You need to be a hooker
This is another installment in my occasional series of writing-craft book reviews. If there is a writing-craft book you 
are curious about email me, and I’ll see if I’ve read it. If so, I’ll be happy to write a review about it. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’ve got a good collection of writing books.
Hooked, by Les Edgerton, claims to be about how to write a great beginning to your novel – and it is – but it is so much more than that. In order teach us how to write that great beginning, Edgerton must also teach us about story structure, story problems (what he calls story-worthy problems and surface problems, but what I’ve always known as internal and external goals), setting, and so much more. At the half-way point of this small book, I had three pages of notes. My mind (and notes) are filled with notes to myself to add this or that to nearly every topic I cover in my beginning writing classes.
I bought Hooked because of the importance of being able to write a compelling opening – which I’ve also mentioned here just a few weeks ago. As I said in my last post on the topic, beginnings are something I struggle with. Edgerton, too, reminds us that it doesn’t matter how fabulous your book is if you can’t hook your reader within the first few pages because they won’t get to the part where it starts being great. It’s got to be great from the very first sentence.
I do have to say that I found the first half of the book much more useful than the second. The first half is filled with great information on story structure and those all-important problems. He details exactly what the components of a good opening scene are – there are four primary components and six secondary (nope, not going to tell you what they are, you need to go out and buy the book ). I especially appreciated his discussion of story-worthy and surface problems, giving a slightly different take on these concepts than the simple internal and external goals I’ve learned and taught about for years (the most important of which is that the story-worthy problem is slowly revealed to both the reader and the protagonist as the story progresses – cool, huh?).
The second half of Hooked has a great many examples, many of which I skimmed, and I don’t think I missed anything really important. Of course, I did stop to read the chapter “Red Flag Openers to Avoid” (Darn! I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve started with dialogue – something which Edgerton says is a big no-no.) The book ends with a great chapter on what some editors and agents say about openers. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
From Julie Castiglia (a literary agent): “The story should begin on the first page – too often it doesn’t, so there’s no reason to read on.”
From Jodie Rhodes (literary agent): “Never open with scenery! Novels are about people and the human condition.”
From Bob Silverstein (literary agent): “An immediate connection between author and reader… a sense of something vital at stake.”
I bought Hooked here.
