By: Katherine O’Chee
First impressions are crucial to
any reader's decision. First impressions decide whether or not your
readers want to be pulled into the world of your narrative. This makes the
exposition of any novel or short story particularly important.
If your narrative borders on
bland, clichéd and uninteresting, readers will soon lose interest. Indeed,
it's upon reading the initial page or two of your narrative that
they'll determine whether they want to close the book or carry
on reading.
Therefore, it's essential
for you to develop a strong 'hook' — one that grips onto the reader so
tightly, they simply can't let go of your narrative upon reading the
first paragraph, and second, and third.
Here are seven tips on how
you can create a powerful 'hook' that'll leave your readers with one
thought and one thought only: I must keep on reading, I must find out
more.
POINTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE
WRITING THE HOOK
1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
One of the key steps to take
before you can effectively 'hook' your reader into your narrative is to
determine who this reader is. In other words, who is the
target audience for your novel or short story? In the early phases of
planning and writing, this can be a particularly difficult question to answer.
The Advanced
Fiction Writing website advises that you distinguish between
your General Target Audience, those interested in your fiction
or genre as a whole, and your Specific Target Audience, those
interested in your narrative in particular.
The former is generally
determined according to the genre and voice that interest your target
readers, the latter according to demographic information including age, gender,
income levels and political standpoints. That being said, sometimes your target
audience could be as simple as “anyone who would like your book cover”.
Keep in mind that your book
shouldn’t aim to appeal to everyone. Rather, write with one specific type of
reader in mind. After all, only when you have a concrete picture of
the reader in your head, are you able to better mould the style,
context and composition of your narrative accordingly.
2. KNOW THE PURPOSE OF YOUR NARRATIVE
. . .
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