Crafting Hook Lines that Draw Readers in

By Janice Hardy, @Janie_Hardy

There's more than one way to hook a reader. Which is fortunate since we want to hook them on every page.

I've been writing most of my life, and I can still remember when I learned certain aspects of writing. Some lessons just stick with you, and what a "hook line" was is one of those lessons.

Around twelve years ago, I was at the Surrey International Writers' Conference (SiWC) and my "Blue Pencil Café" appointment--which is where an author or editor reads and critiques the first two pages of your manuscript. It was an enlightening experience.

I was meeting with author Carol Berg (a delightful woman), and as she read my pages, she put check marks on quite a few lines and said:

HER: You have some great hook lines here.
ME: Thanks! (Made mental note to look up what a “hook line” was)

Back then I didn't know what she was talking about, but she explained what she liked about those lines, so it became obvious what she meant. I was instinctively doing something right.

What Writers Need to Know About Hooks

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Writers get a lot of advice on the value of hooks in a novel, but “hook” can mean different things depending on its usage.

At every stage of a novel, you have different hooks and different needs. In the idea stage, the hook is the cool thing that makes you want to write it, and will make readers want to read it. In the drafting stage, you want to hook readers with the scenes themselves to keep them reading. In the polishing stage, you want sharp hook lines and clever twists.

Every one of these situations involve hooks, but each one uses them in a different way. Not understanding the various types of hooks can lead a writer astray and cause them to struggle to fix something in their novel that might not actually be broken.

Someone might tell you, “There’s no hook,” and refer to reasons why a reader would want to see a scene unfold. But another might mean there’s no unique concept behind the plot. A third might say there’s no cool twist or clever premise behind the story.

Wait For It: Hook Lines and the Dramatic Pause

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

All novels need those "Dum--Dum--DUM!" moments to keep readers hooked and turning the pages.  

There are a lot of ways to control the pacing on your stories, and one of my favorites is the dramatic pause. Not only does it draw attention to what’s usually a great line, it gives readers a moment to fully appreciate whatever it is you just said. They’re the lines that give readers goosebumps and think, “man, this is gonna be good.”

The dramatic pause is frequently found in hook lines--those one-line phrases that add punch to a scene. Their job is to hook you and keep you reading. What makes them work so well is that they’re often (though not always) set apart in their own paragraph, a moment of silence that catches the eye and makes you pay a little more attention to them. They carry meaning, hint at what’s to come, and often pinpoint some critical aspect of the story in some way.