Writing Engaging Openings

Wherever you get your writing advice, one of the first things you are going to hear or read is going to be that you need a hook right in the very first sentence of your story to grab your reader's attention. 

But what does this mean and how do you do it?

Although many will advise having a powerful hook, there aren't many who will go on to explain how exactly to achieve this or why it's so important to your story. 

Let me try and fix that. 

Why do you need to hook in your readers?

Well, let's start with a few things that the hook does for your story. 

• Captures Readers Attention
• Creates Immediate Engagement and Connection
• Sets The Tone
• Encourages Continues Reading

The first thing a reader is going to do after picking your book up from the shelf and reading your book blurb is going to be to turn to that very first page to see if your book is going to be worth reading. 

If your character says, "I woke up, yawned, stretched, and placed my feet on the floor." The reader is going to yawn and place the book back on the shelf.

You want your reader to be connected to your story with that very first line, introducing your character and the plot of your story all at once as well as setting the mood of your story. 

If your story is dark your opening should be dark. 

"I woke up, yawned, stretched, and placed my feet on the floor, the chain around my ankle tumbled to the floor and woke the man on the other side of the glass."

How To Write Your Opening 

You want your first sentence to leave the reader with more questions than answers. 

These answers they're only going to be able to find by reading your book. 

While I can't tell you exactly how you should write your opening as it will be different for each genre and story I can give you a checklist to follow to make sure your opening is well-checking all the boxes. 

✓ Does my sentence pique the curiosity of my reader?

✓Does my sentence engage at least one of my reader's senses?

✓Am I plunging my reader into the middle of the action/ the thick of the plot?

✓Does my opening match the tone of my story? Humorous? Dark? Mysterious?

It can take a few tries to find an opening that checks some or all of these points and even then you may come back to it and decide on something different. 

I had a writer friend once decide that halfway through her third chapter was a better place to start the story so she scrapped the beginning and made that her new opening dropping her readers directly into the plot.

What Your Hook Shouldn't Be

Just as there are many ways to write a good hook - it's just as easy to write a bad one so here are a few things you should avoid.

Your character waking up - it's been done and it's been done to death. This tells us nothing about your character or your story except that it might bore the reader to sleep.

Instant transportation - your reader needs to see your protagonist's normal world before you throw them into a new one or else when your character starts trying to find their way back - or how to stay - the reader has no reason to be invested.

An essay- keep it short and sweet, a line or two. Readers don't want the first thing they see on the page to be a block of text as if it were a history book.

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Writing a strong opening is the best way to hook your reader, but it's not the end all be all for your book. 

There are times when the dust jacket alone is enough to have me cradling a book to my chest with no intention of putting it down until I am past the register and back home where I can add it to my ever-growing pile of books to read.

And if the first few lines end up being a bit - eh - I'm going to read the book anyway because I've already invested in it. 

Don't let the idea of having to write a perfect hook keep you from moving on to the rest of your story, you can always come back to it. 

Now go get to writing.

With love, 

B.K. xoxo

Want to write with me live? I'm now on Twitch! Come join me in some writing sprints most days at 10:30 pm EST

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