Whenever people ask me what the most difficult part of writing a book is — the beginning, middle, or end — I usually say, “All of it.” Each section of a novel comes with its own set of challenges: Middles are hard to plot, ends need to be satisfying (and in my novels, they usually involve a twist), but then there is a novel’s beginning. Learning how to write a good hook, if I really had to choose, is truly the toughest thing.
In this age of instant gratification, short attention spans, and tons of other great fiction to compete with, the beginning of a novel should grab the reader. Otherwise, they might consider the book a great dnf (not finished), or if they’re perusing sample pages online or the first few pages in a bookstore, they might not make the purchase. so how do you start a story with a bang? Here are 12 tips on how to write a good hook!
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1. surprise readers with the first line.
Immediately surprising readers with a jarring moment, image, or confession will get them excited to keep reading. one of my favorite novels, the pulitzer-winning middlesex, opens with a wonderful first line:
“I was born twice: first, as a girl, on a remarkably smog-free Detroit day in January 1960; And then again, as a teenager, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August 1974.”
is surprising and mysterious, and takes the reader directly into the head of the main character: it is a kind of confession that develops throughout the novel. For me, there was absolutely no way I could put the book down.
2. begins in a life-changing moment.
an event that changes a protagonist’s life can be his “inciting incident”, a moment that pushes him into the conflict that he must resolve or overcome at the end of the story. the first chapter of drive with care by jodi picoult talks about the birth of a baby, always exciting! But things get even more interesting when the baby is born with a host of health problems, forcing her parents to make a heartbreaking decision.
This entire “inciting incident” happens within the first ten pages of the novel. by the end of chapter one, the reader knows the whole situation and can’t turn the pages fast enough to see what happens next.
3. create intrigue about the characters.
When writing first chapters, especially suspense novels, it’s fun to hint at problems, lies, secrets, and scandals, but not reveal everything. in my novel, the heiresses, I start with the lines: “you know the saybrooks. everybody does it.”
This family is rich, New York royalty, living a charmed life. but by the end of page one, things start to go dark: I mention that each member of the family has a secret and that they’re a bit cursed. who isn’t tempted to read about that?
4. use a scenario as the inciting incident.
I already mentioned the “inciting incident”: the pacing of the story that actually sets the plot in motion. sometimes a place itself can cause or be the inciting incident. if so, why not start the character there (or at least, in whatever transport mode there is) to dive right in?
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A great example is The Shining, where Jack is at the infamous Mirador Hotel interviewing for a new job. the reader thinks this is going to be a new beginning for him and his family… but of course they are wrong. Stephen King could have filled the opening pages with an exposition of Jack in his old life, but beginning the novel in the hotel, which is a character unto itself, draws the reader into the story.
5. raise the stakes on the first few pages.
In a thriller, it’s always good to start with a murder, a body found, or someone missing: it sets up the problem and the goal for the rest of the novel. in my series the fans, the introduction is about how the main character aerin kelly’s sister, helena, disappears, and in the rest of the book, aerin and the group of detectives whom he meets in order to find out what happened.
another example of this is the 57 bus, the true story of a hate crime involving an agender teenager in california. the first scene shows us that crime, but then the author goes back a bit from the perspective of both the perpetrator and the victim, delving into each of the realities of it. The way author Dashka Slater presents those opening scenes in a confessional and conversational way, the reader is drawn into the action and forced to know what series of events caused this horrific tragedy and how it could have been prevented.
6. presents something sinister immediately.
Hiding information about something seemingly normal can make it sinister and intrigue readers to keep reading. one of my favorite novels growing up was i know what you did last summer, by lois duncan, the queen of thrillers. in the first chapter of this book, duncan doesn’t mince words: she goes straight to the note that unravels the lives of the main characters immediately : “the note was there, next to her plate when she went down to have breakfast. ”
From the beginning, readers ask: what is the note? why does that matter? where does it come from? And they’ll want to keep reading to find out. (By the way, it was this anonymous note that partly inspired me to create the villain a in Pretty Little Liars: there’s nothing scarier than someone watching you and knowing all your secrets!)
7. set the mood.
