Hooking Your Reader

Have you ever been extremely excited to read a book only to put it aside because the first line of the book doesn't hook you?

Yeah? Well, you're not alone because I've done it, too.

The first line of anything you write is extremely important - so important, in fact, that it can make or break your book. It is often the deciding factor in whether a reader continues to read or puts your book aside.

When writing, I like to use a short sentence as the first line of my book. It's simple and to the point. A short, clear sentence will snag your reader a lot faster than a long sentence will.

If you write a long sentence as your opening line, you run the risk of overwhelming your reader and making them put the book aside. Remember, you have an entire book left to give your readers information.

For example, you might be inclined to write this:

"Gracie was furious with her parents for forcing her to move to an entirely new city during her senior year of high school, to an entirely new place where she knew no one, and no one knew her."

That's too much, and too often, I see this kind of thing in books. It overwhelms the reader with too much information in one long, drawn-out sentence.

Rewrite it to this:

"Gracie was fuming. Her parents had just dropped the biggest bomb ever on her. They were moving. It was her senior year, and her parents were forcing her to move. She wouldn't know anyone. No one would know her. She had to start completely fresh. At that moment, she hated her parents more than ever."

Much better, right? It's much easier to read the second version. The reader has a chance to pause and retain before moving to the next sentence and the next bit of information.

Short, concise sentences win the race.

You have more of a chance of hooking your reader in with this form of writing than you do with the longer sentences.

Also, be sure not to use vocabulary that doesn’t fit your genre. If you’re writing a romance novel, for example, you don’t want to use vocabulary that you might see in a nonfiction novel. You’re wanting to engage your readers and hook them into your book, but you don’t want to overwhelm their brains, either.

That’s the key thing to remember: do not overwhelm your reader.

If you keep that in your head, you’re more likely to succeed.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to do your best to form an emotional connection with your reader within that first sentence. Sounds impossible, right? Trust me, it’s not as hard as it seems.

For example, I was just beginning my newest novel the other day, and this was the first sentence of my book:

“Pregnancy sucked.”

Simple. Sweet. To the point. There’s an emotional impact there. Women - my target readers - might feel that, especially those that have experienced pregnancy themselves. They’re more likely to go on to read because they felt that connection with my main character.

Not only was my line “pregnancy sucked”, short, to the point, and emotionally gripping, but it also made a surprising statement and kind of dropped the reader right in the middle of the action.

Readers want to be sucked in, and droning on about someone’s morning isn’t going to do that. The reader wants to know what’s going on. They want to have immediate insight into their character and the plot.

So, remember these simple rules when writing your first line:

1. Sweet, short, and simple.

2. To the point.

3. Make it emotionally engaging.

4. Drop your reader in the action.

5. Make that line surprising.

Do those things, and you have more of a chance of your reader going on to continue to read your book.