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By Les Edgerton

Writer’s Digest Books, 2007

Books about fiction-writing tend to fall into one of three categories:

Hooked,

Les Edgerton has accomplished all of these in Hooked.

Why a whole book about beginnings? As explained by Edgerton, "The simple truth is, if your beginning doesn’t do the job it needs to, the rest of the story most likely won’t be read by the agent or editor or publisher you submit it to."

Edgerton addresses misinformation and out-of-date practices from a historical perspective and as they relate to literary fiction. Whenever an author sheds new light on a subject, there is a risk that someone will be offended: no exception here. Writers, of any genre, in the habit of beginning stories with hefty servings of backstory or description get an earful.

Those who believe that studying the classics is the key to understanding fiction may be turned off by Edgerton’s take on beginnings: ". . . many of the great books from the past aren’t practical structure models for today’s market, particularly in the way some of those books begin." And, "Beginnings have changed more than any other part of story structure."

Likewise, fans of literary fiction may take exception to some of Edgerton’s observations. "Bookscan has revealed the decline of what is usually referred to as literary fiction. This category of fiction may be dying because it has stuck with the story structure model of yesteryear much more so than any other category."

To Edgerton’s credit, Hooked goes beyond a mere regurgitation and reorganization of the subject of beginnings. A cornerstone of Edgerton’s lesson is the distinction between what he refers to as the initial surface problem and the story-worthy problem. Edgerton also breaks new ground by introducing the concepts of:

As with any new concept, time will tell whether these will be accepted by the writing community and incorporated into the body of knowledge surrounding the craft of fiction-writing.

One of the challenges of any narrow-focus book is to take a subject (which is typically addressed in a magazine article or as a single chapter of a book) and fill a book-sized manuscript without resorting to repetition, filler, and padding. Although though some points are belabored and some of the examples are a bit tedious, there is plenty of valuable information and insight in Hooked.

Critics of the book may note that some of the examples are overly literary and fall flat for writers of other genres, but Edgerton more than makes up for this shortfall with examples from popular movies. Although Edgerton pays homage to the use of scene and sequel, he doesn’t adequately explain either, or how they may be used to construct beginnings. More information about fiction-writing modes would have been helpful. Maybe future editions of Hooked will address these issues.

Although the book doesn’t provide a recap or exercises at end of chapters, it does offer an index at the end for easy reference.

The last chapter is structured as questions and answers from agents and publishers. For example, from agent Jodie Rhodes: " . . . the more modest the writer, the better the writing. That’s because good writers know how much they still have to learn."