The Lure of a Great Hook

Today I have the great pleasure of welcoming author Lynn Crain onto my blog. Lynn is going to be discussing the importance of a great beginning to a novel or 'The Lure of a Great Hook'. Thanks so much for taking the time to be here today Lynn!

The Lure of a Great Hook

Writing is something that has fascinated me for over forty years and I still find it amazing that it has done so. Other passions have come and gone, writing has kept me in its firm grip from the day that I first picked up a pen. I can remember being read Grimm’s Fairy Tales in one form or another and thinking the endings were dumb even though the beginnings had held great promise. Even then, I knew and understood that an incredible beginning was needed to make a story great.

Since those early years, I have learned the power of the hook as we writers call it. If you don’t get the readers with the first line, you may not get them at all. So let’s go over some hooks that have intrigued me over the years and I’ll give a few of my own for contrast.

Here’s my top ten list of best hooks in the world. See if you can guess who wrote them. The answers are listed below. They are, in no particular order:

1.     Hunting vampires was a bitch.

2.    He was running for his life.

3.    It was a dark and stormy night.

4.    It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

5.    Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. 

6.    Marley was dead: to begin with.

7.    When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. 

8.    It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.

9.    Somewhere in the world, time no doubt whistled by on taut and widespread wings, but here in the English countryside it plodded slowly, painfully, as if it trod the rutted road that stretched across the moors on blistered feet.

10.  The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.

Each one of those hooks have special meaning for me as I read each of those books at a different time in my life, some for school and some for pleasure. Realize this list ebbs and flows like a river, changing with time and never standing still. What I find inspiring today, I might find dull and boring the next. Notice there is a mix of classic and contemporary pieces. Some are romance and some are not. But each of them have something so compelling which makes me want to read more. And read them I did, some more than once and a few of them I still read yearly if I can remember just where I left my latest copy. LOL!

What comprises a good hook? Notice that with the ones I listed, there is not one standard theme. Some come from a character’s point of view and some don’t, some involve something personal and some don’t. So just what is it?

            There are some constant elements each and every hook must have. They are:

      It must be compelling

      Should be a beginning – The reason I say should here is because some books have started with the ending and been quite successful. The hook is still there, just not how you expect it.

      It can start with dialogue.

      It can start with action.

      It could be a contrast or something totally unexpected.

      It could be a character description or a description of a setting.

      It could be a humorous question or exclamation or even a regular question or exclamation.

Let’s look at some of mine now and see just what I do. The first is from a novel called “Where’s My Underwear Anyway?” and it is a fun romp. It’s first direct, to the point and immediately brings you into the action.

“So…you really don’t know where your underwear might be?”

There are groups out that who say never start your novel with a question. But this question just begged for an answer. It puts the reader immediately on a quest for the missing underwear. It also brings to mind other questions: who has the underwear? how was the underwear lost? was the underwear misplaced?

Suddenly, a reader wants to know the answer to those questions.

Here’s another of my first lines. This is from a completed book which is part of the Blue Moon Magic world.

            He had always been in this cage in one way or another. It was only recently they had decided to make it his permanent room.

Again, this one takes you immediately into a dilemma. You know someone is in a cage. You don’t know the how’s or the why’s but it just begs those questions.

Here’s another from my Santa’s Elves series. This is from last year’s book, An Elf’s Desire.

That human woman drove him crazy.

           

            From just this first line, you know the person thinking is a man and that he isn’t human. Still, you wonder just what the human woman is doing to drive him crazy. It must be something good or he wouldn’t be thinking about it.

            This last one is from another WIP called “Avenging Aingeal” and is a story of elemental magic.

            No one knows where we came from really. We just…are. And there are so very few of us, roaming the earth, protecting the inhabitants these days.

This is from an omniscient POV but is still interesting in its own way. We want to know just who ‘they’ are and why we need protecting. Then one might want to know just how long have ‘they’ been protecting us because the way the sentence is constructed, it is implied that ‘they’ have been here for a long, long time. But one must read the story to know the all answers.

And this one has always been one of my personal favorites as it won quite a few contests with the most notable being at the Hawaii RWA conference. Leslie Wanger picked it as one of five from the whole room full of people.

            “Damn, I’m going to lose another one.”

This from my complete book, Midnight Run about a woman off-road racer. It was my first book ever, all 72K of it. And it’s set on my computers in one form or another for the past 15 years at least. It has a great hook but a saggy middle with a kick-ass end. But that’s left for another blog.

