Remember the journalistic cardinal rule of who, what, when, where, and why. Including these in the first paragraph of every new scene helps keep the reader connected to what’s happening and who is doing what.

If this isn’t clear, the reader can get confused and have to back-track to figure out what is going on. Any time this happens, it breaks their engagement in the story, which is not a good thing. Most books aren’t read in a single sitting. I suspect that most readers do like I do and will stop at the end of a chapter or scene. Thus, when picking it up again it’s helpful to immediately know what’s going on.

Pick up an action novel by someone like Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy sometime and check their opening paragraphs. They are skillful at this technique which is worth emulating.