I Snooze, You Lose
Or
Is Your Hook-line a Stinker?
By
Susan Gable
Gone in sixty seconds.
Recently that was the title of a movie. But for us as writers, more importantly, it's what can happen to our reader. Whether that reader is a consumer browsing in a bookstore, or an editor or agent, we're trying to convince them to buy our book.
I really think it's the fault of the remote control and our new national past-time of channel-surfing. Click, click, click - grab my attention, entertain me. Now! Most of them make a quick decision whether they're going to keep reading or put you back on the shelf/into the rejection pile.
Not only that, but the competition is fierce. Editor Denise Little says she and her colleagues receive at least fifty manuscripts in the mail for every one book they can buy. At least fifty. A quick walk through a bookstore in your chosen genre-section will illustrate the competition your book will face once on the shelves.
You'd better make that opening a grabber. You'd better get my attention and hold it. Because like the title of this article says, if I snooze, you lose. If your opening line stinks, I'm gone.
You need a gripping hook.
Not only should your hook grab attention, but it should set the tone for the rest of the book. If your story has a dark tone, make sure you open that way. On the other hand, opening your romantic comedy with a smoking gun may give the wrong impression. (Unless you can make it funny - and I'm sure there are writers out there who can do it. Maybe a bit of dialogue? "Oops.")
Reader expectations are a tricky thing. If you set them up to expect one thing, you'd better deliver. Or they'll probably never buy another of your books again. This is why you don't want a gimmicky hook, either. If you set it up, pay it off.
One common mistake made by newbie writers is the "information overload." They presume the reader must know the protagonist's entire life history so he/she can understand the story that's about to take place. Eennttt - wrong! A biography of your hero's life history from birth to the point where your story REALLY launches is a good way to put your reader into a coma. Start medias res - in the middle of things. Start where the change is about to happen. Start with something intriguing
Hooks should make the reader go, "Hmm…"
There are several types of opening hooks, including:
1 - The Action Hook - The story starts with a bang, perhaps a physical threat or some kind of danger. "But for the grace of God and an untied shoelace, she would have died with the others that day." Julie Garwood, Comes the Spring. "She stood in Purgatory and studied death. The blood and the gore of it, the ferocity of its glee." J.D. Robb, Judgment in Death.
2 - The Dialogue Hook - Start with a catchy piece of dialogue. It can be a snappy one-liner, or it can be added to further narrative to draw in the reader. A variation on this is the Internal Dialogue Hook. "What's the first thing you're going to do when we get out?" Gayle Wilson, Midnight Remembered. "If that arrogant pig thinks he can get away with this, he's sadly mistaken." Heidi Betts, Cinnamon and Roses.
3 - The Mood/Setting Hook - Make the setting intriguing enough to pull in the reader. Remember to be sure the initial mood/setting matches the overall tone of your book. "Rain fell like tiny silver teardrops from the tired sky. Somewhere behind a bank of clouds lay the sun, too weak to cast a shadow on the ground below." Kristin Hannah, On Mystic Lake. "In the dark green shadows of the deep woods, an hour before moonrise, they met in secret. Soon the longest day would become the shortest night of the solstice." Nora Roberts, Dance Upon Air.
4 - The Character Hook - Begin by introducing a fascinating character quality, some interesting psychological facet of your character, or some circumstance that the reader can relate to or be shocked by and thus want to know more about this person. "I was an adulteress. An inadvertent adulteress, but an adulteress nonetheless." Tamar Myers, Eat, Drink, and Be Wary. "After seventeen years, Michelle Turner was going back. Back to a past she didn't want to remember, to the father she barely knew, to the town where she grew up too fast, fell in love too hard, and wound up pregnant and alone." Susan Wiggs, The You I Never Knew.
Hook your reader right off the bat.
Otherwise, they'll be gone in sixty seconds.