(transcribed and translated from Quoth the Raven) Of course they don’t tell you how. Most people who tell you to do that have no idea how to write a good hook. They’re just parroting advice that they’ve heard. Lets start with what a hook is. A Narrative Hook is just a literary technique that “Hooks” the reader’s attention and keeps them interested enough in your writing to actually want to keep going. So many bits of advice emphasize that your hook has to be the very first sentence. In many cases they are correct. But not always. A hook can also be several paragraphs, or even the first few pages of a novel. Only academic writing needs to place so heavy an emphasis on your first sentence and paragraph because you have to make your point immediately and move on. There’s no time for dallying or dillying in Academia. But even though you have a bit more leeway in other types of writing you’ve still got to be careful. This isn’t just something you can scribble out and move on. A good narrative hook takes some planning. You have to think about WHO your audience is and WHY this particular bit of writing will hook them. What about it will intrigue or interest them enough that they’ll resist other plays for their attention in order to follow those thoughts. And of course not only does your hook need to be for your audience (or audiences if you insist on writing for more than one at a time), but it also needs to be relevant to your story or characters somehow. It should give us a reason to keep reading so that we can see more where that came from, to see how it connects and keeps giving. Even something that touches upon the themes of your book would be good if the writing is clever enough. Dialogue will give insight on the characters, setting, or even signs of the conflict. Let me give you an example. “The skies are always dark when I stop at the McDonald's on my way to work in the morning. Just a breakfast sandwich and a sprite is enough to keep me going. I always see the strangest people when I come out this early. But the strangest of all was when I saw Death herself feeding the starlings with french fries.” In this paragraph I’ve done several things. I purposefully did not put the hook at the beginning of the paragraph. Instead I’ve given you both a general setting for your story (Set in a contemporary world where such things as a McDonald’s exists and people actually want to eat there) and some insight into your character and their life (someone who is unfortunate enough to have to get up for an early morning shift and doesn’t have time for breakfast at home). It tells you about the sorts of things they’ll eat and what the general expectation for this part of their life is like (they see lots of weird people around this time of day because that’s just what happens at McDonald’s around 6am).

 I have such a bone to pick with anyone who touts stuff like “never start with your characters waking up!” or “adverbs are bad!” without considering the reasons why these are common writing rules. 

“Don’t start your book with your characters waking up” usually means one of two things:

it’s generally bad storytelling to have a character wake up from an exciting/bizarre dream into an ordinary daily routine. 

a character waking up to an ordinary daily routine (cleaning teeth, washing, having some internal narrative etc) isn’t an effective use of the start of a story. 

In short, the “waking up” opening can be an ineffective narrative hook and that will switch your readers off. But! You have a prologue, so consider this: 

You’re not starting with your characters waking up. You’re starting with the prologue. 

(gif source)

The first chapter of your story can be the make-or-break moment for your readers. It’s your opportunity to make a powerful first impression, captivating readers and compelling them to turn the pages. But crafting an engaging first chapter is an art in itself. Let’s explore the elements that can help you nail your story’s first chapter. Creating a Captivating Opening A gripping opening can hook…

Technician: Single Female Lawyer. It's the season finale. Wanna watch?

Fry: Ah, I dunno. That's a chick show. I prefer programmes of the genre "world's blankiest blank".

Technician: She is wearing the world's shortiest skirt.

Fry: I'm in!

- Futurama, When Aliens Attack, ‎Season 1, Episode 12   

A while ago I took a comic book writing class with Ty Templeton. One of the first things he taught us, was "Nobody wants to hear your story, therefore you need a hook to convince them otherwise." I think you can generalize this statement to any field, “ Nobody wants to use your app”, “Nobody wants to read your blog“, Nobody wants to use your database.” Perhaps there is a lot of truth to this, in our world of overwhelming amount of information and choices, trying another _______ is usually not worth it, unless there is a hook? What’s a hook?! 

As Wikipedia puts it, a narrative hook is “a literary technique in the opening of a story that "hooks" the reader's attention so that he or she will keep on reading.”  Or as Ty put it in his class, it’s _______iest ______ in _______. 

For example, Flash is the “Fastest Man Alive”, or  “Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth.” While both of these examples may seem straightforward, and certainly the Flash example IS straightforward, the Jimmy Corrigan hook is a bit more subtle. If you are not familiar with this character from Chris Ware’s graphic novel, let me do a bit of of a spoiler for you, there is not much in the story that would really indicate if Jimmy Corrigan is the smartest kid on earth, but it is clear that Jimmy is lonely and meek, and has a complicated relationship with his parents. 

Is Jimmy the smartest kid on earth? Maybe, maybe not, but it doesn’t matter, because the hook did what it was supposed to do. The reason why a hook works is because it invites us to make preconceptions, it activates our imagination, so that we start to imagine what that story could be, what the character is, and want to find out if it’s true or not. In case of Jimmy Corrigan, my preconceptions about Jimmy being the smartest kid on earth created an image of a child genius, who has a certain level of inability to connect with his peers due to a superior intellect, or taken advantage by his parents to live out their unfulfilled dreams (e.g. Stanley character in Magnolia). So that one simple phrase connects a whole universe of concepts I already know about. Even if those preconceptions turn out to be false, it still got my attention, peeked my interest. 

Let’s look at another example. Which is a more interesting? “A firefighter” or “a ninja firefighter”? There is just more interesting things to say about somebody who is both a ninja and a firefighter! With a hook like lets say “The laziest ninja firefighter in Brooklyn” certainly my imagination can run wild. I do have to point out, when I say ninja, I’m thinking of Naruto style ninja, not the black mask, boring kind of ninjas. Speaking of Naruto, what’s his hook?  “The Show-Off, Number One Unpredictable, Noisy Ninja”  His hook is not something that is communicated in the slogan of the manga, but certainly is demonstrated right away in the beginning of the story. 

I'd love a contemporary YA with a narrative hook: something told in an unusual way. Like FANGIRL or ROOMIES or EASY A.