Have you figured out how to hook readers in your book’s first paragraph and keep them on the line until the ending? If not, that novel or piece of narrative nonfiction you’ve worked so hard on probably won’t come close to living up to those dreams of success you harbor for it.
Fortunately, the key to hooking readers is simple. You have to grab and hang onto their attention with the help of a handful of basics.
Let’s start with conflict. Don’t misunderstand. Your book most likely would open with a pivotal and revealing moment in the story since conflict can take a while to develop. But if you go this direction, you need to think about how you’re going to include compelling conflict in your story from the beginning.
Ironically, I’m so conflict-adverse in my personal life that I’ve turned conflict avoidance into an art form. When it comes to writing fiction or narrative nonfiction, however, conflict can hook readers and convince them to keep turning those pages. So, I have to seek it out.
In the Writer’s Digest article “Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Lack of Conflict,” Moriah Richard writes:
“Readers love conflict; it’s what makes a story appealing. Will the hero succeed in their venture, or won’t they? Will the romance continue to build, or will it peter out? Will the character succumb to their flaws or overcome them? To create a compelling story, you need to create natural tension with it.”
The type of conflict you choose will likely be determined by the kind of book you’re writing. A romance novel’s conflict will probably differ from the conflict in a thriller—or your memoir. Whatever the nature of the conflict, making life a little (or a lot) harder for your characters will make the story a lot more interesting for your readers.
The fact is that reading about someone for whom everything works out without a struggle just isn’t that exciting. So you need to throw in obstacles that your character is continually forced to circumvent—assuming that’s even possible. That element of doubt is what hooks readers and keeps them from swimming away, especially if the stakes are high.
Stay tuned for next week’s post for more insights into how to hook readers.
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