How Can You Write the Best Hook for Your Novel?
You want to grab your readers’ interest as soon as they begin reading your story. So how can you write the best hook for your novel? This blog will help!
The intention of using a hook is to keep your reader’s attention when they read the first chapter of a story. You want to grab their interest as soon as they begin reading your novel because, if you’re successful, readers will not want to put your book down.
Perhaps you have encountered this with a book you previously read, where you begin reading a new story and find yourself immediately invested in the plot. All that said, the short answer is: not easily. But let’s get into how you can help yourself along with your manuscript.
Into the Thick of It
You need your story to get to the point as quickly as possible since attention spans, especially among teenagers, are short. That is particularly true in the digital age when there are so many distractions and people have plenty of options other than reading a good book.
By being mindful of your audience’s attention span and establishing a great hook at the beginning of your story, you’re more likely to motivate them to read the rest of the first chapter or finish the entire book.
Simplicity and brevity are key, rather than bogging down your pages with too much description and exposition. Grip your readers from the start and let them know what they are in for before taking them through your story’s plot.
A Gentle Nudge
Keep in mind there is a difference between writing an impactful beginning and rushing the plot. For instance, I recommend not writing your main character’s backstory at the start of your book despite how tempting it is to tell your readers about your lead’s past upfront.
It’s preferred to save the backstory for later and let readers gradually learn about your protagonist throughout the journey. You don’t need to dump information all at once — only enough for your readers to read beyond the first chapter because they want to learn more.
You can help yourself find a balance between writing practice and reviewing books you’ve enjoyed reading. Go back over the stories you’ve read and see how the authors write their hooks and develop their main characters.
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An Inexact Science
There’s no right way to craft a gripping hook for your story. But you can help yourself out by being mindful of your story’s genre. For example, introducing your hook with a murder investigation would probably make more sense in a crime/mystery novel than a romance story.
Furthermore, you’re not limited to where the hook should begin. The opening hook could be the first line, scene, event, or within the first few pages. But ideally, it shouldn’t take too long for readers to get to that hooking moment. Otherwise, you’ll lose them before they even finish the first chapter.
No Hook? Not a BIG Problem (But Still a Problem)
In honesty, I wasn’t aware of how to best write a hook when I wrote my debut novel, Getting By. It was after publishing my book that I became aware of that fact. Thankfully, a few factors save the opening pages.
First, the beginning chapter of my book immediately begins with a vivid description, which I feel is an appropriate way to draw my readers into my story. Also, using an engaging narrative voice to introduce the book is particularly useful because my novel is in first-person.
The beginning of my opening chapter also introduces the story’s central conflict within the first few pages. While it isn’t the most compelling way I could’ve gone about it, I’m satisfied with the start of Getting By.
Knowing what I know now, I went into writing the first draft of my second novel with the intention of creating a solid hook. Since my second story is an adult romance, I wanted my hook to focus on when my protagonist meets his potential love interest for the first time and how they react in that encounter.
This time around, I think I’ve nailed it, though when I submit my manuscript to an editor, I am eager to get their opinion and plan to take any guidance on bolstering my hook if need be.
I hope this blog helped answer the question: How Can You Write the Best Hook for Your Novel? If you want to understand more about the ingredients that could make a good hook for your story, check out my resources on my site. You can also reach me by email with questions at jsims@jairesims.com or on social media.
About Jaire Sims
Award-Winning YA Author, Course Creator, Blogger, and Self-Publishing Consultant. At twenty-one and as a junior in college, Jaire was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Fast forward one year, Jaire proved that he had overcome all of the challenges he had faced up until this point by graduating from Monmouth College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies.
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