[One, Two, Middlesboogie]

Trawling through the dark recesses of my brain, trying to recall some of the things I've been taught in English classes, I remembered these writing tips:

As Dan said, make the opening interesting. Specifically, open in the middle of the action, and not with something like 'One day...'

Use the 'magic three' rule when using adjectives. The human brain 'likes' descriptions of three adjectives if you're trying to describe something in detail. Use one if one is all you need, but two can look weird. Three is good. Any more and people lose interest.

Don't have too many major characters in a scene at any one time, or you may 'swamp' the reader. Also, give characters proper entrances and exits so that they can keep track of who is there. Don't 'lose' characters in a scene by having them not speak or do anything for ages, or the reader may forget that they are there.

Avoid cliches, especially 'it was a dark and stormy night'.