Doing: Writing this blog; surfing the net; answering e-mails
Watching: "The Jim Lehrer Hour" on PBS
Listening to: "What I've Done" by Linkin' Park; "Doomsday Clock" by Smashing Pumpkins (The Transformers soundtrack)
Reading: Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (Page 173)
TOPIC: HOOKING YOUR READER
I had this posted on another group when the issue of hooking your reader came into question. If this sounds like a rant--it's because I'm very passionate about these sort of things.
***
I don't bother with hooking the reader. I just start out with something that I hope the reader will find interesting--and just write the story however it pans out in the end.
Trying for the dramatic angle for a beginning is really stupid. It just shows how amateurish you really are.
You can't just drop right into the tension pool and expect people to eat it up with a spoon. You have to build up the moment to that moment.
So it takes your hero 5 full chapters to find what he's looking for. And?
So what!
Will it kill the reader a little if he's not bashing in skulls or performing a Matrix-like move to eradicate his foes at this very second? Nope. It doesn't matter.
He's looking for something important and so he must journey with himself and the reader to search for that one elusive item. But in the meantime, it's dark, it's scary, and he has zombies chasing after his ass every step of the way.
Does it matter if he's avoiding confronting them instead of dragging out a can of patented Whoop-Ass and using it on them in the first page?
Nope.
But the agent will say: "Why is he doing this instead of fighting them? Why isn't there any action?"
Because...? I'm writing it this way. Will you people chill out a little? The action will come when it comes. Not before, not after.
But impatience rues the day and agents are not known for their patience. Neither are publishers. So out goes the little "Dora the Explorer" angle and here comes Neo the Zombie Killer.
The journey of that character gets axed and here is a guy with some cool martial arts moves and an attitude like Rambo on Prozac. (Suicidal in case you're wondering.)
The zombies are dead meat in a split second and both the agent and publisher are happy and titilating with one orgasm after another.
No prose, no need for personal recollection. Just another MDK (Murder/Death/Kill--from "Demolition Man") in action and the reader gets all that more desensitized by what he or she reads as a result.
Oooh! Wow! That was so brilliant! All that hard work put in so that the industry can butcher it into a chain of books that has as much shelf life as your standard house fly.
But this is what they want. Everything marketable has no chance of hanging around. Too many books out there competing for fame, fortune, and a spot on a milk carton or that box of Wheaties one of these days.
And the sad thing is? Most books never make the cut. And those that do are so overdone in themes and lacking originality--that all they are are just boxed pieces of commercialism and nothing else.
How much money did I waste again for buying this piece of crap?
So when we talk about hooks, my eyes glaze over and my head does that thing from the "Exorcist" or "Beetle Juice"--and I'm like, "Oh goody! Let's all do our readers in with senseless gore and violence!"Who needs to really write well when we have this to draw inspiration from?
It certainly takes the starch and fun out of exploring the worlds we all sit down to create. Y'know?
So the important thing is to remember that hooking your reader isn't dependent on that all important action scene or some commercialized ploy designed to draw in a targeted--or benchmarked--readership.
Having a hook isn't just about the first page either. Hooking a reader is about the whole book being presented as a single entity to your audience. By giving them more to chew on than a single sentence, or a prospective fight scene--you're allowing the reader a change to absorb and assimilate their next favorite read.
And in order to do that you have to start embracing risk and shuck off what the industry tells you to do without question. Show your reader what your book is about by giving them every little bit and piece. In steps--if you want.
Over time.
Hook them through your words, your characters, and your ongoing storyline--not just what the first paragraph says or what the first five pages read like.
If the agents want to play mind games with your work, then tell them to go Cheney themselves. This is your book, right? So shouldn't you have the final say in what's in it that will interest the reader?
Why destroy yourself because the industry doesn't want you to hook your reader in your own right? Just becaused you're a beginner, it doesn't mean that you have to give up your rights to personal imput--because some agent tells you: "This is the way it's always been done." (Yes...maybe back in the 1960s!...what year and century is this again?)
Tell them that if they don't like it, they are free to find some other sucker author is more than willing to play the role of a complete kiss-ass.
People, being published traditionally revolves around two things: Money and control.
Control over your work. Control over YOU.
You want to be sheep to these individuals, then wear a fucking bell around your neck and go, "Baa-aaah!"
You want to take control of your own destiny, then look these people in the eyes and tell them that they can take a walk off a very short pier.
You want money, you want the fame, the fortune, and the whole ball of cheese? Then you're going to have to work for it!
Stop looking for the easiest ways out and start taking more risks with your life and your work as a writer!
If you want to hook your readers than you'd better start writing more than just a fancy-schmancy, snazzed up paragraph that begins with the words: "It was a dark and stormy night..."
Think about what you're writing and who you are intended it for. Most people I've run across say they are writing for their audiences. But boy oh boy...! Are they going to be fucking disappointed in the long run.
Especially when they find out that their target audience has moved on to bigger and better reads.
Wanna know a safer bet? Write for yourself. I can't stress this often enough. Sure, it won't bring in as much recognition, fame, or a publisher's contract. But you want to know what I found all this time? By doing it myself?
I didn't come away disappointed with the results.
My works have come away stronger, better organized, and more interesting than their previous first-gen counterparts.
And the hooks within aren't buried in the first paragraph, the first page, or even the first five pages either.
But the whole book!
The whole book should be your hook. The whole book should be more than enough to entice your reader to want to know more.
You can't do that with such scant information, a limited pitch spiel or a restricted time frame.
Readers these days are going to want to know the whole kit and kaboodle. They aren't satisfied with just being thrown tidbits anymore. And as much as the industry, some hawk of theirs, or someone else is going to tell you otherwise--these days, you have to constantly adapt and evolve the art of hooking your reader with your published books.
And the best way to go about doing that is by getting them involved from the start.
Show them everything there is about your novel. Not just the parts you think will guarantee a future sale. Every element written in has a part to play in your overall success as a published writer.
Most experts will commonly tell you to fixate yourself on just one thing and one thing only. In order to hook your reader, you have to go beyond the first page of your novel.
Show your reader what lies in store for your hero or heroine. Show them what they are up against. Tell them that what kind of a rough ride they are going to encounter as the novel unfolds.
Offer them personal insights and tragedies into your respective characters. Show them their victories and their failures. Happy endings or not.
Don't be afraid to immerse your reader into your own work. That helps them stay engaged with you every step of the way.
This helps you secure future sales against whatever advance you may get.
Because people will remember you and go, "Hey! I know that guy! He's got a great book coming out!"
And from there, he or she will go on so avidly about it, interest in your published tome will pick up in no time.
All because of how you hooked your reader.
Sky
