10 ways to hook your reader. A great hook:
1) Surprises
2) Intrigues
3) Is funny
4) Is ironic
5) Is vivid
6) Resonates
7) Has a unique narrative voice
8) States a fact
9) Flips a fact on its head
10) Sets the mood
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A Great Hook Surprises:
1984 by George Orwell
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
In one short sentence Orwell shows the reader that the world you are about to enter is slightly off from the world you know. Time is measured differently here.
Juxtaposing the ordinary with the extraordinary/strange/fantastical makes readers do a double-take and is often used in dystopian, fantasy and sci-fi literature.
The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton
The man sitting across from me at the café was thinking about murdering his wife.
Woah! OK, just because we know this book is about mind readers does not take away the surprise of that first line. Brighton sets the scene, painting the picture of two men sitting at a cafe. We can imagine them leisurely drinking their coffee, and then Bam! She goes right in there and tells us the man's murderous thoughts about his own wife! Not expected. At. All.
Now we want to read on. We want to know is he going to kill his wife? What other things are we going to find out?
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead.
People look at each other all the time. But they're all pretty much alive (I hope!). This first line does many things. It establishes a unique voice. It's funny, surprising and intriguing. In one line we have many questions. Why is she dead? Who is looking at her? How can they see her? Is she a ghost? What is she doing?
Every Day by David Levithan
I wake up. Immediately I have to figure out who I am.
This starts with a simple fact. He wakes up. But then we're hit with another fact. He needs to work out who he is. Umm, hello? Most people kinda know who they are when they wake up, and if they don't it's not necessarily the very first thing they have to do. Maybe take a shower first!
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
I remember being born.
How?? Everybody is born but nobody remembers it (I'm right here, right?) In one short, startling and sweeping line we want to know more about Seraphina.
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
Getting dressed was always the hardest part of the afternoon.
Umm, not for most people, they usually get dressed in the morning! Who are Pretties? Why do they get dressed in the afternoon? And what's so hard about it?
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.
A totally unexpected, puzzling first line. And for all those who know that a pegasus is a winged white horse it is also extremely vivid! But either way it is surprising. The thing that landed on the hood of his car was the start of the end of the world? That's pretty huge. And yet he says it in such a laid back way that we're totally surprised by it.
Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles
Things had been getting a little better until I got a letter from my dead sister.
We know from the title that dead girls don't write letters, but here in the first line is a dead girl doing exactly that? Was it really from her dead sister? Is her sister really dead? What happened to her? What's in the letter? And what's so bad about getting a letter from a dead sister anyway (besides from the creep factor!)?
(Author's note: What do you think of these hooks? Do you agree? Thanks so much voting and commenting!!)
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Hook Your Reader
Non-Fiction[ON HOLD] Nobody will ever know how incredible your book is if they don't read it. And for that you need a hook. A unique opening line that touches the core of the story, that temptingly hints to what they'll find inside, that compels your reader...
