Literally the One Trick that Makes Article Intros 10x Better

Writers often begin with the introduction. But writing it at the end is a big value addition. Once you get into the habit of doing the intro after you’re done with the rest of the article, you’ll never go back. And before you tell yourself that you’ve heard this before, let me tell you that I felt the exact same way, and you must truly understand what to do and how to do it properly to improve your articles.

Let me explain why it makes writing more enjoyable and reading your articles even more fun. This is literally the “one trick that makes introductions much better,” at least in most cases.

The general process? You get an order. It’s a particular topic that you have researched or know about. You begin with a brief summary of what the piece is going to discuss. That’s the best practice, after all. Very quickly, you must tell the reader what to expect in this article. Like how I just did in the first paragraph.

But while it’s true that the reader must know the scope of the article’s whole text, it’s often best to leave actually writing that introduction part until the very end of the article.

Where Does This Apply?

Many topics are quite simple. People already know what to expect. There’s no new information you can give. The topic is fruit-based weight loss, let’s say. Your job is to tell the reader that just eating fruit isn’t ideal. Fruit has to be used intelligently to stop cravings, while still meeting your intake for protein and nutrition. So you explain that right up front. Well done!

But in many cases, writing the whole piece first (leaving out the main introduction deliberately), and then coming back to write the introduction is the best way to go about it.

Why?

Why Write Intro Later?

Three reasons why the introduction is better written last:

1. Understanding: Even if you know you’ve understood the topic, research will change the direction of a piece ever so slightly. You can discover new angles; you might have more data that the initial intro would’ve missed; you might discover stronger points to put into the intro and ditch a few weaker ones, etc. You also avoid repetition this way. An intro can be an extrapolated, glorified revision of the heading itself and be loaded with generic wording that nobody cares about.
2. Easier: Often, we have some parts we’d love to explain well or know well about. Skipping the intro allows us to jump to that without pressure. Instead of writing the perfect opening first when the topic is a little difficult, you start with the useful stuff first. Then, as you progress along, improve your paragraphs, fact-check, and you naturally build an article-specific, short-term context. Now when you pen the intro, it’s more likely to be far superior. 10x is actually an understatement in many cases, trust me.
3. Interesting: More often than not, you’ll stumble upon a surprising fact from the research, an interesting argument from the middle of the article, an alternative/better question that the article eventually answers, a more relevant angle for the reader of that article, a real-world example that gives the topic some personality, and on and on. I can keep giving examples here. The point is that you get some real juicy insights as you write.

It’s truly remarkable just how much better, more accurate, and tighter the intro becomes if you do it at the end. You get a clearer picture of the strong and weak points, you find angles that will make for a better hook, or you just know what’s more important vs. what you considered originally to be the most important. 

What exacerbates the problem is this: once the introduction is written, it’s locked in, and you forfeit any chance to make your hook/intro more exciting or useful for the reader. Take an example from reason #1 above. You find out that a different point is actually stronger than the one you felt was the key point. Or from reason #3. You actually find a good way to dress the topic to make it more interesting. If the introduction is already written, 9/10 times you’ll just leave it that way. If it’s not yet written, your introduction at the end of the process will be a masterpiece.

How Coffee Caused This

But you know what, I can keep going on and on about this. Give you a million reasons. This still won’t make any actual sense. This is one of those writing quirks that just click once you do it.

My writing career has spanned 12 tumultuous years (currently on a spree of re-reading sea-adventure classics such as Moby-Dick, Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, etc.). And I was introduced to this very point much earlier vs. when I actually started doing this. Every piece of guidance along these lines felt bothersome. Writing the intro first just made sense. Leaving it out and coming back to it somehow felt more tedious.

Until one day when I actually did it myself. Not due to any such tip or guidance, mind you. Believe it or not, I simply forgot to write the introduction. I started writing and wrote the meta title, meta description, and the H1 in my trusty Word. Then I remembered there was water boiling in the kettle for my coffee and rushed to the kitchen. Came back. And for whatever reason, I started with the first subtopic. I suspect that while I was tending to the coffee, I was pondering the subtopics, as you hardly ever ponder the introduction in free time. I was considering how best to arrange the matter into neat subtopics and which one would be first.

When I had written the whole article and began proofreading, I realized there was no introduction, so I just started writing it. And that’s when I felt the difference. It’s not a huge difference, and of course, I cannot guarantee everyone will feel it in every article they write. But there is very much a difference. The introduction was just so much better. And since then, I write the intro later for most of my work. It doesn’t apply to all topics/articles/orders, but it does to most of them.

This Isn’t a Universal Rule

All that being said, this is not to be taken as a universal rule. Many articles are straightforward explainers, or in a niche you already know everything about. Maybe you’re writing a news piece where the facts will remain unchanged regardless of how much of the coverage you go through. If an article is already explained to include X, Y, and Z within a short word limit, you’re better off just doing that in the beginning. Sometimes, it’s super clear what an article, post, review, or guide is about to do. BTC vs. LTC as a long-term investment asset. Ain’t nothing going to change much whether you write the intro first or last, for example.

The general rule of thumb is that you don’t have to assume that the intro must be written first. And if you struggle even just a bit with the opening, it’s perfectly okay to skip it for the time being. Come back once you’ve got something worth introducing!

The workflow should be something like this:

1. Read the brief and understand the assignment.
2. Research the topic and identify the major sections.
3. Write the body of the article.
4. Figure out the main takeaway.
5. Look for the most interesting angle.
6. Write the introduction around what the article actually became.
7. Give it one final read to make sure the introduction and body match.