I get together often with other writers—at conferences, online, via email, etc. So I’m often asked, “What are you looking for as an agent?” My typical answer: “Irresistible hooks and irresistible writing.”
When I say that, I’m talking about both fiction and nonfiction. And you’ll notice I didn’t mention that wretched word “platform.” To be fair, I don’t mind “irresistible platforms,” either; but in my experience, an irresistible hook and irresistible writing can overcome a modest platform. More so, I think than an irresistible platform can overcome the lack of an irresistible hook and irresistible writing.
I’ll also often say, “Nail the hook, nail the book.” At least in my own writing life, I often find that when I’ve landed on a great hook, the book takes shape, if not effortlessly, at least energetically.
So, what’s a “hook,” and how do you nail it?
Good questions (which usually means you’re about to get a lousy answer). A great hook:
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- grabs attention,
- sparks interest,
- defines what’s unique about your project,
- makes (or hints at) a promise.
And all in a few words—no more than a sentence or two.
This is true for both fiction and nonfiction. For fiction hooks, I’ll often suggest writers think in “movie trailer” voice: “One man. One woman. Unforgiving wilderness.” Or to borrow from Louis Sachar’s Holes: “There is no lake at the boys’ detention center they call Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.”
A great fiction hook promises, “Stick with me, and I’ll deliver something worth your time.” A great nonfiction hook promises a definite reward, a met need. For example, “You could keep trying to fit in…. Or you could rest in where you already fit” (from Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s new release, Being Fully Known: The Joyful Satisfaction of Beholding, Becoming, and Belonging). Sometimes the title (and/or subtitle) is a hook itself, as in Dr. Dalton-Smith’s book or Susan U. Neal’s 12 Ways to Age Gracefully: How to Look and Feel Younger.
I suggest spending as much time as necessary on your hooks—brainstorming, mind-mapping, trying different approaches, and critique-group-testing. After all, the hook is your book’s first impression; it should hit hard and deep. And if you really nail the hook, you’re more likely to sell your book to an agent, editor—and ultimately—reader.
To me, the very greatest hook
that’s ever been unfurled
defines the very greatest Book,
“For God so loved the world…”,
and even though some twist it ’round
to serve some other ends,
it still defines the common ground
where God and I are friends,
and He makes it very clear,
that He’ll pay friendship’s toll
by offering what’s held so dear
as ransom for my soul:
His darling Boy, His only Son,
that I would never be undone.
Oh, Andrew. I held my breath as I read this. So beautiful! This is one of your best sonnets. Thank you!
Thank YOU, Pam. I put everything I have into it.
Wow, Andrew, simply beautiful and laden with truth. Thank you!
Judy, thank you so much!
Every time I hear “hook” my brain chants, “Hook! Hook! Hook!” from the greatest Peter Pan movie of all time. 😉
When my first fantasy novel, Fairyeater, got picked up, my editor wanted something similar to what you said about a fiction hook and the movie voice. I came up with:
A fairy-eating witch.
An awakening dark lord.
A teenaged savior.
And time is running out.
As for “irresistible writing” … that’s subjective, isn’t it? We know we don’t write for everyone. We write for our readers. How do we know if we have “irresistible” writing for an agent or editor?
Thank you Bob! I am working on this today. I enjoyed your keynote at BRMCWC last week! God bless you.
One of my favorite hooks I’ve heard of late was indeed a movie trailer:
“4 million people have been abducted by aliens, but only one of them asked for it.”
I cant wait to see Elio now, that hook just thrilled me. It was all I needed to hear to know I wanted to watch it.
I keep reading what agents are searching for—great hooks, impressive skill, particular genres. These are all important to be sure, however, it appears that even more important, to most agents, is a great online presence and the ability to market oneself…and a great proposal that pulls the agent past the cover page to read the first few chapters sent. This is not an issue I have encountered with you personally so I’m not casting stones at you. It’s just a thing I have come up against and don’t really know how to get around.
Thanks, Bob, for this post that stirred my thoughts and stimulated my creative juices. It also made me want to pull the Louis Sachar book, Holes, out of my treasured collection of children’s books where it has sat neglected and unread for years.
Amazon also thanks you for your inspiring post, which led me to order the two books by Susan and Sandra, along with Sacred Rest by Sandra. The stellar reviews also helped! I’d previously heard of all three titles, so thanks for the nudge!
In screenwriting, we call the hook a “logline.” It’s typically 30 words or less, and in an online screenwriting group, it’s what most screenwriters request help with. Some people use a formula, but essentially it contains the protagonist (with a one-word descriptor), the inciting incident, the protagonist’s goal, and the stakes involved (implied or stated). For example, here’s one most people would recognize:
“An eight-year-old troublemaker must protect his house from a pair of burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation.”
For more examples of loglines, an industry website, IMDb (dot com), has listings of movies, with loglines, taglines (marketing hooks on movie posters), synopses, and summaries—if anyone is interested.
For Home Alone, a hook (tagline) used in movie trailers and posters, such as what Bob is referring to, could be: “A family Christmas without the family.”
I’m writing several diverse Sci-fi stories not related to each other. Each in my belief is capable of becoming a franchise but I don’t know where to find help to get it off the ground.
The hook for one of them is:
“When the veil between reality and dreams are ripped, a legendary folklore hero returns to train the next generation to to defend the world from the creatures to go bump in the night.”
Thanks to another one of your agencies articles, I found out that I was a discovery writer and begin to write more of my stories in the short story formats similar to episodes of a TV series. That way each chapter will have a climate that leads to the next chapter.