What hooks you? What DOESN'T?

[sunstruckdream]

Definitely. I hate cheesy titles. If anything is called "The Lost Legend of _______ (insert possessive place) ________ (insert mystical trinket of choice)," I'm NOT going to pick it up. Plain and simple. I'm busy! I hardly ever get to read for pleasure anymore! When I pick out a book, I want something that at least sounds like something I haven't read ten times.

 

[Jeriel]

Definitely. I hate cheesy titles. If anything is called "The Lost Legend of _______ (insert possessive place) ________ (insert mystical trinket of choice)," I'm NOT going to pick it up. Plain and simple. I'm busy! I hardly ever get to read for pleasure anymore! When I pick out a book, I want something that at least sounds like something I haven't read ten times.

Ugh, I HATE those! I know exactly what you mean.

 

[sunstruckdream]

 

[avatarblade2000]

Definitely. I hate cheesy titles. If anything is called "The Lost Legend of _______ (insert possessive place) ________ (insert mystical trinket of choice)," I'm NOT going to pick it up. Plain and simple. I'm busy! I hardly ever get to read for pleasure anymore! When I pick out a book, I want something that at least sounds like something I haven't read ten times.

You basically described all seven of the Harry Potter books. Ah well. J.K. keeps on Rowling.

 

[Doubtless]

The perfect prologue/starting, to me, is a metaphor. In screenwriting, we call it a set-up. Take *SPOILERS* The Prestige (the movie, I don't read much) as an example. In the first minute or so, they tell you everything that is going to happen in the film, but you don't know you're being told. You think you're just filled in on the logistics of a magic trick. The narrator, Cutter, is showing a little girl a magic trick. He takes a bird in a cage, (voice-over of him saying, (paraphrase) "To every magic trick, there are three parts. The first part, is called the Pledge.") He shows the little girl the bird, and sets it on a table. ("You show the audience something familiar.") He places a handkerchief over the cage, and hits it with his hand, it dissapears under the handkerchief. ("The second part is called the turn: you make something dissappear.") ("But they won't clap yet, because you have to bring it back. That's why the third part is called, the Prestige"). Cutter shows the girl "the" bird.

Later on, you learn that the trick showed is done by smashing the cage, and the bird within it (killing it), and then pulling a new one out. This seems like a simple trick, but you later learn that the entire movie is about two magicians who are the subjects of their magic (they transport themselves), and by the end you see that they have "become" the two birds. And yet it was all a game of who goes in, and who comes out alive. If you haven't seen the movie, then you've wasted your time reading this, and I laugh at you.

Anyways, give me a metaphor, something that I see at the start, is a basic fact that I can accept, then at the end, I realize that I've seen the depths of the book/movie in the first pages/minutes. In essence, set-up/pay-off.

 

[Lessien]

One thing that hooks me is sympathy. Give me a character in a bad situation, and nine times out of ten I'll sympathize with that character and want to keep reading. The problem with that, however, is that you have to keep the story interesting enough to hold my interest.

That's the way it was with Jane Eyre. Call me unsophistocated or emo or whatever you want to call it, but I'm a sucker for openings showing mistreated orphans. I want to see how that orphan deals with his or her situation, exactly what that situation is, and how he or she gets out of it. The solution to the orphan's problems should be interesting and plausible (within the world of the story), and the problems the orphan encounters after escaping the bad home situation should be enough to keep me interested.

That's why I put Jane Eyre down after the first ten chapters and only picked it up when forced to by my English teacher. Jane gets out of her bad home situation by being sent to a crappy boarding school run by a hypocrite where her best friend dies the first year she's there. After that, the story just goes downhill and turns into a soap opera.

So basically, if you're going for the sympathy angle, make sure the rest of the story is just as interesting as your opening.

 

[GenesisGirl]

That's exactly right! The other thing is that the character can't be too perfect. I mean, it's annoying if the main character's always mean and bossy but if she's a "perfect" person who's good at everything and everyone likes, you don't want to read anymore.

But a well-balanced character who's got faults and good points really does make you want to read on!!

 

[avatarblade2000]

If you haven't seen the movie, then you've wasted your time reading this, and I laugh at you.

