posted
Actually, Alias, I noticed something quite different. I noticed that no one agreed on a single one of them! There were very few that were rejected entirely as stinkers, and very few that were accepted entirely as hooks.
What this tells me is that you can't please everyone, so don't even try. If a vast majority of people tell you you haven't hooked them, I'd take that as bad, and if a vast majority say you have hooked them, I'd take it as good, but other than that write what you feel. In the end, it's the editor's opinion that matters, I suppose.
posted
I hope they'll be as all over the board as we are. At least that should mean there's one out there who will be impressed.
Posts: 156 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I actually don't think the hook is as important as it's made out to be here at hatrack. I mean, sure, it definitely matters, but there are plenty of very successful stories floating around that really don't have a hook at all. Have you ever read Dickens? COmpletely hookless, but great books.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Actually, Dickens uses the very best hook of all, the utterly charming and deliciously witty narrator.
As a reader, you don't actually think about where the story is going in the opening of Dickens' works, because the narrator is just the sort of fellow you want to sit beside at dinner.
I can't write like that, both because I'm not Dickens and because if I did write like that I'd get distracted by some little thing after another and the story wouldn't get told at all.
quote:We do have at least one editor here, srhowen. Though she seems to be dormant now
I am here, but have been very very very busy. With the second novel, with editing, and with the magazine--wild child has some very good interviews coming up--a live IM interview with Tracy and Laura Hickman (April) and one with OSC himself.
As to best hooks--the best I ever read was a single line "Today I put ground glass in my wife's eyes." Funny I can remember that line clearly but not the book it came from at all.
The best hooks to me are the ones that bring on a mystery of sorts--not a mystery novel, but something that does not quite fit right. Yes, a dead body. But what about a homeless person who pulls out a bank roll of 100's? That makes you read on-- and I agree with the idea that not everyone is going to agree on what is the best hook.
It has to be something that makes the reader want to go on though.
If we all liked the same hook then all books would be the same.
quote:What this tells me is that you can't please everyone, so don't even try. If a vast majority of people tell you you haven't hooked them, I'd take that as bad, and if a vast majority say you have hooked them, I'd take it as good, but other than that write what you feel. In the end, it's the editor's opinion that matters, I suppose.
Ok, true. yes, everyone has different tastes, which is good. But I think it would be introducing false dichotomy to assume that any hook is as good as another. So, to a point, there is a difference between a good hook and a bad hook. Now, granted people will dispute what is good and what isn't, but I think that, again, to a point, there are universally better hooks than others. Posts: 295 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
For me, the best hook is that the writer doesn't sound like an incompetent boob. I can get hooked by an interesting idea, but only after the writer has kept me reading for several pages.
If the prose is good, I keep reading. If it isn't, I don't.
But there are other things at work, and I try to make my comments applicable to what I've learned about why people read books. I'm aware of most of these things when I read, though they aren't as high a priority as the simple pleasure of reading good prose.
For instance, most people read to get the particular kinds of affirming story they crave. So a good opening (like a good cover ) should make it easy for readers to decide if this is going to be the sort of story they want. Is is light fantasy, Heroic Fantasy, Space Opera, Cyberpunk, or what? What kind of person is going to be the hero of the story? Is it going to be more comic or dramatic?
There is no need to nail down exactly what to expect, but a good opening should promise the reader certain things (laughs, romance, gadgets, what-have-you) that will be in your story. This is where you get the 'to each his own' effect. Some will like what you offer, others will not. So long as what you offer is in the offing, I have no quarrel, but should you betray me...wretch! I shall howl for your blood to slake my rage!
Most people also want either a good narrative voice or a transparent POV. Narrative voice predates modern POV and is somewhat more demanding for both author and reader, but it demands less suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader. There are of course other options, but all of them have become less popular for good reasons. Still, if I feel that the writer has a solid command of the form used, I'll keep reading, even if it's choose-your-own-adventure
I personally rate the level of competence displayed by the writer as highest priority, and it's the only criterion in the first page or so I'll use to decide whether or not to read a story. But any writer has to be aware of the other two, because they matter to most readers.
posted
"It was a dark and stormy night" isn't great, but it isn't really terrible as an opening sentence.
But that was not the complete sentence written by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.
quote:It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
But he got it published, so it must have hooked someone.
There is an annual contest for writing really bad opening lines:
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I got it, pickled. Have you read the whole thing? It's so bad it's good. To further tantalize the rest of you:
quote:It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed.
Don't you wish you could write like that? <sigh>
Snoopy's other selected writings are just as intriguing. In "I Never Promised You an Apple Orchard" The Collected Writings of Snoopy, you'll read "A Love Story" by Erich Beagle (a Snoopy pen name, apparently) and "Toodle-oo, Caribou!"
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