Ken Wallo asked me to write a post on what I have learned from reading The Silence of the Lambs. There are a ton of things, and I'll try to summarize them all here, but I didn't just learn them from reading The Silence of the Lambs, but also from reading The Story Grid that dissects it in detail (I highly recommend you read it and see for yourself). Let's get this party started.  

1. Introduce all your main characters in the first chapter.