Hooks

This was originally guest posted at the dojo

At Viable Paradise, the conversation came around several times to the relationship between the writer and the reader. It's a strange relationship, when you think about it, especially since it's between two people who may never meet. One of them can be dead, even.

But I want to put down a thought or two about hooks, here. We have all seen the advice to hook your readers with action, or character, or at least drama. Some of the advice makes it sound like writers need to lurk in the shrubbery and tackle passing readers, wrestle them to the ground and take them hostage.

Which one would you bite?

Having tried to write a lot of hooks and having read many hooks as a beta, I suspect that there are as many hooks as there are readers.

Not as many as there are writers. Not as many as there are stories.

What hooks me at the beginning of your story may not be what hooks Ali. Or the agent you sent your first chaper to. In fact, I can guarantee you will get different answers from different readers if you ask, "What kept you reading?"

You are not presenting your reader with one hook. You are presenting many hooks. Action, character, drama, world-building: all hooks. Questions. Riddles. Beguiling images. Promises of what's to come.

And most readers are willing to bite. I've been willing to bite every time I read a first page sample and watched cookie-stamp characters noodle around aimlessly on a blank canvas. Or I've seen one hook laid out front and center... but not a hook that I like.

Be aware of how many hooks you are offering your readers. Offer several. Show the reader that you know what you're doing, that there's going to be a payoff in action or drama down the road, paint a fabulous landscape that they want to see more of.

Those are all perfectly valid hooks. Happy fishing!

Lessons from Viable Paradise

Less is more. Until, of course, the point where your reader does not have enough to go on.

I tend to be heavy on the choreography in my writing -- every look, every tilt of the head, everything my characters pick up, put down, every nervous twitch, I tend to write it all down. And I'll admit that no, I probably don't need it all.

At VP, I got feedback from a real editor -- sat there and watched her cross out a phrase here and a sentence there, condensing actions into more succinct images. I could hear the screws creaking as the narrative tightened up. She didn't cut it all, because it's not all superfluous. My science fiction tends to come out in an objective voice and I do need enough body language -- in tandem with the dialogue -- to give the reader a hint of what the characters are thinking.

But I don't need to bog the reader down with every little pinky gesture and twitch of the mouth. I need to figure out what the giveaway is, in someone's mental state. The averted eyes? Picking at their nails? That's what the reader needs to see. Use the words you save on choreography for interesting descriptions or world-building.

When is less too little? How much is too much? There aren't any hard and fast answers, of course, only opinions. I wish there were solid answers, sometimes. But in general, I suspect that writers can get by on a bit less than they think they can.

What do you think?

Post-VP

Viable Paradise is an overwhelming workshop for many reasons.

A writer's toolbox is complicated and intimidating. VP is a chance to learn about some of the subtler tools and practice with them. So you come home with something like this:

(whereas it all still fit in the box before VP) and you sit down at your writing desk and try to figure out what to do now.

Other attendees are already posting more lyrical (than I'm capable of) thoughts on what VP taught them -- I will just reiterate the power of being told You are not wasting your time by someone wearing the trappings of authority. My writing needs work. I know that and more importantly, I know that with some effort I can fix the problems. Good stories can be created by mere mortals like you and me. You don't have to be born a Mozart-sized genius.  

I'm excited to start playing with my tools, honestly.

I may be off schedule for a while, but it's not like anyone will notice, right? I'm still debating whether to try writing Part II of Piglet for NaNoWriMo... let's see what happens as I get these revisions to Course Corrections rolling and what happens at the ninja dojo chat on Thursday.

Paradise-bound

Looks heavenly to me...

I will be taking  a working vacation next week -- I am off to the Viable Paradise writing workshop to have my brain melted down and re-forged.

At least that's what the past attendees make it sound like. It also sounds something like going back to college just for Finals Week.

VP is an invitation-only workshop and the vindication of receiving that invitation has been echoing through me since July. 2011 has been a year of big changes, so far, bigger than anything since... urf, never mind. It's been far too long since my world's been shaken up.

So, no posts next week and I hope to be home on or about the 16th of October. See you then!