How to Write a BANGER Opening Hook For Your Story

we're sisters best friends and authors on a mission to help you stoke your creative fire and live the life of your dreams we believe that purpose fuels passion and that creativity is your secret weapon for Mass construction there's never been a better time to bless the world with your dream realized you're listening to the Kate and Abby show what's up guys welcome back to another episode of the Kate and Abby show we are back after a short break during the month of June to do the virtual writing Retreat that I hosted on my channel so Kate and I are super excited to be back with the podcast at last and to be coming at you with some new episodes we are very excited because today's topic is a great one and all of the topics that we've been brainstorming for future episodes are going to be so amazing and we're really excited to get into these really fun creative discussions with you guys so thank you for being here I'm so glad you are here and that you have arrived on this video or this podcast asked thank you for being here today we're going to talk about how to write a banger opening hook for your story so the first page the first chapter the first encounter that your reader has with your story how do we make it more important so it's an important moment oh my goodness like that moment you invis envision that people are like in a bookstore or in a library and they've just picked up your book or maybe they're skimming through like you know their ebook recommendations and they see your book in there they open that preview you know and they're reading those first couple paragraphs what are they seeing what's grabbing their attention yeah it's very important and it's something that I think a lot of writers like freeze up when you first open that first page and you're like okay I have to write this amazing first page it's gonna grab my reader's attention pull them in make them want more make them stay up past their bedtime reading it's a tall order it's it's a lot to expect from yourself so we're going to take kind of a a different approach to it today and break it down into like the most important aspects of an opening hook what makes the most powerful captivating emotionally spellbinding hook and um just some of the psychological principles behind that as well as some of the emotional aspects and what makes us love characters and want to see more of them so that's we're going to going to dig into today in this episode super excited to get into this but before we get started um I just want to take a minute to thank our amazing patrons you guys support this show you keep it going we so appreciate your support you are the reason we are not interrupted by sponsorships and ads during our episodes here you keep them sponsorship free and we so appreciate that our gratitude goes out to you so thank you so much for being a patron of the Kate Nabi show if you're not you can get exclusive benefits by being a patron like joining Kate and I for our monthly live hangout sessions which we have at the end the last day of every month we get together on a live stream with you guys with the patrons of the Kate and Abby show and we just kind of have a creative discussion we talk we answer your questions it's a super fun it's really fun it's like very organic it gives us a chance to like go deeper in discussion with you guys and I feel like it's the closest thing to being able to like meet up at a coffee shop in person and and talk about writing and your Works in progress and answer questions all that fun yeah so it's super fun and we think that you would love it so if you haven't joined the patreon yet you can join at any level and get access to those live hangout sessions we will link it below this video but it is patreon.com the Kate and Abby show okay let's get into today's topic writing a banger opening hook so first things first I think you guys probably know what I'm going to say first if you've been around here at all or been on my Channel at all and that is the number one most important thing to the hook the most important ingredient is internal conflict in fact I would go as far as to say that internal conflict is the hook it is that thing that pulls you in and makes you care like if you don't have that you don't have a compelling hook that will actually like capture a total stranger's attention and pull them into your story so how do we create internal conflict that's the big question that's something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about and practicing with with my own writing um and I've found that the most basic way to look at internal conflict is just it's simply The Clash of a character's Desire with their fear it's something they want and something that's holding them back and that's what creates this push-pull tug of war internally um and creates conflict is that they have a very clear idea of what they want okay um and it's really amazing to me when I when I study stories and read books and watch films how the simple presence of a clear goal can pull you through a story almost single-handedly yeah so it's it I I would never underestimate the power of a clear goal and when your characters don't have a goal and they seem kind of aimless um it won't hold your reader's attention as much as if your characters have a goal they have something they're pursuing in fact I would I would um recommend like going out and studying some of your favorite movies and TV shows and books and looking for this one aspect is there a clear goal from the outset of the story is there a clear desire or a want something that this character is pursuing because I think you'll find I think you'll be surprised by how often you find this pattern um and of course we have the opposite side of that conflict which is the fear that's holding the person back from achieving their goal and sometimes it the fear is masked by external obstacles you know it's it is something that's actually deeply rooted in them but they might even be blaming it on something else something that's external like I can't get that because of this because of that person because of this scenario because of this Misfortune in my life and that's something that I think can help reveal some of the problems that the character is dealing with um but ultimately it's going to be internal you know ultimately it's going to be something in their character that they're wrestling with not just an external obstacle that's standing in their way right it's always like it's rooted in the internal conflict yeah that's what's dictating