Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Hook

Good afternoon, Literati!  I'm in New York for the rest of the week, so blog posts will be super short and sweet.
Today I'd like to discuss "the hook" in writing.  That special something that grabs your attention in an article or in fiction, even in a movie.  Are there certain elements of a hook that will immediately draw you in?  I'm a sucker for mysteries, throw in a ghost and some historical fiction and I'm in! 
What do you look for in a hook?  What HAS to be in that first sentence/page/scene to grab your attention?

I look forward to your responses!

Happy reading and writing!

4 comments:

  1. Hmm...I'm imagining standing in a bookstore (OK, a library - I've basically never paid for a book in my life) and trying to choose something by reading the blurb... for me, the main dealbreaker is when every character mentioned is a man. Because I'm interested in relationships and I find action scenes boring, and as a gross generalisation male-oriented stories tend to be less relateable for me.

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    1. I'm with you on that one! I don't like to read anything when all the characters are men or women, but it's hard to read adult fiction if the protag is a man. It's just harder to relate. I read How the Dead Dream by Lidia Millet where the protag is a man, and I just had the hardest time getting into it.

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  2. Good question! Generally, I like it to be something different than I've read before. Hubby likes the same plot kind of over and over (like character series) but I like a good variety. :)

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    1. I agree! It has to be something fresh. If it's a zombie book, I want to know how it's different than Pride, Prejudice, and Zombie, etc.

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