One of my biggest notes when I review "first 10 pages" - your job in these pages is to ask questions that the rest of the book answers. Leave the questions unanswered for as long as possible - that's what gives opening pages tension and life.

That doesn't mean confuse the reader; we have to feel grounded enough in this world to want to keep reading. But what really gets us from page to page is seeing how the questions you posed will be answered over the course of the book.

If we see two friends having a terse conversation, we don't want to know immediately why they're mad at each other. We will keep reading to find that out. Be comfortable leaving your questions unasked.