how they behave externally like you can think of it also in terms of your own life think about maybe an event or something that you experienced once where maybe you wanted to try something new for an example but you were hesitant to do it for some reason so you on one hand you really want to do this thing I know I can think of a bunch of instances for me like I'd love to do that but I'm kind of nervous about doing it and it's I'm kind of being held back by these fears or hesitancies or because I'm afraid this might happen if I do that and so even if it's not a big thing it could be a really simple um example of really simple instance but you can see how that works how that's constructed is you you know what you want but you have a fear or hesitancy holding you back from doing that thing but yet you have this this thing you want to do kind of calling you to step out of your comfort zone so now you're there and that's that is internal conflict what you're experiencing right there is what are you gonna do are you going to step outside of your comfort zone and do that thing you want to do or or achieve that thing you want to get that thing you want to get or are you going to let fear or your hesitancies about that keep you inside of your comfort zone it can be really small scale things it doesn't have to be this epic Call to Adventure which me and Abby have always talked about here on the podcast Abby's talked about in her videos it can be very small scale Abby it has a lot of experience with writing contemporary stories that are not these massive like the night being called to slay the dragon these can be your everyday life and we experience that ourselves so if you find yourself at a place where you're stumped like how do I formulate that for my character think of some instances in your own life maybe where that's happened and just apply that to your characters yeah 100 is great advice um so the number one question I think to ask yourself at this point is like what what is my character's basic desire and basic fear and how can I kind of take those basic desires and fears and like dig down to the root of them and you might not explore the root right out of the gate it's okay if you wait a little while before really digging into the characters deeper psyche but having a clear goal is really really important to reflect upon what the character is struggling with on a deeper level um and another thing is how how does the inciting incident threaten their desires and fuel their fears that's another thing to sort of start to think about with your hook because even though we haven't arrived at the inciting incident on page one usually um you should be quickly building up to that because like I talk about on my channel a lot there's this thing about holding the reader's attention that I like to call the five-minute Rule and basically it's revealing the character's desires and fears and if you can their misbelief within the first five minutes of your story and I know that sounds like kind of daunting at first but it's pretty it's pretty easy when you get down to figuring out okay how can I show what they want and show their deeper longing their deeper crisis inside based on what they want based on some of the reservation some of the obstacles some of the way ways that they perceive those obstacles and those desires and all of this can be very evident through just a small turn of events like Kate was saying um and kind of an example of this that's immediately springing to mind because this story has been on my mind so much lately of course is my new book the other world um which is coming out September 19th I'm so excited to share this book with you guys so so so super excited um if you guys are watching the video version right now or if you're if you're listening to the podcast if you go to the video version rather you'll be able to see the beautiful cover of this book Abby's holding it a copy of it right now these just came in a couple days ago right yes they did and they're going to be available they're actually currently available for pre-order so so you're missing go pre-order your copy of Abby's book it's it's a beautiful beautiful read it will leave your heart just humming with so many good takeaways thank you it's it was a really fun story to write and and the character of orca who is my main character um when I was writing the first chapter of this book it's actually a prologue because a lot of it includes her backstory as a child but right away you can sort of see her internal conflict even from the first line of the blurb the hook line of the blurb which we're going to be talking about blurbs in the future on the podcast this month so stay tuned for that but basically the hook is the the first line of the blurb Orca Monroe wants only one thing for her 18th birthday to experience the other world the mysterious Mainland across the sea that her father has forbidden her from visiting so like boom right away in one sentence I've set up the internal conflict okay she wants to experience what she calls the other world which is just the mainland that she's never been able to visit because she's lived on this island her whole life and her father has forbidden her from visiting it now as you read deeper into the blurb and the story in chapter one you'll find that those obstacles in her path that are preventing her from visiting the other world aren't just based on her father forbidding it they're also based on her own reservations and fears and misbeliefs of how she thinks her father believes her to be weak or incapable of handling the real world so there's a lot of different layers to her internal conflict but basically you could break it down into those two simple things she wants to see the world her father's forbidden it and she's afraid of disappointing her father and also afraid of this false belief that she's not capable of handling the real world so and there's so many stories that revolve around like I can think of probably like a hundred different stories that revolve around a protagonist feeling trapped and wanting to be free like there are so many stories like that like it's amazing but how you how you create the individual character and their individual struggles and the setting and the genre and the whole mood and the cast of characters that's what makes it your own thing and you can really sort of take a premise a desire and fear that has been done thousands of times before and make it something truly unique because of who this unique character is so it's a really um fun challenge to explore as a writer