The Final Hook

 "Keeping the Reader Reading," (Part 13 of 13).

Hooks aren't just for the beginning. Smart writers always have a hook at the end to make the reader want to buy the writer's next story.

The final hook is the fulfilled promise of the story. If the story is a romance, the story should end with the promised "happily ever after." In a mystery the crime is solved or justice is meted out, and in a fantasy the quest is achieved or the monster defeated. Science fiction as a genre doesn't have such an obvious promise, but the individual story has a goal which must be reached.

Much less effective is an obvious set up hook for the next book’s plot or a revival of the bad guy or monster.  That mainly just annoys the reader as badly as “The End?” at the end of a horror movie.  

A better choice for the final hook is a "warm fuzzy" scene that offers the reader a happy emotional feeling for the main character or characters. Warm fuzzies are the scene of domestic bliss with the hero and heroine holding their baby, or the traveler returning home to family, or the adventure companions sharing a laugh and a beer.  Warm fuzzies are very common at the end of TV episodes, too.  

If a warm fuzzy doesn't fit the tone of the story, an extremely powerful and emotional final scene is the most effective hook possible. The reader will read the end, sit quietly for a short time, then mutter to himself, "Damn that was good," and he'll wait eagerly for the writer's next story.

THE END

The Character Hook

 "Keeping the Reader Reading,"  (Part 3 of 13.)

The first plot hook and the visual and sensual hooks aren't enough to create a story. We need one or more characters who will let us see what they see and experience the events as they do. These characters must have an important goal and be characters the reader can like or empathize with.

In the scenes I've already posted, we have Faith Cody, a school teacher, who becomes involved in the rescue of the two kidnapping children she'd been hired to tend for the summer. She will be the main character the reader will follow through this plot.

She's a nice lady and someone a reader can root for, and her goal--the rescue of two small children-- is a very worthy one. She will be our viewpoint character.

The character hook tends to take longer to introduce, but starting with jeopardy as I did with Faith grabs the reader so she will keep reading to learn more about Faith and her plot goal.  

Sensual Detail as a Hook

"Keeping the Reader Reading,"  (Part 2 of 13).

The plot hook isn't the only thing that keeps the reader reading. 

Here's two versions of THE GAME WE PLAY’s opening.  

Faith Cody lay in bed. She tossed and turned then moaned at a horrible nightmare. She heard the sound of her moan and woke up. This wasn't her room. Where was she? Why was she here? Why was the room so fuzzy?

A man leaned over her. He was blurred, too. Somehow, she knew he was going to rape her. As his hand reached her face, she screamed.

In comparison:

Light and shadow undulated around her in a drugged blur, but she could distinguish enough corners and shapes to know she lay in a strange bedroom. Rainy afternoon gray light billowed through thin, white curtains, and she could smell the sea and the freshly laundered sheets of her bed. The ceiling above her was spattered with large shadows of raindrops she couldn't see on the windows.

A man, a blur of flesh tones and angles, leaned over her. His hand became solid shape as it reached her face. Her nameless dread became terror, and she cringed away, expecting rape.

The second gives visual details -- corners, shapes, white curtains, the shadows of raindrops. It also gives details from the other senses -- the smell of the ocean and the sheets, and the feel of the wind from the open window. The reader should be in that room at this point because she can visualize it.

Getting the reader’s head into your book as fast as possible is as much a hook as the plot questions you’ve asked.  

Link to Part 1: 

http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-first-hook.html