The Hook

[SweetWitch]

Two of my college professors once argued and debated this topic. They took the argument to the classes. I was in both classes that these professors chose to air this particular argument.

One believed the hook was in the first paragraph of the literary work. One contended it was the first sentence, even the first word, that drew in the reader.

I was thinking of this today as I read over something that I was working on. I started thinking of all the classic literature that I’d been “forced” to study (never let them know you enjoy it ) and other not-so-classics and I began to remember a few of the “hooks”. Nothing beats a great hook.

From Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

From A River Runs Through It: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.”

From A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

From Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael."

Can you name the next three novels?

1) "Call me Jonah."
2) "All children, except one, grow up."
3) "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

 

[glynndah]

Two of my college professors once argued and debated this topic. They took the argument to the classes. I was in both classes that these professors chose to air this particular argument.

One believed the hook was in the first paragraph of the literary work. One contended it was the first sentence, even the first word, that drew in the reader.

I was thinking of this today as I read over something that I was working on. I started thinking of all the classic literature that I’d been “forced” to study (never let them know you enjoy it ) and other not-so-classics and I began to remember a few of the “hooks”. Nothing beats a great hook.

From Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

From A River Runs Through It: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.”

From A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

From Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael."

Can you name the next three novels?

1) "Call me Jonah."
2) "All children, except one, grow up." Peter Pan
3) "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."Metamorphosis

 

[Emperor_Nero]

Can you name the next three novels?

1) "Call me Jonah."
2) "All children, except one, grow up."
3) "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

Does it spoil the thread if I say yes

 

[SweetWitch]

Two outa three ain't bad.

 

[SweetWitch]

Does it spoil the thread if I say yes

Snerk.

Feel free to add.

 

[TE999]

Hmmm...

#3's "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka.

Dunno 'bout the other two.

 

[SweetWitch]

Hmmm...

#3's "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka.

Dunno 'bout the other two.

You mean you never read Peter Pan?

 

[TE999]

You mean you never read Peter Pan?

Nope, I saw the cartoon tho.

I did read 'Alice in Wonderland' & 'Through The Looking Glass'.

That Dodson dude musta been droppin' acid.

 

[Emperor_Nero]

Call me Jonah would be Cat's Cradle

How about this:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes."

 

[SweetWitch]

Call me Jonah would be Cat's Cradle

How about this:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes."

War and Peace by Tolstoy.

Who wrote Cat's Cradle?

 

[SweetWitch]

Nope, I saw the cartoon tho.

I did read 'Alice in Wonderland' & 'Through The Looking Glass'.

That Dodson dude musta been droppin' acid.

Uh, actually, I think it was Opium.

 

[Emperor_Nero]

War and Peace by Tolstoy.

Who wrote Cat's Cradle?

Kurt Vonnegut

 

[SweetWitch]

Kurt Vonnegut

Give the man a cigar!

 

[Emperor_Nero]

How about this one:

When Bartley Hubbard went to interview Silas Lapham for the "Solid Men of Boston" series, which he undertook to finish up in The Events, after he replaced their original projector on that newspaper, Lapham received him in his private office by previous appointment.

 

[TE999]

Here's an easy one:

"Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7 Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814."

 

[Belegon]

I didn't know Cat's Cradle either...

I think some of the concentration on the hook is due to three things...

1) The shortened attention span of the average person involved (whether agent, editor or reader)
2) The increased schedule load of your average editor. (Most editors give up on a work much quicker than in the past.
3) Separate from the editor's load (which also has to do with the more work/less cost focus) there is supposedly an increase in the amount of submissions that need to be waded through...

Honestly, I'm less interested in the "hooks" of works written 25 or more years ago and more interested in those we ourselves have created...

 

[TE999]

I didn't know Cat's Cradle either...

I think some of the concentration on the hook is due to three things...

1) The shortened attention span of the average person involved (whether agent, editor or reader)
2) The increased schedule load of your average editor. (Most editors give up on a work much quicker than in the past.
3) Separate from the editor's load (which also has to do with the more work/less cost focus) there is supposedly an increase in the amount of submissions that need to be waded through...

Honestly, I'm less interested in the "hooks" of works written 25 or more years ago and more interested in those we ourselves have created...

What'choo got 'gainst them there classical stories, Bel?

You ain't one a'them , what ya call 'em, Philistines are ya'?

 

[SweetWitch]

I didn't know Cat's Cradle either...

I think some of the concentration on the hook is due to three things...

1) The shortened attention span of the average person involved (whether agent, editor or reader)
2) The increased schedule load of your average editor. (Most editors give up on a work much quicker than in the past.
3) Separate from the editor's load (which also has to do with the more work/less cost focus) there is supposedly an increase in the amount of submissions that need to be waded through...

Honestly, I'm less interested in the "hooks" of works written 25 or more years ago and more interested in those we ourselves have created...

Well, give us a few examples, Bel.

 

[glynndah]

Two outa three ain't bad.

Oh, I like that song, too.

 

[glynndah]

Here's an easy one:

"Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7 Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814."

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

 

[TE999]

Oh, I like that song, too.

How 'bout 'Paradise By The Dashboard Light'?

 

[TE999]

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

You got it pretty witch.

You have one to share?

 

[glynndah]

How 'bout 'Paradise By The Dashboard Light'?

Are we talking about the song or the event?

I like both.

 

[Belegon]

Well, give us a few examples, Bel.

Okay.


"Harry was puzzled when his chest hairs pulled out so easily."

One of you will recognize this and go, "hey, I wrote that!"

This line makes me want to find out why. That makes me read the next line.

Edited to Add: I didn't read beyond the first line... I clicked on a few of the stories by people that had posted in this thread and copy/pasted a line that I liked.

I found several people doing what I always used to do... opening with dialog. Not necessarily bad, but easy to do. The key is to open with dialog that makes people want to continue. The other thing I saw several examples of, which I know to be common? Opening by setting the scene. "She walked into the bar wearing a short black dress and saw him in the corner." It can be effective, but there is nothing about it that is unique or stands out from the pack.

 

[Corylea]

I dunno, I think hooks are overrated. I think a lot of them are gimmicky, and I'd rather an author opened a story in a completely ordinary way than have them jump up and down screaming, "Look at me!" For me, too obvious of a hook breaks the immersion. I'm usually more concerned with whether or not I find the main character likable than I am in reading a story that starts off with a bang.

On the other hand, I still remember a science fiction novel* that opened, "Were they truly intelligent? By themselves, that is? I don't know, and I don't know how we can ever find out. If they were not truly intelligent, I hope we never run into anything at all like them that is intelligent, because I know who will lose. Me. You. The so-called human race.

For me, it started all too early on July 12, '07...."

The opening paragraph is hokey, it lets you know that the narrator survives to the end of the book, and I still wanted to see who "they" were and how people couldn't know whether or not they were intelligent.


*Title and author available upon request.