but moving on to our next Point external events can be the hook but internal conflict is the punch okay so while an external event could be the hook for your story like it could set the story in motion it's important to show the reader why it matters to the characters so you can think of it as like the plot is the Fist and the internal conflict is the punch is how I always like to say it because it's like yes you need the fist in order to deliver the punch but the fist by itself is not Punchy it's not a punch until it's propelling forward with this um this internal conflict that's what's propelling It Forward yes exactly so it's like bringing the the action the forward momentum and what triggers that is your character's internal conflict so yes you can use those external events to sort of trigger something but there has to be something already there you know and I feel like you did a really great job of this in the blood race in the first book of the blood race series where we have ion who's already a very conflicted character right and that that opening hook of he's he's in this car race scenario with uh Nemesis of his and then when he's going home he accidentally hits his neighbor's car and that like kind of turns into this spiral of events that he then has to go talk to the neighbor and the neighbor ends up being Sensei who brings him into this whole new world and this whole new way of living because he you know initiates to be an anomaly and there's so much to the story but it's it's like the the door opens because of him hitting the car right you know like none of that could have happened if he didn't have a reason to talk to the neighbor and he wouldn't have had a reason to talk to the neighbor if he didn't accidentally bump into his car right exactly it's like a very small external event that then triggers this bigger door opening right and in in the blood race which I'm holding if you're what if you're listening um you can see in the video version um but yeah like in the first chapter it opens like you said with the car race and ion experiencing his abnormal powers that come over him and cause like malfunctions with machinery and cause these strange occurrences to happen and we get to see a glimpse into how terrified he is of these powers that he feels like he can't control he feels like it his body is working against his will almost right and so we see how he's sort of terrified of these powers that come over him he doesn't know how to control it and then it ends with the inciting incidents incident of him hitting sensei's car right which brings us into like the that's we're starting down the rabbit hole now yes and that's that's the punch yeah and it's similar in anomaly too like which is the prequel the free prequel to The Series where we open with um ion much younger actually in therapy talking to his therapist um about events that happened and we see a lot of his internal conflict being read through journal entries that the therapist is actually reading that ion wrote so we see this this backstory being unpicked in this kind of interesting clinical setting um and and then the backstory starts coming to the surface and we're seeing the internal conflict and then we're going to flash back to okay now the beginning of the story but that first chapter really stands to like draw you into what is the conflict this character's feeling yeah yes exactly and you did a brilliant job of that in both those books and that's exactly what I was saying of like there's something already there you know there's already something at stake there's already something in play and then we have the inciting incident that forces them outside their comfort zone but we've already we've already established the boundaries of the comfort zone and that's why the inciting incident then matters it's not just a thing happening to anybody it's something specifically meaningful because of what this character is already internally dealing with um so ask yourself how can you use the external events in the beginning of your book to bring the internal conflict to the Forefront and to really challenge that internal conflict and how does this particular conflict shove your character outside their comfort zone um so that being said I think it's important to develop characters before you even develop your plot as far as taking you know as we go through this story in chapter one you know we should be really getting to know the characters more so than being acquainted with the plot because if you develop your characters before you plunge them into the plot it allows your reader to empathize with them better and to really care about who they are and what they care about and see what matters to them and that changes what comes next because now what comes next matters more to us because we see why it matters to them you know it's not just a thing that happens to anybody it's not just like oh wow how would I feel if that happened to me it's suddenly like how would I feel if I were them because I can now put myself in their shoes and feel what they're feeling and that's the transportive sort of magic of stories is that we can become other people it's not just that we can go on adventures and um you know have these experiences it's that we can sort of Step into the shoes of another person and see how they see life so what motivates your character that's another question to contemplate and what experiences in their past have shaped their personality and their fears and their goals okay so the next point that I want to highlight here is about World building specifically for um writers who are writing like a story that's fantasy or sci-fi or takes place in another world because sometimes we have a lot of notes we have a lot of World building and a lot of you know sketches and maps and details and things about the magic system or the government or the politics or the communities around your world and it can be difficult to present all of that in a quick Punchy way that makes us first understand what the heck is going on because we're already disoriented when we first open a book it's like you know taking the blindfold off now I have to equate myself with what's going on here so sometimes World building can be overwhelming and yes it is very important especially if the world your characters find themselves in is very different than the real world but to me it should be presented in a way that is almost character driven as in showing us the world as it matters to the characters so yes the world the reader does need to understand why the world is how the