What writers get stuck on are what hooks are. There are two kinds of hooks that get us all stuck, myself included. In this blog, I intend to clarify what the two types of hooks are, commercial and dramatic, and how you can use them to grip your audience.
The Commercial Hooks
Now this one is for the project as a whole that effectively “hooks” you in to watch or read that thing. A lot of this has come from blockbuster films. It gives you a clear flavour of what the project is about. An example is this, “Cloned dinosaurs run amok on an island”. Would you guess this was the commercial hook for Jurassic Park?
This gives us an understanding of what the project is about and makes us want to watch it. I mean, who doesn’t want to see dinosaurs causing chaos in the present day? It comes down to what the readers/viewers desire. It’s understanding what your audience wants and giving it a good old twist into something new.
So use this as an idea to condense your idea down into a sentence. If nothing else, it’ll be really helpful when you’re pitching the idea. It’s very handy when you haven’t got oodles of time to describe it.
For inspiration, you can check out Lucy V Hay’s blog post on writing your logline here.
The Dramatic Hooks
When looking at the dramatic hook for the project as a whole, it’s taking you more along the lines of the kind of character/s involved. It might be used to showcase a specific kind of character that doesn’t usually sit in that world yet they’re able to hold their own in it as chaos surrounds them. Essentially, we want to put our audience in our characters’ position and ask “what would you do?” should they be in the same position.
This hook is also used in TV in places you may not have caught onto. Have you ever watched something where there’s a bit of information or a twist where it changes the point of view and then it cuts to adverts or the chapter ends? That is a dramatic hook. It makes you want to stay to find out what happens next. If you put it in properly, it can work throughout that makes it impossible to put down or stop watching.
How To Hook Your Audience
Being able to put a hook in and keep your audience invested is linked in with whether you can set up the stakes to keep rising. As the stakes keep increasing, it gives you an opportunity to seed bits of information that your characters will need later. This means you can add those oh so good plot twists to keep your audience in their seats.
You may (or may not) have guessed I’m a big murder mystery/crime fiction fan. A lot of the plotting of hooks can be seen in this genre because there are clues to uncover to get to the reveal of who the murderer is. In that kind of hook, it’s checking in with your pacing and making sure it drives your story forward. No one wants a floundering act 2 because the events aren’t being pushed forwards by your stakes getting bigger.
Remember, you need to ensure you understand the kind of story you’re writing. If you’re writing a vampire story, as an example, you need to understand what that entails. Pick apart what has come before and give a new spin. Your audience will want the vampire story, but the new twist allows them to find something new about the stories they love.
I hope this blog has been useful for you. If you need a refresh on ideas, writing intension driven scenes and opening images, you can check out my previous blogs.
Happy writing!