From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   Dorothy J Heydt was thinking very hard :   
   > In article ,   
   > William Vetter   wrote:   
   >> It happens that J.Pascal formulated :   
   >>> On Saturday, November 22, 2014 1:44:48 PM UTC-7, William Vetter wrote:   
   >>>> Some time ago, I read one of those books...this one was about openings.   
   >>>> It's thesis was the belief that it is possible to write an opening so   
   >>>> strong, that editors, literary agents, readers, publishing executives   
   >>>> are compelled to read on.  One of the examples mentioned the   
   >>>> assassination of JFK in the first sentence.  Author claimed that this   
   >>>> made it so interesting that people MUST read it.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> What I thought was that, "There are a lot of books about JFK.  Why   
   >>>> should I read this one?"   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Of course, we want to be interesting, the get the quality of being   
   >>>> interesting.  What do you think makes a fragment or piece of writing   
   >>>> interesting?   
   >>>   
   >>> I think it's different for different people.   
   >>>   
   >>> Your example is a good one.  Lots of people would think, Oh, JFK again?   
   >>> Yawn.   
   >>>   
   >>> "The first time I died I..."  might get an, Oh! More!, or else it might   
   >>> get,  Ew, gimmick much?  Or else, yawn, vampire, right?   
   >>>   
   >>> I don't think that the question itself, of how to craft that one beginning   
   >>> that is so strong that no one can put it down, is particularly valid.   
   >>> Obviously the creature does not exist.  I think that it might be more   
   >>> useful  to think in terms of who am I writing for and how do I get my   
   >>> audience not to  set the book down.  If my audience begins and ends at   
   >>> "agent, publisher's  slush reader and Editor" that's a particular   
   >>> challenge, and frankly the only  one that doesn't have cover art to help   
   >>> you out.   
   >>>   
   >> Once I read a short story in one of the 4 magazines.  I only remember   
   >> the opening.  It was one of those flash forward openings.  A character   
   >> shot another character's Roman nose off with a pistol because the nose   
   >> annoyed him.  I remember it because it was obvious as a hook.   
   >>   
   >> Was it interesting?  Maybe.  It was violent action.   
   >   
   > I think I would've closed the book, or paged through the   
   > magazine, at that point, and my reaction would've been not Yawn   
   > but Yucch.   
      
   I don't remember what or who it was, but it was in F&SF around 1980.   
   What I was getting at is you can often see where somebody equates raw   
   violence or action or grisly crime scene descriptions with the concept   
   of hook.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)