world works but we need to more more importantly we need to understand the character's place in the world what is their relationship to the world and why does the world matter to them like how how do the different systems and aspects of the world play into your character's individual life like how does it affect them on a personal level because just like an overarching look at everything is not really personal you know right like we have to see the direct impact of like okay how how do these aspects of the world like make a direct impact on this character's life right rather than starting with the world and then eventually meeting the main character within that world we start with the character and we work our way out from there learning about the world as we go which we actually have a great episode on that which um I think it was demystifying World building and we'll link that Below in the video version of this podcast if you're interested in checking that out because that was a great episode really good discussion but like we always use the example of um The Chronicles of Narnia which many of you fantasy lovers will know great example of a very complex um world system there's magic involved there's prophecies there's history there's different lands different um different types of creatures within the world but we don't start with learning about all of that first we start with the pevencies and then we narrow down to actually one of them particularly and we enter the world we see a very small amount of landscape we meet one character Mr tumnus and from there we slowly begin to be trickle fed the narnian history the prophecies the world itself and then more pevensies come in we won't learn a little bit more we learn a little bit more and it feels so natural the rhythm is very natural feeling it feels very organic we're never wishing we had more information before we need to know it so we're given information on sort of this need to know basis yes that leaves us satisfied but not overwhelmed yes which the overwhelm can come when we insert into the very beginning of our books loads of history and loads of Science and loads of how the system and the government and the magic all works it's better to start small start with that one character and work your way out from there yeah and I think it might help some writers to like do all that note taking and stuff elsewhere not in your first draft but just like make lots of notes to yourself and almost come to this place of feeling like your world has already lived in you know I mean like like your character has lived in this world for a long time and you want it to feel lived in not to the point where it's disorienting like what the heck are all these terms like what is what what do all these words mean if there's a lot of different you know words in in your character's language if it's a made-up language or something like that um not to the point where it's disorienting but to the point where it feels like comfortable and natural not like the character needs to hit pause on the story in order to explain everything that's happening um so you kind of want to aim for that lived in feel and I think a way to do that is just to like get it all out of your system like do all the note-taking you possibly can elsewhere in your scrivener file and then as as things matter specifically to your character like Kate was saying trickle those things in right in an easy way that's easy to digest I know that when I read fantasy like it will make me stop reading and not finish a book if it's too over whelming to even understand the world and Orient myself because it's like man if it's taking me this long just to orient myself and I haven't even gotten to know the characters I my my head just is not ready to do that right another thing you can do too if you're someone who's not necessarily A plotter or a note taker like me um you can always just write your beginning however you want to and then as you go through the story and you you discover what those conflicts are as when you go back through the revision process the many times you'll go back through your book you can you can add to and revise and rewrite the beginning and move those pieces of history or orientation elsewhere you can add them into maybe the characters day the first day we experience with them in the book or something like that so you can always move parts and pieces around which is something I've done a lot of there's been many times when I'll go back to that opening hook segment I'll I'll take a bunch out and I'll paste it into a document and then I'll be like okay here's the perfect space like further down to to add that back in yeah that's a really good skill to move around a ball okay let's all move around that's great and I think that's a great I think one of the most important skills for a writer to develop is being comfortable with revisions yeah because if the more you get comfortable with revisions it's like a super power and you never feel like intimidated about like oh this has to be perfect I have to write it perfect because it's like you can revise it if you get really good at revisions you don't even have to be good at writing right yeah because weird but it's like because really you could replace the word revisions with writing process yeah because so that really is such an important part of the writing process going back and reading through and being able to to to slow down pause and creatively right then look at it again it's just really it's kind of a mindful practice really so it is part it's just another type of creative writing yeah you could look at it that way and that makes it sound more fun too yeah true and there is no part of your book that you will do this more for then your opening hook because you want that to be the most powerful the most emotional and gripping part of your book um so coming off that ask yourself how does the world impact your character's internal conflict their desires their fears their goals how does it factor into their own individual path in life and how can you show your reader why the world matters to the character so as you develop your story ask yourself these questions to ensure that you are creating compelling internal conflict and that you're driving home that punch in your opening hook what does my protagonist think will bring them true happiness or contentment how is there fear stopping them from going after it what is my character's misbelief and what happened in their past to create this misbelief how can I show my audience in the first five minutes why