Young Writers Society

I'm really stuck!!!! How do you hook someone into your story at the start of the book (e.g first page)

Start in the middle, with some sort of action already taking place.

Or use your first line to build a sense of mystery.

Examples, taken from my own work:

"Leo knew from the moment he opened his eyes that something was wrong." - Taken from The Broken.

"‘Lieutenant, behind you!’" - Taken from Pandora's Tears.

Both of those are the very first line in their story.

The first one aims to bring in a sense of mystery, hopefully catching the reader's attention.

The second one starts in the middle of action, with an unknown character, who we can tell is a solider, shouting a warning to his Lieutenant.

Sureal wrote:Start in the middle, with some sort of action already taking place.

Or use your first line to build a sense of mystery.

Examples, taken from my own work:

"Leo knew from the moment he opened his eyes that something was wrong." - Taken from The Broken.

"‘Lieutenant, behind you!’" - Taken from Pandora's Tears.

Both of those are the very first line in their story.

The first one aims to bring in a sense of mystery, hopefully catching the reader's attention.

The second one starts in the middle of action, with an unknown character, who we can tell is a solider, shouting a warning to his Lieutenant.

That's really given me an idea! Thank you sooooooooooooooooo much!

Basically, tension.

Pose the problem, the story questions. Get the readers to ask, "what's going to happen next?" Or, "why did this happen?" Make the readers care about solving the problem. Then slowly, slowly, ease one problem into another, while making sure that all of the questions are answered at one point or another. Take it from there on.


Voice is important too. If the voice is good, if the style is good, then you can draw in readers without tension right at the beginning. Because when you've found a proper voice, the reader is intrigued by your character, and is quicker to sympathize and more willing to read about your character. And then you can take a bit to do some expositionary work before dashing into the tension.

But of course, it's all easier said than done.

Zen wrote:Basically, tension.

Pose the problem, the story questions. Get the readers to ask, "what's going to happen next?" Or, "why did this happen?" Make the readers care about solving the problem. Then slowly, slowly, ease one problem into another, while making sure that all of the questions are answered at one point or another. Take it from there on.


Voice is important too. If the voice is good, if the style is good, then you can draw in readers without tension right at the beginning. Because when you've found a proper voice, the reader is intrigued by your character, and is quicker to sympathize and more willing to read about your character. And then you can take a bit to do some expositionary work before dashing into the tension.

But of course, it's all easier said than done.

Thanks also! The other critique board I am on is RUBBISH compared to YWS!

I usually go for symbolism, it doesn't always work for others, but I love it. Get the reader to become familiar with the setting/world, a common fair can be turned into a place of weird magic. A day out in the fields can turn nasty when curiosity gets the better of your characters.

Myth wrote:I usually go for symbolism, it doesn't always work for others, but I love it. Get the reader to become familiar with the setting/world, a common fair can be turned into a place of weird magic. A day out in the fields can turn nasty when curiosity gets the better of your characters.

Thanks for telling me this, but I don't think it'll work.

THANKS!

Personally, the first thing I see about a story (whether on YWS or in the bookstore) is the title. I know sometimes it can be hard to come up with a good one, but that's the first thing your readers are going to see. When I'm browsing YWS posts or a bookshelf, I'm not going to pick up every book and check to see what's inside. I'm going to look at the titles and see if there's something that catches my eye. Just for an example (and not because I think I'm perfect) my two stories posted here are called Gypsie Eyes and In Thrall. Both give hints about what the work will contain, but both have a kind of subtle twist ("gypsie" is misspelled and "in thrall" has a double meaning). Hope that helps!

gyrfalcon wrote:Personally, the first thing I see about a story (whether on YWS or in the bookstore) is the title. I know sometimes it can be hard to come up with a good one, but that's the first thing your readers are going to see. When I'm browsing YWS posts or a bookshelf, I'm not going to pick up every book and check to see what's inside. I'm going to look at the titles and see if there's something that catches my eye. Just for an example (and not because I think I'm perfect) my two stories posted here are called Gypsie Eyes and In Thrall. Both give hints about what the work will contain, but both have a kind of subtle twist ("gypsie" is misspelled and "in thrall" has a double meaning). Hope that helps!

Yeah! That helped alot! Do you think 'Atticka' sounds catching?

Just "Atticka"? Hmmm.....depends what genre, I guess.

gyrfalcon wrote:Just "Atticka"? Hmmm.....depends what genre, I guess.

Atticka is action/adventure. It's a branch of British Intelligence

I think I agree with The Bird, sometimes titles cath a readers eye.

Atticka sounds interesting, I'll give it a look over.

Myth wrote:I think I agree with The Bird, sometimes titles cath a readers eye.

Atticka sounds interesting, I'll give it a look over.

I've posted it on Action/Adventure. It's titled 'Atticka (a bit)'

As a reader I get hooked on a book when it starts with action and/or an *unusual sentence.

*An example of an unusual sentence is in the book Ella Enchanted. It starts off with:

"That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me."

This hooked me immediately.

I think just as long as you keep to your plot and slowly answer your readers' possible questions.

A note about your title; isn't Atticka also the name of a prison somewhere in the US? I remember there's this famous line in a movie where during a police standoff, the guy starts yelling "Atticka! Atticka!", in reference to an infamous prison shooting, basically taunting them to shoot. I can't remember the title of the movie, but I saw the scene in a TV special once. Just a thought, since that's actually what came to mind when I read the title.

As to hooking the reader, I can't help you much there. Beginnings are my weakest point, as they almost always sound dull and slow. One tip I hear over and over is to start with dialogue. You see dialogue and think, "what are they talking about?", which is usually followed by, "who's talking?" And like it was mentioned before, start with something unusual. In one of my pieces, "Call of Darkness", started like this:

I can still remember the day it all started. Well, maybe not the actual day, but at least when it started. That time, that very beginning, felt so trivial then. Now, I know what it was, and I’ll never forget it. I remember where I was and what I was doing; on my knees, my head leaning over the toilet, throwing up.

That last line kinda sets you off balance and sets the real mood of the piece. The thought of what the? will almost garuntee that the readers goes further.

And that's about all I got, since that's basically all I know. Well, good luck on your piece, and I'll see if can get around to looking at it myself.