Every critique I've seen on here, they're expecting the story to be handed to them on a silver platter in the first 13 lines.

You can't really expect every question you've asked to be answered in the first 300 words can you?

I'm not whinging about mine, I've received some helpful feedback, especially from HSO, but there are some things I have issues with such as, "He's studying for Psychology so I figured it to be a medical drama," or something like that, and "I had no idea it involves magic."

How exactly am I supposed to reveal the entire story is about magic if the protagonist himself doesn't know he possesses this power?

The impression I'm getting is that most of you just randomly buy books from a bookstore, not reading what it's about or what genre it is, and read the first 13 lines, and if you don't like it you don't read it. If you actually read the blurb on the back of the book, wouldn't you actually see that it's a Fantasy or Sci-Fi or whatever and a book that you'd enjoy reading?

In my story, I'm trying to have the narrator biased towards Saverio, and not reveal anything that Saverio doesn't already know.

Really, if you wanted to sum up all of the critiques you've received in your Saverio story, it could be: "This doesn't quite interest me yet." Which means, the writing isn't yet strong enough. That's all. That's all it says. Everything else is everything else. Opinions, advice, thoughts, all of these offered with the best of intentions with hopes of helping you improve. You're going to receive lots of criticism. Lots.

This is no big deal, and nothing to worry over. You're learning. We all are. Writing isn't easy. And there is lots to learn. The best thing to do is not explain yourself when someone offers an opinion. Just let it ride. Take it in. Because you won't have a chance to explain your story to readers or editors. They'll take it at face value.

Now, those first 13 lines (and everyone's) say far more than you might think. Truly, by reading those, we can tell how far along an author is in their development. I usually try to guage my comments based on how I perceive that development. (This doesn't mean I'm a better writer, by the way.)

You'll get used to how things work soon enough. In the meantime, take your lumps and keep writing. You'll do fine if you stick with it.

Will you say silly things in your crits? Yes. Probably. But that's okay. Because, again, you're learning.

Of course, ideally your book would have a blurb on the back to tell me "This is a contemporary fantasy. Read along and see how it works." Then again, so often the backs have 'advertising' from other authors or such nonsense, which means nothing to me personally. I don't go on other people's opinions and I don't randomly select books. I WILL open a book to the first page and read to decide if it's interesting enough to invest time and money into. If it's not, I'm not going to say, "Well maybe the next chapter's better." I'll say, "Well maybe this other book's better."

The hook is one of the most important keys to getting readers. As others have mentioned, editors don't even deign to go past the very first page. Which is why we are limited to 13 lines, and why (ideally) those 13 lines should kick butt. And have some significance on the story as a whole. The first 13 lines should not be wasted with triviality and backstory. Do that on page 5, if you have to. It's not that I feel the whole story should be handed on a silver platter--just enough to interest me into sampling the whole meal.

I think they're right about critiquing being good for you, even if you don't think you can do it. Start with comments like, "this doesn't work for me" when things don't work for you. It's as simple as that. Then when you get better you can get more specific.

Two particular anecdotes that I thought of because of HSO:

I did flash for the first time two weeks ago, and I got ripped apart. I think out of about ten responses I only got one positive comment (and that was about a single line), but I learned a lot. I think that sometimes getting shredded is much better than a 'good' critique.

The reason most of us are here at Hatrack is to learn enough that we can eventually get published. Not just for fun. Not just as a hobby. Not just to make up stories for our buddies. This is serious business.

Asking what the story is about can help identify a good starting place for the story.

I think when people ask those sort of questions in a crit they aren't actually asking about the story you want to tell. For example, you may know that the reason the hero did quirky thing X in the opening is that he has psionic abilities that he hasn't yet discovered, and that those abilities are trying to make themselves felt -- these abilities will later enable him to defeat the dreaded Snake Lord. However, a crit that asks why he did X is not actually asking for all that. It's not a "big why" but a "little why". A reasonable explanation at this point might be that he has no idea why he did that, or that he was acting on a hunch. That's just enough information to stop the reader from speculating. We know, for example, that he is not from an alternate reality where thing X is not considered quirky, that he is not doing it on purpose as part of a trap he is setting up, and that he is not trying to pull a joke on someone.

So, I guess my thought on the matter is that if you get WHY questions, it may mean that your foreshadowing of important plot elements is too mysterious. Try to make them make sense for the short term.

When I wrote "what's your story about?" it was rhetorical -- I was suggesting a starting point. But usually what I say in critiques is my reaction in the moment. The readers' in-the-moment reactions are _exactly_ what I want from critiques.

I may also ask what's going on (rhetorically -- I want the story to tell me), if I'm confused or if the author is keeping secrets from me the POV character knows and is thinking about. But in your case, I just wasn't interested (being bored studying -- I do enough of that in real life!) and was hoping you could start the story with some kind of more powerful hook.

Example, off the top of my head:

Inga could hear her own breathing, raspy and harsh, but she didn't dare stop running. Whatever it was . . . she could hear it, meowling, and the sight of its fangs was still in her memory, making her heart beat. They might be the last thing she saw, if she couldn't get to the compound.