Hatrack River Writers Workshop: What grabs you best?

This is topic What grabs you best? in forum Discussing Published Hooks & Books at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=000098

Posted by Campbell (Member # 2881) on :

I'm just curious to hear everyone's opinion on which hook you think works best.

Here are some examples of what I mean. Let me know what you think...

Book begins with dialogue:

From A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.

"Please tell me that's not going to be part of my birthday dinner this evening."

I am staring into the hissing face of a cobra. A surprisingly pink tongue slithers in and out of a cruel mouth while an Indian man whose eyes are the blue of blindness inclines his head toward my mother and explains in Hindi that cobras make very good eating.

Book begins with foreshadowing:

From Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

It wasn't a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance. Mrs. Baird's was like a thousand other Highland bed-and-breakfast establishments in 1945; clean and quiet, with fading floral wallpaper, gleaming floors, and a coin-operated hot-water geyser in the lavatory. Mrs. Baird herself was squat and easygoing, and made no objection to Frank lining her tiny rose-sprigged parlor with the dozens of books and papers with which he always traveled.

Book begins with character introduction:

From Rachel and Leah by Orson Scott Card.

Bilhah was not born a slave. Her father was a free man, the son of a free man. He had skill, too. His fingers could fly over the pots of tile and find just the right color and he'd know just what size and shape it needed to be and he could tap just so on the tile and the right piece would chip off and he'd set it into the mortar.

Let me know what you think.

Posted by Corky (Member # 2714) on :

I'd go for the character introduction first.

By the way, you left out at least one other possible beginning: the weather report.

The one you call foreshadowing could count as another kind of beginning: description of the setting or "establishing shot" as they call it in film (which can also be a weather report, but doesn't have to be).

Posted by Leaf II (Member # 2924) on :

It doesn't matter to me. I think the ability to write a good first page in a novel does not translate to writing a good novel. For me, I'll give the book about 50 pages. If it is terrible, then I will not finish it (or purchase it, if I've read these pages at BN.)
Or if there are dwarves (I hate stories with dwarves, that is an automatic stop reading for me).
So, to me it really doesn't matter, I guess is the main idea here.

Posted by Brecca's Sister (Member # 2925) on :

I've never liked dialogue beginnings. In my mind most authors who use them are doing it as a cheap way to write a story; and most of the time the book that starts out like that turns out bad.

Atleast that's my experience.

Posted by Lekuto (Member # 2933) on :

Personally, I've read books that start like all of those examples that have turned out to be excellent. On the same hand, though, I've read books that start like each example that have been horrible. I don't personally have a preference, as long as it grabs my attention.

Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :

Corky wrote:

quote:
the weather report.

Ah yes. There was a time when almost every time I sat down at the typewriter, the first thing I did was describe the sky, the weather, or something of that nature.

Then, when I realised what I was doing, I wrote a piece which began "Why do I always start by describing the sky?"

That seemed to cure me for a while, but I've noticed recently that it's creeping back in, though mostly as an adjunct to what's happeneing, rather than a replacement.