u/Gabriela-yanez

There's this rule that gets repeated everywhere in writing spaces and influencers: if you don't hook the reader in the first paragraph, you've already lost them. Don't get me wrong, I get where it comes from. I mean, DNF is real yeah yeah

BUT this has barely been the case with some (if not all) of my favorite books. Almost none of them grabbed me immediately (Mistborn comes to mind...it took me quite a few pages to get into it, and then I was obsessed), and some of those that did, like Fourthwing, turned out to be poorly written (in my own humble opinion).

I wonder if the obsession with the hook is actually pushing writers toward a kind of panic energy in their openings. Everything has to be urgent or something big has to happen, someone has to almost die, etc. And then the rest of the story has to somehow justify that opening.

I believe some stories need a slow start and some characters need to just exist for a bit before you care whether they live or die, and that's OK.

Am I alone in this or are you a blind supporter of the 'first chapter hook' advice?

I am writing an epic fantasy book and there is definitely a romance brewing between my main characters. But I keep going back and forth on how much to lean into it. I want it to feel earned (and fun) without it taking over the plot, but I also don't want to end up with a book that gets shelved as romantasy when that's not really what it is. Not that there's anything wrong with romantasy, I just feel like the label would set the wrong expectations for readers coming in.