"It was a pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history."
--Ray Bradbury,
Fahrenheit 451
That, my friends, is an example of a hook. The hook is what really gets a reader's attention, what makes him or her decide whether or not to go on. It is important to make sure that you've got a reader's attention right from the start. If you're anything like me, you don't just pick up a book at the store, look at the cover and say "This looks good" and buy it. No, if you're like me, you flip through the pages a bit, go to page one and read the first couple of paragraphs. If the first page isn't interesting enough, what makes you think the rest of the book will be good?
So don't bore readers with lengthy descriptions at the beginning of your story. Begin with some dialogue, some action. People nowadays are getting so impatient that the beginning of a book needs to reel them in quickly and keep them in.
Keep in mind that publishers will be looking for a good hook as well. After all, they might have hundreds of manuscripts to look at and not time to read them all the way through. If your story is not captivating by the first page, the publisher may just put it aside and get to the next manuscript.
Also, make it relevant. Don't just put out any random exciting bit and then turn around and write away in the opposite direction. If you're writing about something unknown to the reader, mention it at the beginning to get him or her curious and wanting to know more. Instead of beginning with "Once upon a time...," begin with "And then he did this." If you start in the middle of an action or event, most likely the readers will want to know how it started and will continue reading for an explanation.
Starting with a flash forward is also a neat little trick for getting a reader's attention, adding a bit of foreshadowing. Include a scene out of the climax, put your protaganist in mortal peril, that kind of thing.
The beginning of a book is usually the hardest to write. It's because we all know that if you can't catch a reader within the first few sentences, what chance do you have? So come up with something relevant to the story and exciting. Something that will make a reader keep on reading until they find they can't put the book down.
~Catherine
