If you can master the opening, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

The key to high concept is that fresh twist. Make it a big one. Wow your reader. Force her to gasp when she comes to that part in your story.

While the goal of a book is to create a positive emotional experience for the reader, the goal of the opening is to set the stage, to pull the reader in.

We don’t read to observe the character from a distance. We read to become the character and experience the conflicts and rewards they are experiencing.