Ciao, SEers. I’ve got three posts left this year, so I thought it would be a good idea to write a post trilogy. What story terms break into threes better than beginnings, middles, and endings? None I could think of. So today, we’re discussing beginnings.

You see an eye-catching cover and click on the link or pull it from the shelf. You read the back-cover copy; the blurb has everything you want in a novel—a passionate couple, a precarious situation, a tantalizing mystery to solve. Just before you decide to buy it, you take a peek at the first page.

Instead of reading a meet-cute or plunging into the action, you find a description of the weather and pages of backstory.

Thank God you saved your money.

No, this doesn’t necessarily mean the book is bad. In fact, twenty pages in, you might strike literary gold. But will you…