The hook. One of the most important aspect to an entire book is the hook.
You have to hook the reader from the first sentence, first paragraph, first page, first scene, first chapter, and even at the beginning of each scene or chapter. It’s what catches the reader’s attention and draws them further into the story to where they will want to read more and more.
However, if you don’t have a great hook, the chances are you may have lost your reader before they’ve even given you story a chance, and you might have a fantastic novel. Unfortunately, the reader will never find out because the hook didn’t grab them.
What are some great hooks in stories you’ve read?
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Yep, the hook is critical and difficult to get it right. I can’t think of any good ones right off. The SF Chronicle Sunday paper has a short section with first lines from novels that’s fun to read.
Linda, that would have been kewl to read through as I’m sure there have been some pretty fabulous ones.
There’s been a few books I’ve passed on because of lacking hooks. I don’t remember the names, but it was in the bookstore. Maybe I’m more critical when it’s a book I haven’t bought yet. On the flip side, I’ve read books that didn’t hook me on the first page because the blurb was amazing and I knew I had to read the whole book. Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz is one book. I thought the first chapter was bleh, but I wanted to know what happened so I kept going.
~Patricia Lynne~
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, YA Author
Patricia, I’m with you. I recently finished a book called “My Husband’s Secret”. The first chapter sort of hook me in that I wanted to find out about what the secret was but then the second chapter completely went onto another POV and wasn’t as interesting, and then the third chapter went onto a third POV and yet a whole other story line. I actually almost gave up reading the book. To be honest, I really didn’t get to a point where I didn’t want to put it down until about 1/2 of the way through the story. The sad part is I’d figured out what the husband’s secret was before it was revealed which was kind of a bummer. In the end, the book was okay but I thought it’d be a whole lot better than it was. But that’s just me.