Thank Jah I had. MAN, I love that movie. Anything by Christopher Nolan is good, IMO. May go pop BATMAN BEGINS in the DVD player and dream of THE DARK KNIGHT...Summer 2008, fellow nerds!

I, too, like metaphorical starts, themes, and finishes. I also really like to see a full-circle quality that, sad to say, I rarely see in books anymore. I like to see some sort of resolution to all the themes and motifs that have been cultivating, and I particularly hate it when there doesn't seem to be one at the end, or there's a particularly HUGE loose end. Not even stand-alone books, which are supposed to have full-circle qualities(arguably) by default seem to have them anymore. Meh, anywho...

...and I'm a sucker for snappy dialogue. I guess it's because I'm no good at writing it myself. If the narrator of a piece has some sense of humor about him/her, too, and some sort of satirical taste, I usually get very comfortable with what I'm reading. Example: the first HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. Heretical as it can be sometimes, I love that thick thick sarcasm.

 

[sunstruckdream]

That's exactly right! The other thing is that the character can't be too perfect. I mean, it's annoying if the main character's always mean and bossy but if she's a "perfect" person who's good at everything and everyone likes, you don't want to read anymore.

But a well-balanced character who's got faults and good points really does make you want to read on!!

Oyy...don't you hate those flawless characters? You know, the kind-hearted popular girl who doesn't need any makeup, is a natural athlete, a great actress and singer, and at the top of her class without trying? Her worst fault is her headstrong nature. Gaahh...I can't stand that. C'mon, people...NO ONE'S LIKE THAT!

...

*Whew*

Haha, sorry guys...

 

[Lessien]

Oyy...don't you hate those flawless characters? You know, the kind-hearted popular girl who doesn't need any makeup, is a natural athlete, a great actress and singer, and at the top of her class without trying? Her worst fault is her headstrong nature. Gaahh...I can't stand that. C'mon, people...NO ONE'S LIKE THAT!

...

*Whew*

Haha, sorry guys...

Or the poor-but-intellegent farmboy with a heart of gold, a kind and generous nature, movie star good looks, incredible hunting skills and the ability to use magic better and more creatively than anyone alive, including elves who can all use magic and are trained in using it almost right from the cradle? (Yes, Mr. Paolini, I am talking to YOU. Did that make you go emo a little bit? Good. Now, after you're done crying in the dark, go take a writing course and start writing something else.)

Sorry.

 

[sunstruckdream]

Or the poor-but-intellegent farmboy with a heart of gold, a kind and generous nature, movie star good looks, incredible hunting skills and the ability to use magic better and more creatively than anyone alive, including elves who can all use magic and are trained in using it almost right from the cradle? (Yes, Mr. Paolini, I am talking to YOU. Did that make you go emo a little bit? Good. Now, after you're done crying in the dark, go take a writing course and start writing something else.)

... ...Don't encourage him...

Sorry.

No need. We've all thought it.

 

[spring_frost]

If a book opens with a great description of a place or interesting interaction of characters, then I'll most likely finish the book.

What turns me off immediatly are 'I' books. I can't stand them! And the books by the Bronte sisters. I don't know how they became classics.

 

[Lessien]

And the books by the Bronte sisters. I don't know how they became classics.

Oh my gosh YES! I don't know why everyone says Jane Eyre is brilliant because my dog is smarter than that book! And my dog thinks pregnant ladies are the epitome of evil! We tell him that there's kitties outside and he'll start barking!

Jane Eyre is stupid.

 

[cassie121]

well I really like a mysterious hook but I detest it when it's done poorly. I also detest authors who try to hook you with some hudge event that really has not deep meaning.

 

[Doubtless]

Thank Jah I had. MAN, I love that movie. Anything by Christopher Nolan is good, IMO. May go pop BATMAN BEGINS in the DVD player and dream of THE DARK KNIGHT...Summer 2008, fellow nerds!

I, too, like metaphorical starts, themes, and finishes. I also really like to see a full-circle quality that, sad to say, I rarely see in books anymore. I like to see some sort of resolution to all the themes and motifs that have been cultivating, and I particularly hate it when there doesn't seem to be one at the end, or there's a particularly HUGE loose end. Not even stand-alone books, which are supposed to have full-circle qualities(arguably) by default seem to have them anymore. Meh, anywho...

