If not in the prologue/intro, where would a hook be?
For many stories I have seen, written or otherwise, a fight or some intimate moment is used to hook the reader. It is done A LOT, if not every time. Does a hook have to be in the beginning? Are hooks even needed?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/10851. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Books of the last, say, 75 years are set in what's called in medias res, in the middle of things. The story starts where the plot starts, more or less.
But back in, for example, Victorian novels, it was much more common to give the entire life story of the protagonist. The really exciting part of Jane Eyre is when she goes to be a governess for Mr. Rochester and all the events which happen as part of that, but the book starts when Jane is a child.
So technically speaking, no, you don't need a "hook" per se, and you don't need to put it in the beginning. But if you don't, your book will feel old-fashioned. That may be a feature rather than a bug, if you're doing it deliberately.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads