The Goals of Your Novel Opening

Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go by Les Edgerton

The opening of your story carries an awesome responsibility. The goals of your opening scene are (1) to successfully introduce the story-worthy problem; (2) to hook the readers; (3) to establish the rules of the story; and (4) to forecast the ending of the story. If your opening fails to accomplish any one of these elements, then your opening will be faulty.