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1. Into the Lion’s Den
The first way includes the first section on the plot diagram, the inciting incident (my plot diagram can be found here: ). The inciting incident is whatever kicks your protagonist out of their normal lives. Most books reveal a problem to the protagonist, or the beginning of a new path to take; that is how an interesting story is formed. Although, rather than taking a while to introduce the inciting incident, this first example throws the protagonist right into the thick of things from the start. It forces the protagonist to make a decision. That decision, the struggle and the events after are what the readers want, so to they will keep reading to find out what the protagonist does and what happens as a result. The important thing to have here is a problem that can be stretched out through the full length of the book, and yet still be apparent at the first few moments of your story.

An example of this method can be found in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran rather close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit either with a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment, Alice went after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
All within the very first page, we get information about the character (Alice, a very impatient young girl), present the character a problem (whether or not to go down the rabbit hole), and a decision (Alice going down the rabbit hole, with no thought about how to get out). The rest of the book is about Alice’s adventures in wonderland, her attempts to get out, and all the crazy things and people she meets there.

3. For the Love of the Protagonist
The third way to create an opening is to use your characters to your advantage. Along with having a good plot, a story needs interesting characters to keep the scenes from getting boring. An interesting character is unique and a unique character can be used to pique the interest of the reader. To use this method correctly, you need to have a clear understanding of who this person is. You can’t have a fuzzy idea floating around your head and making small appearances once-in-a while. To set your character, and your intro, apart from the rest the character needs to convey their uniqueness through the words they say or how they are depicted in the text. Here is an example of how to use the character’s own voice as the hook:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.
You don’t know me, without you have read a book by the name of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly- Tom’s Aunt Polly, she is- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in that book- which is mostly a true book; with some stretchers, as I said before.
What can you notice about this opening, besides the fact that Word was having a fit at me? Through this short section at the beginning of the book, we can already get a good idea of who this person is, and why we might want to follow him through his story. The language usage reveals that Finn is a younger boy with little education, and already is pretty understanding of how the world works. He is relatable, yet his commentary of the events around him gives the book a bit of humor as well. The character method doesn’t always give a clear problem or motive right away. They might give a short background, or decide to explain a few things that happened before to give their account context. That’s fine. This is because people’s mind’s work this way, and this short little bit of rambling can be overshadowed by the charisma of the character.

Another way to use character hook is use a description, rather than a thought or dialogue, to express what it is about this character that makes them important. I found this example while reading a book called Dynamic Characters: How to create personalities that keep readers captivated, by Nancy Kress.
He was a lank, tall, bearded man in a shaggy brown suit that might have been cut from blankets, and on his head he wore a red ski cap-the pointy kind with a pom-pom at the tip. Masses of black curls burst from under it. His beard was so wild and black and bushy that it was hard to tell how old he was. Maybe forty? Maybe forty-five? At any rate, older than you’d expect to see at a puppet show, and no child sat next to him.
-Morgan Gower, in Anne Tyler's Morgan's Passing
A very unique character indeed. An older, presumably homeless, man sitting alone at a puppet show is not something that one would expect to encounter on a regular basis. This perplexing character and the situation that he is in is what draws the reader in.