How does your story open?
One of the most challenging aspects of writing a book is executing the perfect hook, a beginning that will instantly engage your reader and imbed a raging curiosity that must be satiated. Every hook is different; every story starts in a different place, in varying words, and in unique ways, but each has specific elements that mold a successful opening—one in which your reader will toss aside every other responsibility, just to read on.
The Housekeeping
This is the bare minimum setting provided. It is necessary to give your reader a foothold on the context, but setting is not simply the physical world around the characters. It is also the time, the backdrop, the mood. Please do not mistake the importance of this element as a need for lines of descriptive narrative. Rarely is that ever interesting. MOST setting is implied with the mood and little hints eased into the characters actions and dialogue. Let your characters develop the setting.
The Mystery
Something about your story’s introduction must create questions within the reader’s mind. Intrigue stems from comparison. We get bored with our own lives, so when a different life is introduced, and it is so bizarre and opposite from our own, fascination ensues. You want the reader to ask, “Why on earth (or not on earth) did that happen? What will happen next?” Make your opening line a stellar mystery. Make it a lean and mean piece of literature.
The Pledge
Our words create promises about our story within the first few lines. We provide the reader with expectations of the style of the book, the genre, the mood, the tension, and even our voice. Regardless of where you chronologically begin your book, in regards to the entire story, you must ensure the reader does not feel gypped with an action sequence preceding a tragic, tensionless romance. Be consistent. Provide the reader with a glimpse into the entire world you have created within the very first paragraph. Then stick with it.
The Investment
Even if your story is plot-driven, it is vital to create characters in which your reader will feel invested. Immediately. Why should they care about them? What makes them different than your reader? They don’t need to like the character—sometimes it’s quite fun to develop a well-despised antagonist or protagonist that the reader will instantly love to hate. Whether the reader wants to be your character or wants to kill him, the idea is that they do stir emotion within the reader so they have a need to know what happens to them. Similar to the mystery you create, you want your readers to ask, “Why on earth (or not on earth) did she do that? What will she do next?” They need have questions about the characters motivations so they’ll read on.
Be the captain of great hooks. Get inside the reader’s head in the first line. Make them cringe, make them laugh, make them gasp. Whatever you write, make it memorable and make them beg for more.
Our senior editor at Xchyler Publishing, McKenna Gardner has her fingerprints on many projects, including Forged in Flame: a Dragon Anthology, and Oblivion Storm by R.A. Smith. She also works on the editorial teams of Vanguard Legacy: Foretold by Joanne Kershaw, and Vivatera by Candace J. Thomas, both works to be released in April, 2013. Her next project, The Phoenix Conspiracy by Kim Dahlen, is slated for release in June, 2013.