I once entered a young adult novel contest where you submitted the title and the first 500 words. That's an even harder task to appeal with. You need to present the best possible use of your words to enchant and hook the reader.
Thus, when I noticed Les Edgerton's book on Amazon, Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go, I knew I wanted to read this book. It is a skill I'm determined to master. I will take all the advice I can find.
A major emphasis in this book is the argument concerning the importance of a great beginning. I think I already grasped this, or I wouldn't have purchased the book. Still, the author did have some good points to make. He emphasized the need to start at the right place, a place of action rather than rumination or back-story. He talked a lot about the inciting incident. I think what I gained most from the book was the idea that you must know what your driving conflict is for your novel. If you don't know what is driving your book, then you can't possibly deliver the kind of beginning that will prove to be irresistible. The first few sentences have to be labored over enough to stand out for the reader. Oftentimes, a reader will only give a novel the first few sentences to see whether they are indeed interested in reading further.
I will admit, I don't tend to open books to the first sentences. What hooks me is the paragraph blurb, on the back or inside cover, which tells what the story is going to be about. But still, I embrace the importance of those first few sentences for shaping the direction of the story. You cannot be wasteful with words!
The author provided many examples of excellent openings, but I didn't find very many of them to be compelling to me. Which really supports the truth of subjectivity. Oftentimes, it is just finding the right agent at the right time with the right story and not every story is right for every person. What he considered to be enticing, often didn't draw me in.
Plus, he outlined several rules to follow when striving for a solid beginning, but with every rule provided examples that violated the rules, yet were still stellar. There is an exception for every rule! In other words, best to follow the standard rules for a great beginning, but know that the rule doesn't apply in every case. Ha!
Here are a few of the sentences I underlined (I found myself no longer underlining during the second half of the book and really began to lose interest in the writing):
"The inciting incident is the crucial event - the trouble - that sets the whole story in motion. It triggers the initial surface problem and stars to slowly expose the protagonist's story-worthy problem."
"The story shouldn't really begin at any time other than when the trouble begins. The story simply doesn't exist before that point."
"A true story-worthy problem is closely associated with the protagonist's inner self."
"[The antagonist's] goal has to conflict with the protagonist's goal. That's where the conflict and tension in the story usually comes from."
All in all, I'm glad to have read this book for more insight into developing a great beginning. But, I did find myself slogging through it in spots. Now, I will try to put the lessons to work as I refine my openings in a few of my novels. Apparently, I did reach the mark with one, since an agent requested one of my manuscripts several weeks back. In that one, I'm sure that I presented the inciting incident within the first page and developed it with a fairly strong voice. We'll see what happens.
I loved his advice on the final page: "Don't fall victim to paralysis by overanalysis. Take what works for you from this book and forget what doesn't. Trust your instincts."
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