What makes a hook a hook?

What makes a hook a hook? A red trench coat, just the right amount of brass, and a crocodile craving your other hand. 

Oh, you thought I meant a book hook. Well, you’re right. What makes an agent take a look at your manuscript and immediately know they have a winner? What does it take to make that perfect first line that makes everyone want to read more? That’s what I am going to try and find out, with you along for the ride.

    Different sources say different things. Some say a great hook is the first line while others say the hook can reside anywhere in the first paragraph. To start off, let’s take a look at a few “hooks” from well known books and authors.

    I’m sure you know who J.K Rowling is, as well as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley. What was the line that started it all for J.K Rowling, allowing her world to take off, take form, and take over?

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of Number Four, Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

     While not entirely hooking, you still have to wonder. Why do they feel the need to claim they are normal? Why do they feel the need to express this fact? Is it because they are, in fact, of the not normal crowd?   Questions coming from the opening line of a book will make the reader want to read more, explore until they find the answers to these questions. All in all, such a simple sentence proved to be an amazing hook, as most kids and young adults have read the miraculous story that is Harry Potter.

     How about a lesser known author, someone not many people have read. The next book hook I am about to feature happens to be my all time favorite book. Coming from someone who has read about 700 books, maybe more, in her lifetime, that is truly saying something. Anyone know who Tamora Pierce is? Have you read her Alana series? The first book in said series is the hook I am about to lay into.

     “That is my decision.”

     See? Again, the hook is not all that descriptive, nor does it give you any helpful information as to what the book is about. But it DOES raise questions. What decision? Who is making them? Who are they deciding against? What are they deciding? This is without a doubt my all time favorite book, as I said before, even though it doesn’t have the strongest hook. Sometimes, you have to read further in to find the real hook, the real piece of the story that makes you want to continue reading. Once I started Alana, I never put it down, and I have reread it dozens of times. It never ceases to amaze me.

     Hmm,.. let’s go into someone else not so well know who is heading the way into the new Dystopian trend. Lauren Oliver!

     “It had been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and forty-three since the scientists had perfected a cure.”

     That is the opening line of Lauren Oliver’s newest book, Delirium, the first book of a new, Dystopian trilogy. I was instantly drawn into this book, and it was another that I could not stop reading once I had started.

     Okay, how about another pretty well known woman? Well, she’s well known where I live. I am sure she is known by a lot of ya’ll as well. If she isn’t, you are living a sad, sad existence. P.C. Cast anyone? Her House of Night novels have taken over, and I can only hope they will soon trump the Twilight phase. Bye bye, Edward and Bella. HELLO Stark and Zoey!

     “Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse I saw the dead guy standing at my locker.”

     Okay.. now who doesn’t want to read more, right!! I mean, a dead guy standing at this poor person’s locker? And how did a dead guy manage to get into the school, anyway?

     I think that’s enough example. How about some helpful tips for building YOUR perfect hook, taken from answers.com:

         1)     Do not try to write your hook sentence first. If you already have an idea for one, awesome. Go ahead and write some of your novel before coming back to make sure that hook is perfect and eye catching, as well as attention grabbing.

    2)      Make certain you start your story at the right place. Many sources will tell you to start as close to the action as possible. If your character is going to be kidnapped, don’t start your book a year in advance. Start maybe a day ahead, at the most. That way, you aren’t bogging your book down with annoying, useless, time consuming details.

   3)       Try not to infodump! A lot of infodumping after a great hook can immediately turn a reader off to your book. SHOW us what you want us to know through your characters’ actions, your scenery, your dialogue. Don’t TELL us what we need to know. We WILL tune out and throw the book across the room..

4)           Think of a question the reader will want to find the answer to, like I said in my above hook posts. If the hook makes your reader ask questions, they will most likely continue to read. As they read, make more questions rise so that they have to read until the end to have all of their questions answered. If you are writing a series, end the first book with more questions that will make them anxious to read the next and answer those as well.

     I hope this has been helpful. I suppose I will end this essay length blog with one more awesome hook, as well as take a look at my own hook and let you see what you think of it.  How about the hook from Amanda Ashley’s Captive, by far my favorite book by this particular author, which is saying something since I have read every single one of her books. :)

     “The first time Lady Ashlynne Myrafloures saw the prisoner who would be known as Number Four, he was nearly naked, lying in an ever-widening pool of his own blood.”

     See! Catching! Makes questions such as who is this Lady Ashlynne? Why is she watching a prisoner? In fact, why is there a prisoner at all? Is there a war? Is he a captured man? Is he a disobedient servant? Ect…

     Okay, now the hook to my newest NIP, Knight’s End. Tell me what you think. Does it make you question what is happening? Does it make you want to read more? I will post my prologue hook and my chapter one hook, simply because I skipped the hooks from prologues of the above books.

     Prologue Hook:

     “Adrenaline had gotten him this far.”

     Chapter One Hook:

    “He’d never been summoned without reason before.”

    Tell me what you think of my hooks. Could they be better? Do they make you think? Thanks for reading my obnoxiously long but hopefully helpful blog! I really enjoyed writing it and I hope it helps you in your own writing.  The next time you read a book, stop after the first sentence, grab a piece of paper and a pen, and write down all the questions that come to mind. When you finish reading the book, go back to that list (use it as a book mark so you don’t lose it) and see how many of your questions were answered. It’ll be a fun exercise. In fact, I am about to start reading The Hunger Games, and I think I’m going to do this.. Should be fun :D Til next time!

J. D. Montgomery