Dead Puppies (catchy openings that draw you in... resources, techniques?)

There's a book called The First Five Pages that addresses how to open a novel.

Other books I found helpful:

Fiction First Aid by Raymond Obstfeld
Elements of Writing Fiction - Plot (Elements of Fiction Writing) by Ansen Dibell
Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass (I found the workbook more helpful than the book, but a lot of folks rave about the book as well)
Elements of Writing Fiction - Scene & Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing) by Jack Bickham

I've never found a great book on POV, but there's a fantastic article on it here.

You can also study books you like that have great openings. Analyze what they did and break it down to see how you can apply the same techniques to your own work.

Somehow, I don't think dead puppies will work again, lol.

Danthia's covered most of the ones I would recommend. I also read a book called:
CHARACTERS, EMOTION, & VIEWPOINT: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints
by Nancy Kress
2005, Writer's Digest Books

that was okay. It broke these things down in a way that made me think critically about my writing, but wasn't mindblowing or a must-have.

But speaking from my own, pretty recent experience, part of what makes a beginning catchy is quick pacing and minimal backstory (which I'm sure you know).
What I wound up doing was illustrating one of the MC's plot-important flaws/quirks in a place that set the stage and the tone. That got me into the MCs head right away, and hopefully, hooked the reader.

But that wasn't something I learned from a book. Some of the best advice I've ever gotten came from writing forums like this one.

I would recommend selecting your favorite authors, the ones you can't wait for the next book to come out. Re-read their openings. How did they draw you in.

I'd also recommend the "Learn Writing with Uncle Jim" thread in the Novels section of this board. It's quite long, but there's a wealth of great information there. From time to time, he'll play the "would you turn the page" game, posting the first page of a published novel (unidentified, of course) and then breaking down exactly what the author was doing in order to entice the reader to move on to page 2.

I recommend other books. Go to your own bookshelf and to the local library. Study the books that you personally read and re-read again. What about them hooks you? Do the same with the bestsellers. How do they open? And don't forget the classics. Any book that has stood the test of time, whether or not you like it, should be looked at. Ask the librarians and people around you what their favorite books are. Look at those openings. What do they do in the beginning to captivate the readers?

This blog is interesting.

http://pitchclinic.blogspot.com/

The lady is, I think, an editor of children's books, and she does critiques on first pages people send to her. One can learn a lot from reading others' first pages and the comments she gives on them.

RJK said:

I would recommend selecting your favorite authors, the ones you can't wait for the next book to come out. Re-read their openings. How did they draw you in.

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Ditto this. The best way to learn how to write is to read--read often and read widely. Study what appeals to you, as a reader, and apply that to your own technique as a writer.

I double dog ditto the advice that many people are giving: Read openings; notice what draws you in, what does not, what repels you.

For the people giving that advice (including me): In your own reading and analyzing, what have you noticed about what works for you and what does not?

I don't have a good answer yet. Let's see what I can learn from my all-time favorite opening:

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

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What makes this so powerful for me? I don't know exactly. Probably the sheer weight of a number of factors, mostly questions that I must have answered: Why "doomed"? How did Owen Meany kill the narrator's mother? How do you sustain a close relationship with someone who killed your mother (even if it was an accident)? How did Owen Meany cause the narrator to become (or remain) a Christian? What wrecked Owen Meany's voice? What makes his wrecked voice so important that it's the first feature the narrator describes (well, second: first we learn he's a boy)?

That's a lot of questions raised by a single sentence. Often such a barrage of questions overwhelms me more than captivating me. Why is it so compelling here? I think it's because the sentence is written with such precision--word choice, structure, rhythm, brevity (yes, I mean brevity: not a single word is wasted)--that I immediately and completely trust this author. I trust that the author will in due time answer all of those questions. And given the sheer audacity of both the structure and content of the sentence, I trust that it's going to be a hell of a ride.

So: Raise compelling questions in the reader's mind. Do it with a precision that invites the reader to trust you.

Dale

Wow good info. I love this place!