The dictionary gives a great definition of a “hook” as it relates to writing. It is this:

“Something intended to attract and ensnare.”

Types of Hooks

When you are querying an agent, you need a hook in your query that will make them request a partial/full submission.

You will need a hook on your jacket cover to entice the reader to purchase your book.

Within the book itself, the hook serves to seize the reader’s interest and pull them into the book.

Your hook(s) can be at the beginning of a chapter or the end of it. Personally, I find that the best hooks are in the opening pages, more specifically, the opening lines.

An Opening Line

My favorite “hook” still stands out in my mind to this day is this opening sentence from Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin:

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off the bridge.

Immediately, I wanted to know more. Why? What happened? Was someone else involved? In other words, I was hooked. And I sat down with that book and proceeded to get sucked in.
Here are few other examples:
From P.D. James’s The Private Patient:

On November 21st, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death.

From Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking:

Life changes fast.

From Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

From Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Angel’s Game:

A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story.

From Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea:

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

From Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway:

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

The Page Turner

In the mind of the reader, a good hook can produce wonder or confusion or contradiction or interest or all of the above. A good hook will make the reader wonder, question and care. Most of all, it will keep the reader turning the page.

You could:

1. Send Flowers – Spring is in the air and what better way to attract the attention of a potential editor than sending her a bunch of tulips. Do not worry about potential allergies; it is the thought that counts.

2. Bring Her Lunch – Editors are busy people and often do not get the chance to stop for a healthy lunch. Make her something with your two little hands and she will appreciate you forever.

3. Walk Her Dog – Fido really does not get much exercise with her mom working all day. Take Fido out for some much needed exercise. She will thank you for saving the legs of her dining room table from another day of chewing.

4. Baby-Sit – Just like every other parent, editors need a break from the kids too. Pop by her house and offer to babysit the kids while she goes out for some “me” time.

5. Take Her Car For a Tune Up – Make sure the car purrs like a kitten. When you return it make sure you leave an extra manuscript on the passenger seat, in the glove box and in the gym bag in the trunk.

6. Pick Up the Kids – Save her some rushing around by picking up her kids from school. You can drop them off at home or at work. This will mean extra precious moments she will have to review your manuscript.

7. Shovel Her Driveway – This backbreaking work should not be attempted by an editor whose day to day life involves lifting manuscripts and using red pens. If you take the kids home you can enlist their help.

8. Seven Course Meal – Treat the proposed editor to an extraordinary meal served with lots of wine over candlelight. Be sure to have contracts on hand.

9. Brush Her Hair – 100 times every night before you tuck her in. Every editor wants to look good. And even though this is thought to be an old wives tale, it feels good to have your hair brushed until it glistens. Throw in a scalp massage if she has not put up too much of a fuss.

10. Breakfast in Bed – Surprise your intended editor with breakfast in bed. To make sure you beat her to the kitchen spend the night on the back porch so you can be up early and save travel time. Hand squeeze some orange juice, fry some egg whites (she’s probably watching her figure) and lightly brown some toast.

It is the simple things that really make an impression. Any combination of the above ten suggestions is sure to make a positive impression on the next editor (or literary agent) you want to back you.

Disclaimer: These are tongue-in-cheek suggestions and probably not a good idea to try (unless you want to send me some tulips. I like tulips). Writer is not responsible for anyone who attempts harassing potential editors, agents or anyone else in this way.

Love is in the air. On February 14th lovers all over the world will spend hours wooing their loved ones. Celebrate the love of Valentine’s Day with a week of journaling prompts.

Day One: Journal about your first Valentine’s Day card.

Day Two: Write a love letter to a sweetheart, real or imagined.

Day Three: How does chocolate make you feel?

Day Four: What would you like to receive for Valentine’s Day?

Day Five: Journal the perfect Valentine’s Day.

Day Six: John and Meg celebrate Valentine’s Day the same way every year…

Day Seven: How did your parent’s celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Responses are not meant to be one sentence answers, elaborate on your answers. Meditate, reflect and enjoy.

You can find more writing prompts at The Write Prompts blog.

Baby it’s cold outside… You ever notice how the older we get, the more the cold weather gets to us? Here are some prompts to heat up your journaling hand.

Day One: Journal about your favorite winter activity as a child.

Day Two: Did you have a favorite snowsuit, scarf or other piece of winter wear while you were growing up? How about now?

Day Three: You are sitting in front of a warm fire with…

Day Four: Describe the time you were so cold your fingers turned blue.

Day Five: What is it like breathing on a cold day?

Day Six: You have won a trip to a warm place. Where are you going?

Day Seven: What is your favorite comfort food on a cold day?

Responses are not meant to be one sentence answers, elaborate on your answers. Meditate, reflect and enjoy. You can find more writing prompts at The Write Prompts blog.

Aside from prizes, entering writing contests are good for three main reasons:

Deadlines

All contests have deadlines. It will teach you to polish your work in a specified amount of time. Think of it as a training ground for when you are published and have to meet your publisher’s deadlines.

