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Ways to write hooks: 1. Build urgency. A girl running for her life; a dead body lying in a swamp; a crowd gathering to point into the sky. Each of these actions or images create a kind of urgency that hooks a reader into the story. The reader wants to know why a girl is running for her life.
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Jul 31, 2023 · The manner in which you craft the narrative hook will depend on several factors, not the least of which is genre. And there's more than one way to grab the reader's attention. Tip 1: Present High Stakes. You may have noticed that the first three narrative hook examples shared above have to do with death.
- Remember that your first impression is your title. Sometimes we think that the hook only refers to the first paragraph of your writing. The truth is, the title is usually the first thing that the readers see on the page or on the cover of the book.
- Drop your readers right into the heat of things. Writers use the term in medias res to refer to the strategy of starting your story right in the middle of the action.
- Play with emotional strings. Another way of hooking your reader into your story is by using the power of emotions. Readers are human beings with feelings, and if you can draw them in to a scene that they can relate with emotionally, chances are, you have their attention.
- Start with a controversial statement. When you open with a statement that catches your reader by surprise, it’s like offering them a challenge. Your reader will then continue reading to see how you can prove your statement.
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- Begin at a pivotal moment. We were people who had Mediterranean ancestors, dark hair, dark eyes, tan skin, and everyone else in White Pine looked very Scandinavian; we became the town’s diversity—before diversity was a good thing.
- Add an unusual situation. I coped by being careful and good and funny which was like an invisibility cloak in high school but as much as I tried to blend in, my older brother Ray stood out in the most threatening way possible for a good girl and that was as a bad boy.
- Add intriguing characters. My father was and is best described as an intense, idealist with a steel girder of a work ethic and a charm that wears thin under the gun of his laser focused attentions.
- Conflict. Outside the restaurant, just before swinging the door wide and walking inside my Dad would stop us and say, “Now remember everybody, this is for Mom.
4. Don’t bury the hook. In order to be effective, the hook should stand alone or be placed either at the beginning of the sentence/paragraph or at the end. Placement is important. Burying it in the middle will blunt the hook and your reader will miss it. 5. Alter a cliché. As writers, we’re taught to avoid clichés.
They will simply have to keep turning pages to find out what happens next. With that in mind, here are 10 tips for writing a great story hook: 1. Startle The Reader With Your First Line. By using a startling or intriguing first line, you can take the reader by surprise and get them excited to delve into the story.
Image credit: Ivars Krutainis via Unplash. 5. Hide a piece of information. A hook that conceals specific pieces of information from the reader can work hand-in-hand with unusual imagery to create suspense and arouse curiosity. Writers Dennis Jerz and Kathy Kennedy give a great example to highlight this point.
