100 Things You Should Know About Writing (Part 1)

9) How to Hook Your Reader

First, the reader sees the cover. If the cover and title intrigues him/her, the reader (let's just call her Millie) will look at the blurb. If the blurb makes the book sound awesome, Millie will buy (or open) the book. 

This is where things are of interest to us for the purposes of today's section. Millie opens the book with no connection to it, other than a mild interest created by the blurb. But she wants to enjoy the book. (This is especially true for books she buys, because she wouldn't have spent the cash knowing that she's going to hate what she's going to read. Unless she's studying literature. But anyway.) 

The first thing that cements Millie's interest in a story will be its first line. This is so important, in fact, that the industry calls the first line the hook. I include the first few paragraphs in the definition as well, because it takes a fraction of a second for a reader to read one line. And they'll probably read at least a few sentences before the impression is cemented. 

And that's actually my point here. The hook is the reader's first real impression of a story. A blurb isn't specific enough, generally. Neither is a cover or title. Those first few lines should draw the reader into the story. This is done because the hook is the first connection made between the reader and the character. 

How does this work? 

The hook's function within a piece of writing is to bring the reader instantly into the character's world, and to make the reader ask him/herself a question that requires further reading to answer. 

When I'm working on the hook, I like to have the first sentence hook the reader with one question. (I'll show you an example right now.) Then answer the question in the rest of the paragraph (or the one following) only to have a bigger question be asked. 

See, the moment the reader is compelled to ask a question, he/she is curious. And when they're curious, they're involved enough for you to get them through the first chapter. (Which, in truth, is the goal here.) 

I can go into deep analyses of openings that don't work. (Hi. I'm So-and-So and I'm so many years old.) However I figure you've all read weak openings, and I think you can figure out why those openings don't work, once you're armed with the knowledge I've shared. 

Instead, I'm going to use my opening two paragraphs from my YA Epic Fantasy Novel The Vanished Knight to show you how hooks work. First, read it, and then I'll repeat it with an explanation in bold. 

The wet air smelled like blood. Callan staggered back in an effort to escape the scent, but immediately lost her bearings in the dusky light.

Fog distorted everything. Shouts and screams and clashes thundered nearby. She ran toward the noise, through looming black shadows that turned out to be trees. They fell away with a sharp cliff, forcing Callan to stop. The sounds drew her closer to the edge and she found a battle raging on a road in the valley below.

Much better than "Hi, I'm So-and-So", don't you think? But let's look at WHY it works. 

The wet air smelled like blood. (Firstly, the imagery here immediately brings the reader into the story's world. You get the misty sense and that coppery smell too? Good. Means I did my job. Secondly, this short sentence immediately has the reader wondering (consciously or not) why this intense but unusual smell would hang in the air. What caused it?) Callan staggered back in an effort to escape the scent, (Introduces my main character and shows her reacting to the scent, which puts her on equal footing with the reader.) but immediately lost her bearings in the dusky light.

Fog distorted everything. (Continuation of the wet air idea from before.) Shouts and screams and clashes thundered nearby. She ran toward the noise, through looming black shadows that turned out to be trees. They fell away with a sharp cliff, forcing Callan to stop. The sounds drew her closer to the edge and she found a battle raging on a road in the valley below. (This answers the question of what caused the blood smell. But it immediately makes the reader ask the next question: Why is there a battle?) 

So yes, I'm starting the story off on a rather exciting note. But if I hadn't done it in a way that got the reader asking themselves questions, and in a way that brought them into Callan's experiences, the excitement would have been greatly dulled down. 

However, by the time I'm at the end of this opening scene, I have the reader interested enough to read the rest of the chapter. 

And by the time they're at the end of the first chapter, they should be at least interested enough to see what happens next. 

So how do you keep your reader hooked?

Basically, you need to keep the reader in the character's world and, as you go along, you need to let the reader get to know the character. Mostly, the point here would be that you have to make the reader like the character. But sometimes, characters really are just jackasses. Your job as a writer would then be to at least make the reader care about what happens to the character, even if he's unlikeable. 

Don't worry. I'll be getting to the hows and whys one by one.

Thanks all for your amazing support thus far! 100 Things is going from strength to strength, and I'm thrilled that people seem to be finding it helpful. As always, you're welcome to ask questions about writing and this section. As always, if you inspire me to write a section, I'll dedicate it to you. 

But today, I thought I'd make another suggestion. If you're not sure about your story's opening, why don't you post it (Not a link to it. The opening itself.) in the comments, and I and/or whoever else wants to can comment on whether the opening hooks or not. Sound good? Awesome. 

BTW, I'm going to post the rest of that scene from The Vanished Knight as a separate book. (With the rest of it going live about once a week or two.) I'd love it if you all wanted to check it out, but of course, I'll leave that up to you. 

Coming up on 100 Things: 

Information Release

Character Motivation

Sympathy

Showing vs Telling

Narrators

Wordbuilding (dedicated to totaljunkmail)