Writing : Hooks and Descriptions

This is all comes from my experience.

Within the genre I write in, hooks are important. The punchier, more immediate, more intense or shocking the better. The difference between a bad opener and a good one will determine whether or not the reader continues to read. Also, throwing your character right in media res will throw the reader right into the story. A good hook can be any number of things: an attention grabbing first sentence. An opening paragraph that evokes raw emotion from the reader. A look-back hook to suggest that there's a story that leads up to this point. Or an attitude hook conveyed in 1st person narrative. You could write a prologue, but more often than not, a prologue can just be your first chapter. 

A good example of an opening line hook is the first sentence in Fight Club. It's not until after the first comma that it really pulls you in, but 'after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth...' more than makes up for the first part of the sentence and immediately grabs you. Who's Tyler? Why's he pushing a gun in his mouth? You want to continue read and find out. Plus the violent nature of the line evokes a shocking and immediate emotional response.

For a great example of the look-back hook check out the opening paragraph of King's IT or The Dead Zone.

For attitude, the opening paragraph in Catcher in the Rye immediately sets the tone of the story.

Some writers abhor the cliffhanger at the end of a chapter. The cliffhanger at the end of a chapter can force the reader to continue reading, and a lot of times withholding information for awhile keeps the reader interested and turning pages. I happen to like the cliffhanger and use it frequently in my own stories. The cliffhanger gives me more reason to continue to read; I want to find out what comes next, and like I said above, the genre I write in a cliffhanger is important. 

Basically, the idea is to draw the reader in as quickly as possible without superfluous descriptions that can be described later. If you can grab the reader with the first sentence they'll move on to the next paragraph. Hook them with that paragraph and they'll go on to the next page, and so on. Opening with things like the weather or a lengthy description of setting can be boring and frustrating, unless inherently important to the story. I stay away from those types of openers, saving the descriptions for when I need to slow the pace. 

I believe using a whole chapter hook is important, too. In my opening chapters I like to grab the reader by the balls, take them on a ride, end it with a cliffhanger then move on to chapter two. A punch in the gut like that is like your favorite football team scoring on the opening kickoff. They score and now you're on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what happens next. Chances are the following kickoff won't be returned and the pace of the game slows down. But then the next touchdown kicks up the pace, making it more exciting and hooking you back into the game. It's a shitty metaphor, I know, but gets my point across.

Hope this helps you in some way.

~Rian

Are we talking about story hooks or synopses here? I think the original post is about synopses (or whatever the term is for what's shorter than a synopsis, there is a word but can't think of it now.) For that: Try not to be vague or cute. Give a couple sentences that show a little of the main character and the main conflict of the story. The write ups they have for movies in TV Guide or on Netflix are pretty much the prime example if you want to sum something up in one or two sentences.

Not to deride everyone who use it, I use it all the time probably and like it myself, but I think the concept In Media Res or at least the prevalence of its use in more recent years has allowed some sub-par writers to try to get away with some sub-par structure. Cliffhangers much more abused, even. I can't even think about those without cringing, though yeah, they are great when greatly written.

A great opening sentence is the ultimate shit, but I think anywhere in the first paragraph is fine to put the hook in. And I think the same thing applies as when doing a synopsis: intro the main character and create some conflict as soon as possible. Create a mystery without being too mysterious or elusive, without losing its authority. How most every literary short story that I can think of accomplishes this is they give you an opening sentence that's incomplete; they hold back the subject of a sentence or something, (Ray Carver's Fat: "I am sitting over coffee and cigarettes at my friend Rita’s and I am telling her about it.") or they start something authoritative but something you obviously need the whole reasoning behind it for it to make any sense, (Hempel's The Most Girl Part of You: "Jack "Big Guy" Fitch is trying to crack his teeth.") They cast the illusion of interest over something that's not really that interesting yet until you get deep in the story, it's a little cheap to me but that's how it works. I'd prefer something that has enough actual interesting plot to hook me, though it can be incredibly hard to fit that into the first sentence, yeah. Jim Harrison does it quite well though, and, I've been reading a lot of Sherman Alexie lately, opening to his This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona: Just after Victor lost his job at the BIA, he also found out that his father had died of a heart attack in Phoenix, Arizona. Something like that is the perfect hook to me. Has your MC, creates some conflicting drama, and full of things actually happening plotwise.

Every time I see an unopened box, I scream, "What's in the box?  Ahhhh.  What's in the box?  What's in the fucking box?"

Makes for an awkward Christmas.

Howie, this is for you buddy...