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Books of the last, say, 75 years are set in what's called in medias res, in the middle of things. The story starts where the plot starts, more or less. But back in, for example, Victorian novels, ...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10853 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T03:29:59Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10853 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Books of the last, say, 75 years are set in what's called _in medias res,_ in the middle of things. The story starts where the plot starts, more or less. But back in, for example, Victorian novels, it was much more common to give the entire life story of the protagonist. The really exciting part of _Jane Eyre_ is when she goes to be a governess for Mr. Rochester and all the events which happen as part of that, but the book starts when Jane is a child. So technically speaking, no, you don't need a "hook" per se, and you don't need to put it in the beginning. But if you don't, your book will feel old-fashioned. That may be a feature rather than a bug, if you're doing it deliberately.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2014-04-29T23:42:01Z (about 10 years ago)
Original score: 1