And here are the answers to my original question.

1.    Hunting vampires was a bitch. – Minion – L.A. Banks

2.    He was running for his life. – Hot Ice – Nora Roberts

3.    It was a dark and stormy night. – Paul Clifford – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

4.    It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

5.    Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. - Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

6.    Marley was dead: to begin with. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

7.    When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkein

8.    It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance - Outlander – Diana Galbadon

9.    Somewhere in the world, time no doubt whistled by on taut and widespread wings, but here in the English countryside it plodded slowly, painfully, as if it trod the rutted road that stretched across the moors on blistered feet. - The Flame and the Flower – Kathleen Woodiweiss

10. The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. -  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  – J.K. Rowling

After all, isn’t that what a hook is meant to do? Make you as the reader want to read the book?

You betcha!

Lynn Crain is an award winning, multi-published author who normally lives in the southwest United States. For the next few years, she’s been transplanted to Vienna, Austria where she continues to write and learn. You can follow her adventures there in her blog, A Writer In Vienna (www.awriterinvienna.blogspot.com) or on twitter (www.twitter.com/oddlynn3) as well as her usual old hangouts. (www.lynncrain.com; www.lynncrain.blogspot.com and www.facebook.com/oddlynn3)

Be sure to check out Lynn's novel Blue Moon Magic 4 - Night of the Blue Moon available from Loose Id and read the wonderful excerpt below for a sneak preview.

Blue Moon Magic 4: Night of the Blue Moon

Lynn Crain

Multi-Author Paranormal Series (M/F)

Loose Id for E-book and coming in 2012 in Print

Buy Ebook at:  

http://www.loose-id.com/Blue-Moon-Magic-4-Night-of-the-Blue-Moon.aspx

Adult Excerpt:

Cordelia Sinclair has been on the inside for more years than she can remember, keeping secrets better than anybody. But at forty-two, she sometimes feels like a dried up old prune when it comes to love. Her mate died in a Beta raid, and even though the Langfords have encouraged her to find another, she hasn't found anyone who could measure up. Until she meets Connor.

Cordy just can't believe this arrogant wolf can be the son of someone as kind and giving as Charles Langford. Never mind he had been brought up by Charles' archenemy Rowan Angus of the more animalistic Beta clan. She's just the person to knock that arrogance out of him with her Elite special training.

Connor knew he wanted to bed her from the moment he saw her, but a casual bedding among the Elite isn't the norm. And there are complications. She has a child and she thinks him arrogant and unkempt. He's going to have to teach her it took more than what met the eye to have an Elite pedigree. Their physical attraction is instant but it may take years for their minds to catch up to what their bodies already know.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable.

He pressed the full length of his body against her. And what a body it was, if what was pressed against her stomach held true. Still, her body heaved in frustration. Once she was near him she realized that he smelled more like a spring meadow and the Elites than the Betas. She didn’t care that his very sexy body grew by the second. She didn’t care that he took his time trying to analyze her smell. She didn’t care that suddenly her body was all wet and hot and bothered. All she cared about was that this crazy man had caught her off guard, thrown her onto the table, and had tried to immobilize her. And it pissed her off. She lifted her leg hard and chuckled inside when he fell away.

“You fight dirty.” He bent over, one hand to his crotch and the other on his knee.

His voice held a rich, deep timbre, like honey when the nights started to get cold in the autumn. There would be no way that she could let her guard down with this man if his very voice could do things to her insides.

“I do what I have to do,” she said, her voice a mere breathless whisper, as she stood over him.

“And you had to do that?” He stood up slowly. “I don’t know what you’re doing here but I’m beginning to wonder if you are even supposed to be here.”

That pissed her off even more. She drew back her hand and punched him in the face again. “I’ll show you who’s supposed to be here.”

“What the hell did I ever do to you?” The man stood there, a stunned expression on his face.

“Come on. You don’t like to fight women?” She could see his eyes grow wider.

“You want to fight me?” he asked incredulous. “Woman, you don’t know what you’re asking for.” He took a step nearer.

Cordelia broadened her stance and prepared for the worst. He outweighed her by probably eighty pounds and was a good head taller than her. He was lean with muscle. She had barely gotten rid of the baby fat and the baby had been born four years ago. Still, this was truly going to be a battle of wits, at least in her mind. She saw him slowly lift his hand and splay it toward her. Suddenly, she was on her ass. Damn, he was telekinetic and probably a psychic too.