Setting the mood of the book from the beginning, whether it be doom, mystery, mischief, or sarcasm, it tells the reader, “This is the world, now you’re in it, and here we go.” In the classic dystopian novel 1984, george orwell’s first line reads: “it was a bright cold day in april, and all the clocks struck thirteen” . immediately, the reader knows that this is a world he understands (same weather patterns, same terms for the months of the year), but also a world that is foreign to him. and choosing “thirteen”, a number so often associated with bad luck, or good, immediately creates tension and mystery. this is not going to be a lighthearted novel, telegraphy. sinister things are going to happen.
another great example is nick dunne’s first line in gillian flynn’s gone girl: “when i think of my wife, i always think of her head.” it’s so Chilling on first read, and while Nick steps back a bit and corrects our preconceived notions about what he means, his words continue to set the tone for who he is and what the book will be like.
8. make your characters immediately relatable and sympathetic.
In a character-focused novel, it’s critical to make the readers love the characters as soon as possible. In the introduction to the first Pretty Little Liars, readers catch a glimpse of Aria, Hanna, Spencer and Emily in the opening pages. All the girls are relatable: Aria is the ditzy who smells like weed, Emily is the girl with the strict parents, Hanna is the clumsy one, and Spencer is the super-competitive girl who didn’t make the JV cut for hockey. To readers, these girls feel like people they already know, and it’s all packed into two pages. that way, by the time her bff ali disappears, and starts torturing them, the reader already has feelings for these girls and is involved in their stories.
9. draw the reader in with a strong voice.
Some of my favorite novels are told in the first person, and it’s the captivating voice that makes the opening pages sing. a classic example is holden caulfield from the catcher in the rye:
“If you really want to know, the first thing will probably be I want to know where I was born, and how my lousy childhood was, and how my parents were busy and everything before they had me, and all that david copperfield kind of shit, but i don’t feel like going into that. , if you want to know the truth.”
through these lines, the reader forms an immediate opinion of holden. it’s also compelling how he addresses the reader directly, almost making him feel like a friend. I also love this first person line from mt anderson’s feed: “we went to the moon for fun, but it turns out the moon totally sucks.” again, the reader you get a sense of the character, the mood, and the world, all in one simple sentence!
10. start in a moment of confusion.
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The classic waking up with a start and not knowing what’s going on is always a fun way to start a story. in my latest novel, las elizas , the protagonist, eliza fontaine, wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize. she is discovering together with the reader what happened to her: she fell into a swimming pool and is now in the hospital, and it soon becomes clear that her mission is to fill in the holes in her memory and track down who made her nearly drown . this structure works well because it’s a book about fuzzy memories and confused brains, but readers can look alongside it to put all the pieces together.
11. don’t get bogged down with exposure.
It can be tempting to reveal everything about a character – their background, their struggles, their secrets – in the first few pages. this way readers will really get to know them, right? but I advise against it. having a more active first few pages or chapters using some of the tips outlined above will create a more engaging experience, and you’ll be able to get to the nitty gritty details of the characters later.
A teacher in my mfa program once gave me some great advice: Imagine your characters are at a party and they’re talking to you, the reader, for the first time. Would they really tell you their whole story right away, or would they do it just to get to know you? a few revealing character traits here and there can go a long way in getting us to like a character. once the reader is hooked, then it might be time to dig into that backstory. It’s a delicate balance, but at the beginning of a novel, less is often more!
12. ends the first chapter with a killer cliffhanger.
We’ve talked a lot about how to start the first few chapters, but what about how to end them? one of the biggest challenges I have writing a novel is working on enough cliffhangers to keep readers wanting more. (stephen king is a master at this).
in Pretty Little Liars, my last lines of the intro are: “it was horrible to think that everyone might be dead, but… if they were, at least their secrets were safe . and they were. for three years, anyway.” which immediately makes the reader ask, “wait? what happens? is ali coming back back?”
in i know what you did last summer, duncan ends the first chapter with julie opening the note and… omg. he says: I know what you did last summer! straight to the point, in a perfect setup for what is to come, duncan tells the reader, “I dare you not to turn the page.” This is what you want to accomplish in those first few chapters: create an irresistible experience that readers can’t put down.
so there you have it! what are some of your favorite opening lines and your own tips on how to write a good hook?
The views and opinions expressed in this guest post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of bookbub.
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