, your writing now speaks with authority.  Your thoughts become clear declarative sentences that need no trite introduction.