“Now, who’s not playing fair?” She growled at him and knew this would be harder than she had planned. She reached up to the table and pulled herself up, spying the place settings just waiting for guests.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” He lunged for her but not quite in time before she started chucking the china.

“Oh, yes, I do. You’re not allowed to use that psychic shit on me. If you want to fight, fight with your hands.”

Ice-blue eyes burned into hers as he came toward her like a wolf on the prowl. She had seen that look before on many wolfen men. She quickly jumped back, bumping into the table while pushing his hand away. If she were quick enough she could get in a quick jab or two to his ribs.

Falling back into the kitchen cabinets, he briefly clutched his side. “Damn it, you’re just not going to give up easily, are you?”

“Why should I?” She eyed him cautiously.

“Because I could seriously hurt you.”

“Now why don’t you just give it your best shot then we’ll see just who gets hurt.”

The man slowly shook his head. “All right, now remember, you asked for it.” He threw a punch that landed squarely on the left side of her head.

Cordelia shook it off but it still left her ear ringing. Grabbing his other arm, she charged into his stomach with her head and flipped him over her back. He landed with a resounding thud on the floor next to the table and on top of the broken china. She was only able to stand there a moment, her sides heaving, when she was knocked off balance by his leg making a wide sweep. It almost knocked the air completely out of her but she managed to throw another punch on her way down.

He grabbed her fist and twisted her arm, picking her up and shoving her facedown once again on the table.

“You have no right being on top of me, so get the fuck off.” She gasped for breath, his added weight making it hard to even move a centimeter.

“You know, I think you’re a little bit sexy when you’re pissed like this. I can smell your pheromones. You want me.” He took a long, slow whiff of her, as if to imprint her on his memory.

“I don’t even know you!” She screamed and tried to buck him off her even as her nipples hardened under her. Heat swelled in the V of her thighs and feelings began to overwhelm her. Feelings that she had never felt before in all her life. Not even with her husband. It was like her body already knew this man intimately.

He leaned down into her softness, and she could feel his body coming to life. His hardness pressed into her butt and all she wanted to do was to get herself out of her pajamas. Thank God, she had decided to sleep with them on last night.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you like it this way.” He ground his body into hers a little more. “Take that back, I know you like it. I can smell it on you and your wet body is telling me exactly what you want. Your body is betraying you.”

Enraged, she slammed her head against his nose. “You don’t know me well enough to know how I like it. And you don’t know anything about my body.”

She heard him groan as she cracked his face. Still, he wouldn’t let go.

“It’s not going to be that easy,” he whispered close to her ear. He started to rock his now very hard cock into the gentle curve of her ass as he rained light, feathery kisses on her neck.

God, he almost had her undone. “What are you doing to me?”

“What do you want me to do to you?” he questioned and flipped her over to stare into her face. Reaching down, he placed his hands on either side of her head and pulled her up to meet him. Lips and tongues met forcefully, pulling and tasting and testing. Gently, he nipped at her bottom lip.

He felt so good up against her. Greedily, she put her hands under his T-shirt and felt the muscles. There was no way that she could have beat him no matter how hard she tried. Letting her hands roam up his chest, she plucked his nipples until they were hard, delighting in the sound he made.

“God, woman, you make me crazy.” Reaching for the collar of her shirt, he ripped it down the center, revealing her taut breasts.

“That’s not fair,” she whispered. “Take this off.” Cordelia tugged at his T-shirt until she pulled it over his head. He looked at her for a long moment, before leaning down to take her nipple in his mouth. She could see the bruises spreading across his cheeks and knew she must have some too. The original question of who he was floated into her mind, but at this very moment she didn’t give a damn.

He shoved his knee between her legs and pulled her tightly to him as he stood up. Pulling his arm more tight around her middle, she groaned with pleasure while he ground his thigh into her crotch. She had never walked this fine line between passion and hate or fear, thinking she would never have to because she had always had safe relationships. There was something definitely unsafe about this man if he made her throw all caution to the wind.

Thanks so much for taking the time to be here today Lynn! I agree, the beginning line of a novel is the most important thing to draw a reader in and make them want to read more. You actually mentioned a few of my favourite openers in your post.  It's wonderful news that your novel is soon to be released in print. I wish you every success with it and all your future projects!