: Re: Starting a book with a scene from the middle So. I'm currently working on a novel. (It's my first ever.) I need all the help I can get. I had an idea where I start with a scene which

@Megan928

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You should most definitely use that technique. It's called the hook, because it "hooks" the reader's attention and envelops them into the story. This technique doesn't always have to be about the climax of the ending of the actual story; the beginning can be a hook without being related to the rest of the story at all. For example, a book could start out with a man skydiving into an island, and then the rest of the book discusses the plot that happens on the island that he skydived into. So whether if the hook is related to the story's other parts or not, you can use the technique to grab the reader's attention.
This technique is notably used in many popular books and movies, and it definitely is successful in grabbing people's attention. One example that I can think of is the 2010 movie Megamind (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megamind), which starts the story with the climax, the part where the main character that has to fight with the primary antagonists. After a brief dialogue, the scene abruptly switched to the protagonist's childhood.
Another example is the start of the famous Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451, where the main character discusses how burning pleasures him. It wasn't specifically state where he's at or what and how he is burning, but the sudden action of burning and the vague explanation is used to incite the reader's curiosity and successfully makes the reader want to continue reading.
These two examples are the ones I know well, and there are countless other prices of works that use this technique.
Hooks aren't really hard to do nor are they time consuming, so feel free to use it wisely and wittingly to create that hooking effect in the beginning.

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