Feedback

Sometimes judges will offer feedback. Feedback at any stage from any expert (fellow writer, agent, editor or publisher) is invaluable and makes it worth the nominal entry fee.

The Benefits

There is a benefit to not winning or placing in contests. If your work manages to make the short-list or it becomes a semi-finalist — you can now use this piece of info in your query. Your query is all about selling yourself and your work, so this accomplishment is one you want to promote.

Tips to Enter

Before you enter any contests, I would advise the following:

• Read the rules.
• Highlight the deadline.
• Look at the fee.
• Note the word count.
• What rights are they asking for?
• If you are able, find out what the past winning entries were, so you can get an idea of what a winning work looks like. Here in Ireland, they have the big Listowel Writers Week and they print an annual of the winners and its available in my library every year, including past years. Magazines will usually publish winning entries in a follow-up issue.
• Find out who the judges are and investigate their background. If they are a writer, what kind of books do they write, same with a publisher or an editor.

Contest Recommendations

Finally, here are some contests worth entering:

• The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest 2012 (note deadline is Feb 5th)
• The Listowel Writers Week Competition 2012
• Mslexia 2012 Women’s Short Story Competition
• The Writers Digest Annual Writing Competition
• Good Housekeeping Novel Competition (UK)

Do not be put off by foreign competitions. In this day of the internet, most welcome submissions from abroad.

Plan your contest strategy like you would your writing. Set a goal for the number of contests you will enter each year (or month). Research each contest before you enter. Keep track of the ones you enter, what you submitted, notification dates and the outcomes.

Good luck!

Two things I discovered while working on my book are I use “and” a lot and have been known to start many sentences with it. The other thing I found out was I had a new crutch word.

Originally, my book was set in the United States but I changed it to Ireland. It meant that I had to change “Mom” to “Mum”. So I used Microsoft Word’s handy little tool to scour through the manuscript and change Mom to Mum. The only problem was that it did not stop there. It also changed “momentarily” to “mumentarily” and “in a moment” to “in a mument”. Very efficient, indeed, for I realized that I had used those two words quite a lot, thus identifying new crutch words for me to keep an eye out for.

Here are some common crutch words writers share:

Here are some tips on avoiding crutch words and finding them:

• Be aware of what your own personal crutch words are. Read over a few pages of a recent work-in-progress and look for repetitive words.
• Ask someone to read your work with the specific task of looking for crutch words you may have missed. Recently, I read a work from someone in my group and she had a crutch word that she used a lot to the point that it distracted from her fabulous work.
• On your hard copy, highlight your crutch words in yellow, so you can physically see them.
• Write your crutch words down and pick up a Thesaurus, write a list of alternatives — sometimes you can just drop the word.
• It is worth repeating, read your work aloud — you pick up errors  including your crutch words.
• New crutch words can pop up with each new piece you write. Read through each new piece with the single objective of identifying any new crutch words.

You cannot be vigilant of your own idiosyncrasies if you are not aware of them.

1. Make Extra Meals — When shopping, buy extra chicken and ground beef and double your recipes. Put the extra prepared meals in freezer safe containers for the following week. This can save you a supper time preparation of 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the meal. This is lots of time to churn out 2 to 8 pages.

2. Get Kids to Help – When it is time to get ready for bed they can police one another to wash up, brush teeth and change into jammies. You can still have your together time by reading bedtime stories. This saver could be 1 to 2 pages.

3. Trade Off With Spouse — If he will take care of the kids for two hours when you are in the writing mood, then you will do him an extra special favor for two hours at a later date.

4. Hire a Neighborhood Babysitter — To watch the kids in the other room for two hours (or better yet, take them to the park). Explain to the kids you will be working and you do not want to be disturbed. They are to act like you are not home. The same is true for the sitter. This may take some practice.

5. Shorten Idle Chitchat — One of the biggest time wasters is idle chitchat. We stay longer at appointments, meetings etc. chatting about nonsense. There is being polite and then there is being an open book to everyone you meet. Get home already and get writing.

6. Do Not Answer the Phone — Or read email until writing is done. A lot of time is lost answering unexpected phone calls, reading email and deleting spam. These are not high priorities and should be left for after writing time. If you do not have an answering machine, get one. It is worth the investment.

7. And the most obvious… Stay Up Later or Get Up Earlier — Once a week plan to stay up later or get up earlier. This quiet time is excellent for getting the juices flowing. Avoid the TV and radio syndrome.

Now get writing!

Happy New Year!

You cannot get away from it — the celebrations are notorious whether you want to ring in the new year or not. A new year is a good time to reflect on the previous year’s events and contemplate the year ahead.

Here are some prompts to jumpstart your journaling New Year:

Day One: What was the best thing that happened to you this past year?

Day Two: What was the worst thing to happen to you this past year?

Day Three: Write about something new you learnt this past year.

Day Four: Over the year you accomplished many things but what was the most important to you?

