Hooked

On the recommendation of a friend, I picked up Les Edgerton's small book at my local library.

HOOKED: Write Fiction that Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go (Its cover looks disconcertingly like one of my favorite kids' novels in recent history) has a lot going on inside. And last week, it also had a bargain price offer on the Writers Digest site.

The subtitle says a lot, so I won't even try to elaborate. But there are a lot of things to take away from this book. A few, in no particular order:


1. An overview about opening scenes and what's important included this reminder-
"Take time to craft not only the first sentence, but the rest of the opening...For gosh sakes, don't pair adjectives in an attempt to make the description more powerful. The rule of thumb with adjectives is that with each additional one, the power is halved, not doubled..."

2.The chapter on characters suggests "beginning with an out-of-the-ordinary character... can instantly pique the reader's interest."
(My question- is this a good plan for kids' novels? Or should we soundly establish the point-of-view character first?)

3. "A great first line buys you a lot of points" with editors and agents.
But we all know that, don't we...