The Hook Question

 

YOUR OPENING QUESTION might be explicit: perhaps the protagonist is wondering something, which will, in turn, make readers wonder the same thing. But more often, the question will be implicit.

The important thing to remember about presenting this opening question is that it cannot be vague. Readers have to understand enough about the situation to mentally form a specific question. What the heck is going on here? does not qualify as a good opening question.

It’s not necessary for the question to remain unanswered all the way to the end of the story. It’s perfectly all right to answer the question in the very next paragraph, as long as you introduce another question, and another and another, to give readers a reason to keep turning those pages in search of answers.

 

Exercise: Respond to the following questions to help you identify and refine your story’s hook.

 

Question #1: What specific question will hook readers in your beginning?

 

Examples:

• What scary reptilian monster killed the worker? (Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton)

 

• How does a city hunt? (Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve)

 

• Who is the one child who will never grow up? (Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie)

 

Question #2: How might you write this question explicitly?

 

Examples:

• “Where now? Who now? When now?” (The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett)

 

• “Now that I’ve found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?” (Matched by Ally Condie)

 

• “This is really Earth?” (Angels at the Table by Debbie Macomber)

 

Question #3: How might you write this question implicitly?

 

Examples:

• “I am an invisible man.” Implicit Question: How is that possible—and why? (Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison)

 

• “Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.” Implicit Question: Who is hitting what—and why? (The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner)

 

• “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Implicit Question: How could anyone possibly deserve that name? (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis)

 

Reference: Structuring Your Novel, chapter 1, pages 9-10.