it was a dark and stormy night...

Beginnings. I have the hardest time writing them. I'm not altogether sure why. It's possibly because I put so much importance on them. After all, they're what traditionally hooks the reader, so naturally, I want people to keep reading.

I was reading this post over on J Crusie's blog (seriously, if anyone knows some other good writing blogs - send them my way) and I liked the comments regarding characters. How often it's the characters and not necessarily the plot that keeps someone hooked. And I think that's quite true for me. I've read books and fic whose plots just don't stand up simply because I loved what the author did with the characters and the dialogue.

So what gets you hooked into a book? Plot? Setting? Dialogue? Characters? Interesting font choice? All of the above?

How do you prefer for novels to start? Do you mind a longish prologue or do you want to just jump right in?

Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday!