How to write that killer opening sentence

Sally Whittle gives a great insight into why she deletes the press releases she receives.

One of the five reasons she gives is that often the first sentence of the release is just too long:

"The opening sentences of the last three releases I received had 30, 61 and 77 words in their opening sentences. I may be proved wrong, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that nobody ever said anything interesting in a 77 word sentence. As a rule of thumb, 25-30 words is about the maximum and if you can make it shorter, then do."

Hmm, 25-30 words... Which service do I know that forces me to write sentences that long...

Twitter, of course!

Twitter is probably the answer to everything at the moment, but what a great way to practise writing that killer first sentence of a press release or, arguably more important, the email subject header of a release.

Along with their regular personal accounts (in which they get practice at writing short, sharp, attention-grabbing sentences) PROs should be setting up private Twitter accounts and direct messaging each other their first sentences.

You then get the benefit of seeing that sentence out of context. Perhaps add a Tiny URL in there as well to test whther the sentence makes you want to click through on the link.

This is idea might not be that practical, but hopefully it has reminded all us PROs that first impressions count, especially when sending a press release to journalists.

And if you're on Twitter, you're more than welcome to practice writing that first sentence on me.