Big Potato Lead: Jump into the middle of your story and leave the reader wanting more!

Examples:

And suddenly everything stops. Runa

Every so often that dead dog dreams me up again. Dog Heaven

Snapshot Leads: Create a picture in the reader’s mind.

Examples:

Abraham Lincoln wasn’t the sort of man who could lose himself in a crowd. After all, he stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, and to top it off he wore a high silk hat. His height was mostly in his long bony legs, and when he sat in a chair he seemed no taller than anyone else. It was only when he stood up that he towered about other men. Lincoln: a photobiography

The doorman of the Kilmarnock was six foot two. He wore a pale blue uniform, and white gloves made his hands look enormous. He opened the door of the yellow taxi as gently as an old maid stroking a cat. Smart Alec Kill

My father came home from work on weeknights long after we had eaten our supper and gotten into our pajamas. The six of us watched from the living room while he sat at the kitchen table to have his supper. My mother sat down his dinner before him, steam rising from the plate she’d kept warm over a pot of boiling water. Loading his fork with his knife, he bent to his dinner, not looking up from his plate until he had pushed it away from him, empty. Daley’s Girls

Talking Leads: Maybe you want to start with a line or two of dialogue.

Examples:

"Where is he?"

Barney hopped from one foot to the other as he clambered down from the train, peering through the white-faced crowds flooding eagerly to the St. Austel ticket barrier. "Oh, I can’t see him. Is he there?" Over Sea, Under Stone

"Where is Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte’s Web

Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinarily polite to everyone. Well, it makes sense. With all the enchanted princess and disguised wizards and transformed kings and so on wandering around, you never know whom you might be talking to. But dragons are a special case. Talking to Dragons

As a boy, I never knew where my mother was from—where she was born, who her parents were. The Color of Water

Up until I turned twelve years old the kind of friends I had were what you’d expect. They were my own age more or less. Most of them were born here in Serenity along with me. And all of us went to the same school together. Onion John

Misleading Leads: Set up expectations, then surprise the reader.

Examples:

I have a farm. It has lots of animals. (next page) Fooled ya! It’s a toy farm. Michael, a first grader

I would like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not terrified and screaming like other people in the car. Prairie Home Companion

Until Columbus reached the New World the people he called "Indians" lived in peace and harmony with one another. NOT SO. Paul Boller JR

Examples:

This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night…I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. Cathedral

In the early days of America when men wore ruffles on their shirts and buckles on their shoes, when they rode horseback and swore allegiance to the King of England, there lived in Boston a man who cared for none of these things. His name was Samual Adams. His clothes were shabby and plain, he refused to get on a horse, and he hated the King of England. Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?

This is not a book about my life or yours. It does not hold the secret to success or salvation. It won’t strengthen your self-esteem. I don’t think it will get me on Oprah. I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional

Adapted from Reviser’s Toolbox www.discoverwriting.com