How to Write a Hook For Your Story

I heard a suggestion from someone that if you don't like your first chapter, write the rest of the book and go back at the end. Since the more you write the better you get, and the more you write the story the better you understand the characters and events. The first chapter in my WIP is a wimpy little place holder, and now that I'm about 2/3 through my WIP I do feel like I have more insight into how to make it work better. But to top it all off, now I can pair what I already have, and my new ideas, with the stellar advice from this video. I'm actually not dreading it at all, which is exactly the feeling I like to have before rewriting a difficult chapter. :)

I know this might sound dumb but I am 10 years old and I love to write story’s. I want to be an author, and this video helped me a lot! I have like 20 pieces of papers with beginning pages that totally flopped. But this made my characters feel more genuine. This is such a helpful video and I’d like to see more 😄 Edit: Thank you guys for your support! Its been a while and I’m still writing the introduction to my book. With me taking my time I feel like I get better results with my work. Also, instead of using this, I’ve kinda come up with my own method for hooks that’s more suit to me. Anyways, have a good day❤️

What does every disney movie have in common to make you care about the character from the beginning? Me: dead parents?

Abby: "There's a secret ingredient to Disney movies, come on what is it?" Me: "MONEY!!!"

I honestly thought an ad started playing at 1:49 because of how it sounded... Geez that's how you know this is professional level quality.

I am 16 years old and I have 15 book ideas, all different plots. I am really glad that I found this channel, because I never know where to start. I'm like a newborn baby when it come to the writing world.

"Rules? I've always thought of them more like guidelines anyway"

'Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.' Doesn't get any better than that. There are not many books whose first sentence is engraved in my mind.

I've discovered that the name of Chapter One can also make me want to read it more. Rick Riordan has mastered this, especially in Book One of Percy Jackson which is entitled: "I vaporized my pre-algebra teacher" This single sentence made me laugh so hard.

The Three-Act Structure This formula was used by ancient Greeks, and it’s one of Hollywood’s favorite ways to tell a story. It’s about as simple as you can get. Act I: The Set-Up Introduce your main characters and establish the setting. Brandon Sanderson, a popular fantasy writer, calls this the “inciting incident”— a problem that yanks the protagonist out of his comfort zone and establishes the direction of the story. Act II: The Confrontation Create a problem that appears small on the surface but becomes more complex. The more your protagonist tries to get what he wants, the more impossible it seems to solve the problem. Act III: The Resolution A good ending has: High stakes: your reader must feel that one more mistake will result in disaster for the protagonist. Challenges and growth: By the end, the protagonist needs to have grown as a person by overcoming myriad obstacles. A solution: All the trials and lessons your character has endured help him solve the problem. Suzanne Collins’s bestselling young adult trilogy, The Hunger Games, uses the three-act structure.

I am in writer heaven right now - I have been crossing my fingers for a series like this :D Thnx! You're a real inspiration to me :)

The best advice I have heard about the blending plot and character came from Brandon Sanderson. He says you are a master when you can advance plot, character, and setting (worldbuilding) all in a single sentence. He gave credit to Ursula K. Le Guin for being able to do this marvelously.

I like to think of the first chapter as a short story with an open ending.

My characters desire: To let someone in and prove that just because her father left her, doesn't mean everyone will. Her fear: That they'll leave her, too, and prove her right.

I just LOVE your passion for writing and psychology, and I very much relate! I'm 15 and I just found your channel (and literally watched every single one of the 97 videos you have), and I like how all your videos are related to each other, and the fact that you're just teaching the same writing method starting simple, going into more details with every video! Your videos just gave me an understanding of literature and why I love the books that I love and hate the ones that I hate. You're such an INSPIRATION, Abbie and please never stop what you're doing. You deserve to be heard by all the writers out there, because everyone should learn from you!

Your video just made me realize something about an old story of mine. I wrote it back in middle school and never really lost interest in it. I like the characters and the world. But the more I learned about writing, the more distant I grew. I tried to edit it, re-write it, even re-plan it, afraid of cliche and stuff and ended with a monster of a story that I felt was even worse then what I wrote way back. I never really got why. Because my craft definitly was getting better, my experiences had grown - I KNEW how to write technically at least. But with watching your video I realized one point: In trying to avoid cliche, I decided not to have my protagonist watch his father be murdered. But that what defined him. My middle grade story actually had a great hook with my protag awakening from a nightmare and remembering his father's dead. That he died to rescue him and his brother. That conflict - could he as a five-year old at that time, have prevented his father's dead if he behaved correctly - is what drives him from the very start of the story. It's what makes him accept the king's proposal to become an army officer and what leads him to take revenge on the man behind his father's murder. I kept the plot points in every iteration of the story. But I lost my protag's internal conflict COMPLETLY. Thanks for making me realize it - probably rescuing that old piece of my soul ^^

Finding Nemo does the same with backstory. From that, we understand why Marlin was overly protective of Nemo. He goes overboard with it without being out of character.

My story Desire: that he wants to live a perfectly normal life without anyone dying, anything going wrong, without anything being his fault Wants everything he has to stay with him. His fear: that his life is destined for him to always have nothing. And that he can’t change it.

I've been trying to develop healthier sleep habits and yet I still stayed up way too late last night reading the first third of your book! How dare you! 😂

Hook in my short story: MC's desire: to be a part of someone's life, to have a meaning. MC's fear: that she is unimportant to the world, that no one actually cares whether or not she exists.