Free Writing Advice
Recently a coworker and fledgling writer emailed me an introductory paragraph from the memoir she’s been working on. She wanted to know if it had enough of a hook to snag an editor or agent. Unfortunately, it didn’t. In fact, I could tell that she wasn’t exactly clear on what a hook was. So I sent her some advice and examples. She thanked me, promising that all the help I’ve given her so far would one day pay off. For her, she meant. Not for me.
I thought, “Why help this woman for free, when I could help her AND a bunch of strangers at the same time, through the magic of the Internets?” Why, indeed? So I saved the advice I’d sent her, and now, here it is, for you.
How to Write a Hook
by Gwendolyn ZepedaA “hook” is either the book’s main conflict, or else, in the case of a memoir, a reason that this person’s life is different from the average reader’s. Here are examples:
I.
Jody had the perfect life: loving parents, a beautiful home, all the popularity a high school senior could ask for. Or so it seemed. Why was it that, one Saint Patrick’s day, everything spiraled out of control, ripping the veneer off her perfect life and revealing it for the sick, Leprechaun-infested hell it really was? Find out in Top of the Mourning to You.II.
What does it take to get ahead in insurance? Former model Laura Chalmers thought she knew… until she showed up for a job interview with Houston’s leading brokerage, and its CEO asked her to take off her dress! How did modeling and her rocky divorce set the stage for Laura to take the high-stakes insurance world by storm… and win love along the way? Find out in her inspiring true story, Renewals of Coverage, Renewals of Hope.III.
How could a mother of sextuplets live without the left half of her face? In Six Times the Love, Erica Forrester explains how she battled leprosy, heartbreak, and multiple lawsuits to win civil rights for herself and other disabled mothers of multiples. This inspiring true story is aimed at all Midwestern Mormons, and anyone else who loves to read about underdogs having the last laugh.Don’t just write a paragraph about your life. Your hook should tell the publisher/agent why people would want to read about your life. It should sound like the back of a paperback novel – the part that people read when they’re trying to decide whether they’d be interested in it or not.
Look for those three titles soon, by the way. I’m writing them as we speak, and Lifetime will undoubtedly option the film rights to at least one. See, after I sent my coworker that email, I realized that I had some pure fiction and non-fiction gold on my hands. And that’s why I’m a writer, and that’s why people pay me big bucks for my writing advice.
Well, I mean, they don’t… But, still. You know what I’m saying. And now, thanks to me, you also know how to write a hook. You’re welcome.