Day Five: If you had a magic wand, what day would you want to relive just for the sheer joy of it?

Day Six: List and describe three things you would like to accomplish this year.

Day Seven: Name 12 things (one for each month) you would like to try this year.

Responses are not meant to be one sentence answers, elaborate on your answers. Meditate, reflect and enjoy. You can find more writing prompts at The Write Prompts blog.

But setting is so much more than that. Aside from place, it also involves time and can include historic circumstances of the time. For instance if you think of Europe (place) and World War II and the Resistance (time & circumstances), all sorts of associative images immediately come to mind.

Setting can be my own personal blindside. I am so wrapped up in trying to create voice, character, dialogue and plot and tie it all together, that inevitably my setting tends to fall right off the page.

To create a setting, I do two things:

Engage the Senses

First, I try to engage my five senses. And I go about this in a roundabout way. I had to train myself to use all my senses rather than just the visual. To train the mind, go back in time and recall an earlier memory and try to remember as much as possible as it relates to sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. For example, I like to think about a vacation I took in Cape May, NJ back in the summer of 1995.

Cape May is located at the southern tip of NJ. These are some of the wonderful things I remember that I can recreate in my mind’s eye as if I were there today: stately tri-colour Victorian homes that hint of a bygone era. White beaches. Navy water. The shiny backs of the dolphins glistening in the sun. The smell of coconut oil. The sound of a tinny radio from another blanket. The snippets of other people’s conversations competing with the sound of the ocean lapping against the shore. The cold taste of a Cherry Coke slushie with the hot July sun beating down on my back.

Show Not Tell

The second thing to do is show and not tell. By that I mean that once you have your setting down, the trick is to incorporate it into your story without making it sound like a travelogue. That is not to say that there will not be times when you describe the setting. But keep it to a minimum: one to two sentences rather than one to two paragraphs. You can also use your character to show the setting.

For instance, if we meet an old woman with a weather beaten, browned face we can assume a few things about the setting which are not told: the woman has spent most of her life outside and the climate is reasonably sunny most of the time. Or we know it is cold when our character decides she will need her hat and scarf. A character is distracted by something: whether it be the hum of a refrigerator while she does a crossword or a deer leaping out from the woods while she’s driving a bending road.
Weave your setting into your story and you will not only create atmosphere, you will transport your reader as well.

If you have to, do what I do: post a note that reads SETTING onto your computer and comb through your book diligently, making sure it is present.

But, before you send it off, you may want to check it twice for:

• Typos – Have you used the spellchecker? And after you have used that, go through it yourself to pick up the typos the spellchecker has missed.
• Hooks – Does each chapter begin or end (possible both) with a hook? You want to keep the reader turning the page. Do not begin or end a chapter with your main character (MC) either getting out of bed or going to bed. ZZzzz.
• Crutch Words – Have you gone through the manuscript and checked for overuse of your own crutch words (“that” and “just”) and adverbs? (hi-light all your adverbs and eliminate 75% of them)
• Tense – Check your verb tense. (This is my Achilles Heel). If you are writing in past tense, you should not switch midstream to present tense, except in dialogue. This is an easy mistake to make as you are thinking the prose in your head and trying to translate it onto the page and sometimes the bridge of verb tense between the two collapses.
• Consistency – Is there consistency of plot? Character? Voice? If your MC has blue eyes on page 10, you do not want to mistakenly give her green eyes on page 236. If he is timid and shy in the beginning, you cannot have him do something out of character like go ballistic unless a) there is a good reason or b) he is had a brain injury.
• Pacing – Is the plot evenly paced? Are the revelations spread evenly throughout the book? Is there a steady build up to the end?
• Description – Eliminate one page descriptions. Any description, whether it be of the character, the weather, inner thoughts, or the setting that goes on for too long will result in serious eye glazing in the reader. I myself have a low threshold for this and will usually skip it after the second paragraph.
• Read Aloud – Read the whole manuscript out loud. It works. Really. The awkwardness will stand out as well as any missed words. You will also get a clear sense as to whether the voice is working or not.
• Line by Line – Print out the whole book and break it down into chapters. With each chapter, do a line by line edit, looking for misspellings, inconsistencies and repetitions. You only need to say everything once, so ask yourself: “Have I just said that?” Mark up your chapter with notes and corrections, because there will be some.
• Copies – Back up your work. I cannot tell you how important this is. Do not depend on your computer to save what you have toiled on. Print up a hard copy and save it on an external hard drive or a USB storage clip which are incredibly affordable and do not take up much space.

After you have done all of this, ask someone to read it for you. Do not ask a family member or friend, they love you too much and usually do not want to hurt your feelings and therefore will not point out any flaws. I mean, if you are looking to have your back patted, by all means, go for it. But if you are looking to make it the best it can be, have another writer or a writer’s group take a look at it. You are not committed to take on their suggestions but sometimes a neutral pair of eyes can do wonders.

Most of all, congratulations on reaching “the end”.