...and I'm a sucker for snappy dialogue. I guess it's because I'm no good at writing it myself. If the narrator of a piece has some sense of humor about him/her, too, and some sort of satirical taste, I usually get very comfortable with what I'm reading. Example: the first HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. Heretical as it can be sometimes, I love that thick thick sarcasm.

Nolan did Batman?

I agree fully, things that you set up, you need to pay off. *breaks into Lion-King opening singing-lady's voice...thing* "It's the circle of life..." ...*clears throat* sorry. But yes, if you've ever watched POTC2, with the Terry Rossio (the man's a screenwriting genius, or at least, an unknowing genius) and Ted Elliot commentary, you'll see how EVERYTHING links. For instance, one of the first times you see Jack in P1, he's in chains, and uses Eliz(/s?)abeth to escape. In the end of P2, Eliz(/s?)abeth chains him to his own ship. The thing I always wondered though is...what the heck was the chain there for, aside from the fact that it was called for in the script? Anyways, yes, if you want to see set-up/pay-off done right, watch a POTC movie with screenwriter commentary.

Then again, though, I've heard (and found on my own) that some people write scripts that they think are good, then show them to someone else, and the person tells them all these artistic things about it that are great, and the writer goes, " ...oh, yeah, I meant to do that." Ironically, when I turned in my script to the guy I'm networking with, all the things he said were wrong with the script were the things that I thought were great (but unknown until then) screenwriting. I'm weird like that, though.

Lessien, ...put the knife down, and step away from Paolini.

 

[Lessien]

Nolan did Batman?

He did indeed

Lessien, ...put the knife down, and step away from Paolini.

*Holds knife higher* AND WHY THE HECK NOT?!

*eye twitches* I'M NOT UNSTABLE!!!! YOU'RE UNSTABLE!!!!!

 

[Jeriel]

Oh my gosh YES! I don't know why everyone says Jane Eyre is brilliant because my dog is smarter than that book! And my dog thinks pregnant ladies are the epitome of evil! We tell him that there's kitties outside and he'll start barking!

Jane Eyre is stupid.

Heeyyy! I love Jane Eyre! (I'm a sucker for English lit though). hehe. I forgive you

 

[spring_frost]

Oh my gosh YES! I don't know why everyone says Jane Eyre is brilliant because my dog is smarter than that book! And my dog thinks pregnant ladies are the epitome of evil! We tell him that there's kitties outside and he'll start barking!

Jane Eyre is stupid.

Jane Eyre is actually quite good compared to Wuthering Heights.

 

[Jeriel]

He did indeed



*Holds knife higher* AND WHY THE HECK NOT?!

*eye twitches* I'M NOT UNSTABLE!!!! YOU'RE UNSTABLE!!!!!

lol I've had people tell me Eragon's great. I'm going to read it one of these days just to know for SURE I detest it; the movie did everything but impress me (it's a miracle I didn't puke in the theater). I never knew the true meaning of "Mary Sue" until I met Eragon...*gag*

 

[Peace Eternal]

Oh my gosh YES! I don't know why everyone says Jane Eyre is brilliant because my dog is smarter than that book! And my dog thinks pregnant ladies are the epitome of evil! We tell him that there's kitties outside and he'll start barking!

Jane Eyre is stupid.

Happy very late Birthday Lessien

How can you honestly say that? It's basic plot might run somewhat like a soap opera, but it is a genius of suspense. Or at least when I read it when I was 14. I had to put the book down because it was too suspenseful for me at times.

It's been ages since I've picked up a book that I haven't already read before, so I don't really know what hooks me. I suppose if something interesting happens in the first few pages, or the author dangles a carrot just out of reach.

What turns me off to a book is the constant use of 'then' 'and' 'they' 'and then' 'but' and other words that get in the way of things. Or if I feel like I've read the story except the main characters name was Frodo or Luke instead of John or Whatshisname. Also, if the author won't shut - up about how something looks or tries to explain something only to make it worse.