H = Hook

A to Z Blog Challenge: Day Eight

 

 

 

HOOK

  

There are several different meanings to the word "hook" but the one that refers to a great opening in a book is all too familiar to both writers and readers.

At conferences editors often present examples of great hooks. When I do school visits I show examples from my books of several different kinds of hooks with hopes that students will remember them and use similar ones in their writing. I explain that I don't typically start writing my story with a great opening hook. I often save this for last, like the icing on the cake or the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae. I found that by getting too caught up with my opening line I wasn't able to get the rest of my story written. My first paragraph is usually my warm up anyway and winds up getting deleted. Often times I discover a great possibility for a hook a few lines into my story. So don't worry if you don't have a great hook right off the fish . . . I mean bat . . . coming back to it later might open a whole new can of worms and you'll be reeling in a real whopper of a hook!

 

 

 

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Linda Bozzo has published more than 50 nonfiction books for the school and library market. For more information about Linda and her books, you can visit her website.

Copyright 2015 Linda Bozzo