This information is from some notes I took while attending a panel, during a previous year of my favorite symposium, Life the Universe and Everything. Those listed on the panel were: Jessica Day George, Dene Low, Lisa Mangum and Steve Walker.

– You must catch the reader/editor in the first paragraph. It will determine if the story is worth reading. Book must fulfill the promise given by the opening paragraph.
– First chapter should be geared to motivate the reader to care about the protagonist. First chapter also needs some hooks to motivate the reader to turn to chapter two.
– First paragraph is a place where the reader can be introduced to the character’s voice.
– Interesting hook first sentences: “It was a good night to go golfing in the grave yard” or “My aunt was the one who decided to feed me to the dragon.
– You can write your book and then go back to the beginning to rewrite the opening because now you know how the book ends and its purpose.
– Prologs need to be written about the character that the books are about.
– eight yr. old boys like fart jokes but children’s books can contain more content than body humor.
– Start the scene with something wrong.
– Things to avoid in an opening. You need to know your audience. Graphic violence and torture is not young adult fiction. The opening is not a good place to add a bunch of back story. Avoid a lot of backstory. Have interesting things happening. Some chapters have small conflicts that are different than the overall conflict of the entire book.
– You don’t have to spend the first 10 pages introducing the world. Let it be revealed throughout the story in context of the story
– You need to see where the story starts. Some books may need to start later several chapters into the book.
– Avoid page length paragraphs.
– The author of Dune wrote the book as if the reader was already familiar with the world
– When you write a fantasy you need to write a story that would only work in a fantasy.
– Don’t cram everything into the first chapter and have nothing happen later in the book
Do you have advice on how to make an exciting beginning to a book or story. Please feel free to share your ideas.