Hook ‘Em—A Guide to Writing Hooks Writing a book and having it published is a daunting task. To entice editors to pick up your manuscript, and later to ensure your readership sticks with your book to the very end, you have to tuck a few tricks up your sleeves and know the perfect moment to whip them out. One of these tricks is the hook—a way to grab ahold of your reader and never let go. Hooks come in many shapes and sizes. Authors have been known to use catchy phrases, exciting scenes, or contradictions to open their stories, along with anything else that will get in the reader’s head and make them thirst for more. Action-adventure gives ample opportunity for exciting moments, too. Does your character get in a high-speed chase? Maybe you could open your story with your character’s hands white-knuckling the steering wheel. Will a phone call unsettle your hero and spur him into action? Start out with the dialogue that gets his pulse racing. Is your character confused by the situation she’s in? Mix a bit of that confusion into the opening thoughts, but only enough to interest your reader. Essentially, a hook calls for you to start with something—anything—that will intrigue your readers and keep them reading. While hooks are not always easy to write, they pay off when they’re done well. Some authors choose to start with a glimpse into the climactic scene or something leading up to it before dropping back to where the story starts out. Other authors choose to give readers a glimpse into a character’s past. It could be a dark, defining moment for your character; perhaps they have secrets they’re hiding that will come back to haunt them in the pages of your book. Sometimes, a hook takes the form of a scene that escalates abruptly from ordinary to extraordinary, leaving your character and your reader in a tailspin. We do have a few warnings for your hook: avoid as much cliché as you can. Starting a book with cliché emotions or expressions may very well turn readers away with less than a page turn. Also, hooks are an attempt to stay away from “boring” right off the bat. Try not to start with a ton of background information. Too much in-depth description of your characters medical issues or previous love-life failures will surely ward off potential readers. Start with something exciting—action, intense emotion, heated dialogue, or anything that will get the mind working and the pulse racing. If you have a hard time crafting your hook to begin with, don’t give up or feel bad. Many writers end up writing the beginning scenes of their books after they’ve written part of the stories themselves. No single writing technique is right for everyone, nor is there a “perfect” recipe for an instant bestseller. The advice we at F.W. Fife would like to offer you is this: keep trying, keep writing, and send us your submissions when you’ve finished the product of your hard work and dedication. We can’t wait to get hooked.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 18:42:15 +0000
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