What should include in a hook on 1st page

What’s not to like? You have –bot in the name yourself. Ever work waiting tables?

 

Probably for the best that I haven't, but at least now I know what to call myself if I do

 

Waiter. You want a gender-neutral term that isn't 'waitperson', and I can see the desire to avoid that one, the term is waiter. Again, we don't have 'doctress' any more; we don't need 'waitress'.

 

I always thought the gender neutral term was "server."

 

I tend to use 'waitstaff' in the general sense, though you can't refer to an individual as 'a waitstaff'. I know 'server' is an option, but it feels gross to say, imo - it's so close to being 'servant'.

 

That works OK, too. For whatever reason, I prefer waiter.

Edited to add: I figured out the reason. Server feels generic, for anyone who may serve something. While a waiter, I think, is the person who has primary responsibility for the table. So the waiter, busser, runner, bartender, etc., might all be seen as "servers".

 

I think one of the reasons I use it is because it's what I see most often in restaurant reviews, both professional and on Yelp.

 

Note that this was in 1988. Things were changing.

My sister met her future husband while she was working. Their oldest kid just turned 22. Interestingly, that restaurant is where the Dixie Chicks played before they were famous, and she knew them as work-friends.

 

So what should include in a hook on the first page. It seems like it's vital for the first paragraph and page of every book.

 

I don’t think it’s a matter of what to include. The goal is to interest the reader and make him want to read on. And I suppose it should also be sufficiently representative of the book that the reader won’t end up feeling cheated.

 

Raise questions in the reader's mind, make them seek out the answers. And don't answer the first question raised until you've added a few more. Keep the interest-train steaming onward down the tracks.

 

A worm or some other kind of bait.

A hook without a bait does not work well.