O.C. Writers

By Andrea Lewis // 

A public speaker has the first 15 seconds of a speech to capture the audience. Would he or she spend those priceless moments on “Hello,” and “Thank you for having me”—which is completely fine, but predictable and thus boring—or rather something surprising, memorable, that will make the audience lean forward and listen?

Similarly, writers have the first page, five at the most, to get and keep the attention of the reader. Before they open to the first page, readers will scan the title, the cover, perhaps the endorsements on the back cover, the front flap. It sounds like a lot, but these first impressions dictate “whether or not your readers want to be pulled into the world of your [story],” according to Katherine O’Chee in “7 Clever Steps to Hook Your Reader Your Narrative, an online article that appears on the Writer’s Edit website.

Just like a public speaker, a writer will want to say something unexpected that will draw a reader into the book. The “unexpected” is the hook, which usually happens on the first page, and sometimes, it is the opening line.

American Book Review has compiled a list of 100 Best First Lines from Novels. Here are a few of them:

• “Call me Ishmael.”—Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.”—Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
• “I was born twice: first as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”—Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)
• “The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.”—Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

Many of the beginnings on this list are often showcased for their powerful way to open stories that are now considered masterpieces. What gives them this strength? Let’s take a closer look. 

In putting this material together, I considered advice from writers and other professionals in the publishing trade, including agents, and asked them about hooks they’ve encountered and liked the most. Suggestions often overlapped, which seems to indicate that opening hooks are important to all—writers, publishers, book marketers, and, ultimately, readers.

AGENTS’ ADVICE

Trained to tell a lot from the first page, agents are used to reading one-page books. The “sense of dialogue, setting pace, character, voice, and writing talent,” writes Agent Carly Watters on her website, will whether an agent will connect with the piece or move on to the next book. Even if a writer isn’t seeking an agent, it’s worth learning what gets them past the first page.

Carly Watters, an agent with P.S. Literary Agency, recommends writers know their audience and possess a good command of the language.

With that in mind, writers should strive to:

• “Balance what readers need to know versus what you, as the writer, want to tell us,” Watters writes, and that often relates to a character’s secret or goal.
• Characters must look as if they had a life before the reader enters their world, and that their life becomes more interesting as they move forward in the book.
• Start the book with action—a place where plot is happening, rather than introducing and describing characters. This point is in close connection with the previous one.
• Avoid too much information on the first page, including number of characters—three or four names on the first page are too many.

“Never assume a reader is going to finish your first page, first chapter, or whole book,” Watters writes. Readers’ expectations should be treated with care and respect, since they are willing to dedicate eight to ten hours to your book.

That is why a good hook is important: it should grab attention and give the reader a reason to invest their time into your writing. It will help the reader stay focused and immersed while reading. Hooks are crucial in all types of writing, both fiction and nonfiction.

WRITERS’ ADVICE

Before writing the hook

Sydney-based writer Katherine O’Chee, advises that before writing the hook, authors should consider the following:

• Know your audience—the specific target audience, interested in your genre, but also the audience particularly interested in your writing. This point dovetails with Watters’ suggestion above.
• Know the purpose—what is the point you’re trying to make through the piece? Any message released into the world will have at its core the “end user,” the destination point: what’s in it for the reader? The same applies to public speaking.

While writing the hook

The engine that drives the reader into and through the book is curiosity sparked by one or more questions. Essentially, when the reader decides to turn a page, they’re looking to find answers to those questions by reading the book. So, a good hook should leave the readers with at least one question.

Here are some techniques that writers often use to accomplish this goal:

• A strong title. The first window into your piece is the title. A good rule of thumb is to make it emotionally loaded or apply a surprising combination of words. One of the secrets to a strong title is to use a present participle or gerund. The Shining, Wuthering Heights, and Catching Fire are good examples.
• Starting in the middle of action that is part of a chain of events. The reader will feel there has been life before he or she arrived at the doorway of your book and will want to find out what happened before this moment. There is a twofold benefit to this technique: it will infuse the scene with energy, and it will compel the reader to ask questions and search for answers within the book. As Neil Gaiman says in his Masterclass, they will ask “and then what happened?”
• Emotional connection with the reader, because not all content is about action. An emotional scene will appeal to a reader’s empathy and provoke his or her interest in what happens to the character further on.
• Making a surprising or philosophical statement that might inspire the reader or wonder how the writer came to that awareness. This method acts like a lens through which the writer can show his or her own point of view. The opening line of Pride and Prejudice is often quoted as an example for this practice.

Also, consider answering a question that’s posed in the hook early to keep the reader’s attention but add heighten the reader’s curiosity by adding additional questions. Opening each chapter with a teaser (action, dialogue, interesting fact) will keep the reader focused and entertained.

WRITERS’ FAVORITE HOOKS

In her Masterclass, Margaret Atwood analyzes one of her favorite opening lines: “Call me Ishmael.” Here are a few of her reflections:

• Who is Ishmael (an outcast favored by the angels); the character’s name is not Ishmael, but he asks to be called that, why?
• “Call me” addresses the reader directly.
• The present tense shows that whatever happens in the book, the character survives to tell the story.

Jean Ardell, co-author of Making My Pitch: A Woman’s Baseball Odyssey, says she prefers “opening lines that capture the heart of the piece that follows. Words with passion and color in them. Humor is often helpful.”

O.C. Writers columnist Barbara Neal Varma, whose work can also be found in Orange Coast Magazine, is an avid reader of books that trigger questions right from the first page. One favorite is this one: “My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973,” which opens The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold.

FIND YOUR OWN HOOK

Openings are a result of many factors—our own voice, content, genre, ending. We may not have the perfect opening line the moment we start writing the piece. As Atwood advises, it may come to us a few pages into our writing, and it may lead to a reorganization of the content. In any case, keeping it simple but powerful will make it remarkable. Most importantly, a good hook should answer the reader’s expectations throughout the book.

Researching this article made me reflect on the openings I’ve read and consider what I liked about them, and also to re-examine the ones I wrote prior to learning these tips. Built intuitively, some were successful, and some were not. This exercise gave me a comprehensive perspective on the main gateway into a written piece. I hope it will be of help to you, as well.

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If you were wondering about my favorite openings, wonder no more:

“The trees were tall, but I was taller, standing above them on a steep mountain slope in northern California.” (Wild, by Cheryl Strayed)

Why I like it: It shows a human being in competition with nature (who is taller), yet also shows how small the person is against the steep mountain slope. I feel a camera zooming out to include an entire mountain. At the same time, the human being becomes smaller on the mountain. It also makes me wonder how she got there, why she went there, why she’s competing with nature, why is she alone, and the list could go on.

QUESTION: What is your favorite hook?

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ANDREA LEWIS lives and writes in Huntington Beach. She was born in Romania and moved to the United States at the age of 34, after meeting and marrying her husband. She writes memoir and personal essays, with a recent attempt at freeform poetry. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times.