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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.

Hooked is organized into eleven chapters:
Story structure and scene
Opening scenes
Inciting incident, initial surface problem, story-worthy problem
Setup and backstory
Combining inciting incident, story-worthy problem, initial surface problem, setup, and backstory
Introducing characters
Foreshadowing, language, and setting
Opening lines
Red flags
Opening scene length and transitions
View from the agent's and editor's chair
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.

Hooked is a must for the bookshelf of serious students of fiction. It's the book about beginnings.

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."

Learn more about this author, Mike Klaassen.
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