Hooks
Much like a fisherman out to catch a trout will use a baited hook, a writer out to catch a reader must learn to do the same. In writing, authors use hooks — basically, a clever turn of a phrase, a unique twist on a classic plot, or a startling/alarming situation. A hook can be anything that catches the reader's attention and holds it.
Authors use hooks in everything from their query letters to their opening and ending lines of their scenes. And for good reason. Hooks are what makes a reader — or an agent and editor — unable to put the book down.
Think back to the last romance novel you read and enjoyed. Chances are, it grabbed you from that opening page. The intriguing first line was a hook. The need to find out what happens next when you reach a scene or chapter end is another hook. Hooks keep the reader guessing … and they keep the reader turning pages.
Some new authors confuse a hook with a gimmick. True, they can both capture the reader's attention and get them to read, but a gimmick always rings false while a hook is a natural extension of your writer's voice and storyline.
Hooks as Opening Lines
Remember Justin, the English Lit professor with a newly discovered wife and a plagiarized manuscript in Can't Fight the Feeling? The opening line of the book — He still wanted her — is a good example of using a hook as a first line for a romance. Consider what those four words tell the reader.
First, that he is thinking about a woman, a woman that he presumably no longer has but he still wants. Good hooks create questions in the reader's mind. After reading the opening lines for Can't Fight the Feeling, the reader will wonder, Why? What happened to end their relationship? More important, what will happen next?
Hooks as Ending Lines
Having a good ending line to your scene is just as important as having a good opening line. For many readers, the temptation to put down your book is strongest when they reach the ending of a scene or chapter. It's your job as a writer to make sure that doesn't happen.
In Can't Fight the Feeling, the first scene of Chapter 1 ended with the following lines:
Again, the reader is left to wonder what will happen next. Why had Morgan returned? Does she share Justin's feelings?
Hooks as an Intriguing Premise
This type of hook is used primarily in query letters and in-person pitch sessions when meeting one-on-one with an agent or editor. They are the short descriptions of your book that demonstrate why your romance novel is different from the hundreds (if not, thousands) of other romance novels the editor or agent will likely receive that year.
Writers' conferences, such as the annual one sponsored by Romance Writers of America, gives an unpublished author with a completed manuscript the chance to “pitch” her romance novel to an agent or editor. The sessions usually last seven to ten minutes and are designed to replace the traditional query letter.
Finding a good hook for a pitch session or a query letter is difficult, though. Some writers just focus on the unique plot twist for their novel. For example:
Mary Jane Stimmons is having the worst Monday of her life — her car breaks down on the freeway, gets hit from behind by a multitasking soccer mom and completely totaled. Then she arrives for work two hours late and everybody ignores her, probably because she missed an important meeting though that wasn't her fault. The only bright spot is the hunky guy in the kilt who keeps following her around. Too bad he's crazy because he thinks he's been dead for 500 years. What's more, he thinks she's dead, too — which if true means her Monday just got a whole lot worse.
Others compare their book to a couple of popular, though dissimilar movies, books, or television shows, such as “Desperate Housewives meets The X-Files” (for a light-hearted paranormal romance.) This method is known as the High Concept pitch, which is basically a story idea that can be reduced to a short, easily understood concept by comparing two existing products.
