I’m not a big fan of non-fiction. Gasp! Yes, I said it. I know. But every time I pick up a non-fiction book I feel something akin to the apprehension one must get on the way to a root canal. Give me a story any day, please.
That being said, I do read a non-fiction book from time to time, because it’s important to keep learning about life, faith, marriage, parenting, and writer’s craft. So I picked up Hooked by Les Edgerton when I was at the Write! Canada conference and slogged through it.
For non-fiction, it wasn’t so bad. 🙂 I found it helpful and informative, a bit repetitive at times, but that helps the message sink in. Edgerton provided plenty of concrete examples from real writing, talking about what worked.
Hooked is a great start for self-taught writers like me who keep getting cryptic messages from their editors that say “show, don’t tell” or “too much backstory”. Edgerton teaches how to craft a story’s beginning in our present day publishing world in order to catch an editor’s attention.
If you were reared on the classics and didn’t major in English, this is a valuable tool to ease you into the drastic changes in book style. Worth a read, in my opinion.
Erin E. M. Hatton 