Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.

That’s the opening of Harry Potter, obviously.

Check out a couple cool things that are going on here.

The first sentence is doing a lot of work. It’s a fairly short clause, but it’s dressed up with these fun little interrupters (“of number four, Privet Drive”) and this cheeky tone, right? That little “thank you very much” adds some nice dry British humor and makes it more fun than if it just said, “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were perfectly normal,” right?

The next few paragraphs are still short-to-medium length, but they’re not triggering the monotony flag in Writhm because there’s enough variation that it flows nicely.

Watch the video for the full visual breakdown 👇

So the big takeaway is that it’s all about finding your Goldilocks sentences. Sentences that aren’t too long, or aren’t too short, but they’re just right to build some character.

And that’s the other thing I love about this opening.

It’s all about character.

It doesn’t start by saying, “Privet Drive was the perfect neighborhood. Emerald lawns, birds chirping, yada yada.” It started with Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. Character. When in doubt, it’s never a bad idea to start with character.

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