Lesson 9: Narrative Hooks and Beginning a Story

What is a narrative hook?

To understand this term, we need to define the words. As we have defined earlier, a narration is action. A hook is designed to grasp and pull something. So, a narrative hook is an action that pulls your reader further into a story. Anything that arouses curiosity and interest in your reader is a narrative hook. It’s that “I couldn”t put it down’ sensation that a reader experiences in good stories.

When should I add a narrative hook?

You must add narrative hooks in two different places. The first place, which I will cover with more detail in a moment, is the very beginning of the story. The second place is any section where your story begins to sag. By “sag,” I mean parts of your novel (usually in the middle sections) that seem to drag. You may have had a wonderful time crafting the opening to your novel, introducing all those interesting characters that you’ve created and setting the story question up. You also have probably decided on a climactic, fantastic resolution to your story question and ending, and you’re excited about it…but you reach page 150 or so and you start to run out of steam. This is the part of the novel where most writers start to fall out of love with their own work and despair that they’ll ever reach the “good part” at the end. Narrative hooks help to prop up these slower parts, much in the same way that tent poles hold up sagging ends of a tent.

How should I begin my story?

The first concept that you must understand is the difference between the story that you tell yourself and the story that you tell the reader. Here is an example. I will now tell you a story idea in chronological (time-line) order:

• John is born into an upper-middle class family
• He has a successful school career and goes to college to become a doctor
• He meets his dream girl, starts a medical practice and buys a home
• He loses his medical license to a malpractice suit
• He finds out that his considerable nest-egg has evaporated, a victim of bad investing
• He loses all of the luxury items that he bought when the money was rolling in
• Finally he loses his house to foreclosure and moves into a seedy motel with his wife and child, totally shamed
• He hits rock bottom, losing everything. Even his wife is threatening to leave him.
• Thorough work and perseverance he begins a business
• He struggles and fights his way back into prosperity and has a happy ending

Now, when I begin to write this story, where should I begin? Many writers want to start telling the story “at the beginning,” which seems logical enough. In most cases, this is a mistake. Being as a story needs a narrative hook, we must put the most interesting part of the action first. In this example, I would open Chapter 1 with John and his wife being evicted from their dream home. A mean, hulking cop is standing by, making John feel like a criminal. His 4 year old son is asking Daddy why they have to go away. His wife is in tears. He barely feels like a man as he stows their meager possessions into a second-hand station wagon to take to some seedy motel on the outskirts of town. He is totally disgraced, stressed, reeling from pillar to post trying to deal with this blow. If I succeed as a writer you will finish Chapter 1 feeling sympathy for John and his family, wondering how they ended up in this mess and hoping that they’ll find a way out.

But shouldn’t I introduce the characters/background/history first?

You will have time to make introductions and reveal (show, never tell!) the back-story later. Keep in mind that you could have the best plot, most engaging characters and most thrilling climax in the world, and it won’t matter if it’s all buried on page 40, hidden behind page upon page of boring “introduction” and “history.” You must put your best foot forward. Shoot for the magical three emotions that a reader should feel on Chapter 1, preferably Page 1: curiosity, empathy and anticipation! In other words, “I wonder what’s going on. I feel for this character. I look forward to the next page.”

What about those “tent peg” narrative hooks? How do I create those?

There are several ways to pick up the energy of your work in mid-story. You could throw your hero a major setback that forces them to change their game plan. You could explore your sidekick’s goals. You could add a new character that makes the plot more complex. For example, in my first novel I added an unexpected pest/villain when I felt that my hero’s action was getting too repetitive. Dealing with this new character gave my hero something different to do for several pages while still trying to march forward to his main goal. Usually when your story starts to get “boring,” that means that your hero needs a new challenge. Throw them (and your readers) an interesting curveball!

The Bottom Line:

Narrative hooks create curiosity and interest in your readers and make it difficult to put your story down. Clever use of this device can guarantee that your great tale is read from beginning to end!