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What's the Hook?

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I was sharing some story ideas with my friend yesterday and he kept saying, "What's the hook?" I can see what he meant as he had a point. I was explaining the stories, but I was mostly talking about details and not necessarily the story problem or who the people are. Some say that the easier it is to tell what a book is about by word of mouth, the more likely someone may pick it up. I agree with this to a certain degree.

So how do you develop a hook? Do you focus on the world, the characters, the plot? If you want people to read your book, what do you tell them first?

I'm not looking at a hook from a marketing standpoint necessarily, more from a story standpoint. I think if you can determine the crucial "What is so and so going to do?" and "Why should anyone care?" then you're on your way to a good story.
 
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Penpilot

Staff
Article Team

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I agree with you, Philip. I don't like to think about the hook because there's an overtone to the word that speaks of cleverness or even trickery. I think of it as the point. What's the point of the story? Okay, it's just a change of word, not a change of substance, so we'll stick with your choice.

My stories tend to start with a concept, an idea, or an image, and I'm enough of a writer to realize that's not a story. For my short story The Roadmaster, for example, the image was of a hitch-hiker on an empty desert highway in the middle of the night, and a Buick Roadmaster. That's not a story. But once I made the hitch-hiker a kid who could wield magic powers, but which magic powers were scorned and even persecuted, and once I made the driver of the Buick an aged wizard living in semi-exile deep in the desert, I had a story. Once I came up with the notion of the kid succeeding to the aging wizard's role, the rest was easy. Uh, more straightforward, anyway.

I say all this to illustrate that, for me at least, there are two starting points. One is the inspiration, which is not a story. The real starting point is when I figure out where the story is within that original concept or image.

I'm currently working on a novel that has multiple viewpoints. I'm having no small difficulty coming up with a brief description -- okay, the hook -- because in my own mind it's a story with multiple threads. I realize I'm going to have to focus on one, but for now I'm not worrying too much. That short story was nearly written before I really saw its shape. I'm letting the hook remain amorphous for now. That suits me, but it does make it more difficult to tell someone else what the novel is about. I usually just say it's about when a horde of goblins invaded the Roman Empire, but really that's just the setting. It's more about a Roman aristocrat who hates the aristocracy, who also despises the Army but finds himself in command of the last legion standing between the goblins and Constantinople. You see the problem.

I'm headed off to Penpilot's links in the vain hope of finding some formula there.
 
Framing it as story, not marketing, is an interesting perspective. Marketing-wise, the "hook" of my book is genre-mixing, characters from very different styles of story meeting and working together. Story-wise, only one of these characters even shows up in the first chapter. Once someone's actually reading the book, I don't try to "hook" them with the premise, but rather with the emotions the main character and her foster father feel towards each other, making them likable and interesting through their relationship.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
If you want people to read your book, what do you tell them first?

It's like a cross between A Song of Ice and Fire with Final Fantasy. An empire that exists only on paper is trying to reassert itself. A madman will murder millions in his vendetta with the gods who broke the world. As hundreds of guardian spirits are slain, new ones rise in the service of the conquerors. And a young martial artist, recently married, must find a way to confront an army before the men of his prefecture are forced to face lives of slave labor.

You know he can do it. Right?

^That's not supposed to be a blurb. It's just an answer to the question.
 

Trick

Auror
Using the link Penpilot provided, here's what I put together. Thoughts?

An adolescent thief, turned assassin, struggles to free his family from racial oppression and poverty by squirreling away all the money he can. But, after a long stint in prison, he will have to master the forgotten magic of his ancestors before a dictator enslaves his people forever.

or is this better?

A ruthless, young thief and assassin struggles to free his mother and sister from racial oppression and poverty. But, after a long stint in prison, he will have to master the forgotten magic of his ancestors before a dictator can enslave his people forever.
 
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Fyle

Inkling
Using the link Penpilot provided, here's what I put together. Thoughts?

An adolescent thief, turned assassin, struggles to free his family from racial oppression and poverty by squirreling away all the money he can. But, after a long stint in prison, he will have to master the forgotten magic of his ancestors before a dictator enslaves his people forever.

or is this better?

A ruthless, young thief and assassin struggles to free his mother and sister from racial oppression and poverty. But, after a long stint in prison, he will have to master the forgotten magic of his ancestors before a dictator can enslave his people forever.

The second. How long has an 'adolescent' actually spent in prison?

A long stint in prison to me means at least a few years so, darn, this thief did start young!
 

Trick

Auror
Actually, he is an adolescent before prison and about 24 years old after but he did become a thief at 12. It's hard to convey that in a blurb.

Regardless, I think I agree that the second is better, with one minute change.

A ruthless, young thief and assassin struggles to free his mother and sister from racial oppression and poverty. But, after a long stint in prison, he will have to master the forgotten magic of his ancestors before the new dictator can enslave his people forever.
 
I think the second one sounds better.
This being said, I think the punctuation is a bit jarring (A ruthless, young thief and assassin should just be changed to A ruthless young thief and assassin), but apart from this seems like a really good premise for a story! However, can we start with the "forgotten magic of his ancestors" part, please. Generally, just put the most interesting thing first (and that's subjective), but for me, that's the forgotten magic part.
 
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