what's happening matters to my protagonist given their desire fear and misbelief so those are just some really good questions to ask yourself to kind of springboard these ideas and what your hook might look like and of course it'll be different for everyone some hooks might be backstory some might be flashbacks to the past or showing your character growing up or showing just that pivotal moment in their past even if it wasn't that long ago where something changed for them their fatal flaw took root their misbelief took root um and it now has changed the course of their life so maybe it's something like that or maybe it's just meeting them in the present day and they're being forced outside their comfort zone some way or maybe it's something that is an external event that turns into this small trigger that sets off a bigger Challenge and opens the door to A Whole New World of conflict so lots of different ways to look at that and lots of different ideas to play with um but to recap everything that we've talked about today so far internal conflict is a central aspect of a story that pits a character's desires against their fears okay that's basically it it's it's pretty simple external conflict can be the hook but internal conflict is the punch that makes the story truly compelling it's essential to develop your characters before plunging them into the plot and World building should only be done when it matters to the characters so start with your characters and work your way out for World building and that's basically it I mean we could go on and on and talk more about the hook because the hook is such a big topic but I feel like that's a good place to to leave it because it's kind of a you know we like to give you guys a springboard to just sort of explore your own creativity and explore your own ideas and not overwhelm you with like too many thoughts and and rules and regulations because that takes all the fun out of writing and it's like every every writing advice book you pick up will be like very overwhelming with all these different like you know rules and restrictions our art doesn't live within the parameters of rules so yeah do you do you who figure out what works for you figure out what you like it may be a fun exercise would be like walk through Library walk through bookstore or browse through books on your Kindle however you look at books and just randomly pick up a few open to the opening page and just read and see does it grab you if so why what is it that's captivating you what what is it that's making you want to turn the next page and on the flip side if it makes you want to close the book again and put it back on the Shelf why what is it about it that's not grabbing your attention the same with films and TV series the first maybe 10 minutes of a film maybe five minutes of film does it grab you does it pull you in if so why is it is it the characters what what what is going on that's making you want to continue watching or if you want to shut it off and watch something else why what's happening that's making you have that reaction as well so that can be we do this all the time we do this all the time we're constantly talking about why films and pieces of literature will make us feel a certain way what captivated us about it what didn't Captivate Us about it studying story is the best teacher of story yes 100 I mean Abby has basically said that a million times over on her Channel and we've said it here too because there is no better way to learn about story than to actually experience story yeah 100 and just just notice what what pulls your exercise what gets your attention what doesn't yeah yeah I agree it's that's an excellent exercise and then just playing with like you know okay if you can imagine what would be the best like experience for you picking up a book and opening it to the first page what is something that you would want to read on the first page and then just write that and like just take the pressure off have fun you know play enjoy don't be afraid of revisions either don't be afraid of like oh this has to be perfect the first time because it will not be perfect the first time that's okay because the more confident you get with the revisions the better a writer you will be and the more you will be able to fix anything fix any messy first draft right and always just keep in mind that Perfection is subjective yeah um everyone's idea of what Perfection is is different so really Perfection doesn't even exist so you can just liberate yourself from that idea altogether and just have fun yeah just have fun and do your best the best you can personally do to the point where it makes you feel happy that you're doing you're doing great then yeah that's all you need to do so you can let go of any other um any other like thing that you feel you need to be doing any rules or constrictions you're putting on yourself you can like let that go then just explore just have fun yeah 100 I agree right on like Drop so thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode we love you guys so much and thank you for listening comment below enjoying the discussion because we would love to hear from you guys we'd love to hear what you thought of this episode and what are some of your favorite examples of an opening hook that that would be something good comment below maybe even one of them is my new book the other world which I'm a big fan of the opening hook in the first chapter and just this entire book I'm super super happy and excited to be sharing it with you guys and it's coming out this September September 19th and pre-orders are now live so you can go and pre-order either an ebook or paperback copy hardcovers will be coming but they're going to be a little bit special so I'm still working on the design for the hardcover but for the in the meantime you can pre-order a paperback or ebook copy from your retailer of choice so you can do that with the link in the description box below this video if you haven't seen the video version of this podcast you can find that on Kate's YouTube channel which is youtube.com kamins check that out join over there all the podcasts go up as videos every other Monday and we love to see you guys over there commenting and joining the discussion so thank you again so much to our amazing patrons for keeping this podcast alive and free of interruptions if you want to support the show and get access to exclusive live trainings or not live trainings but live hangout sessions every month with Kate and I then you can join the patreon at patreon.com the Kate and Abby show you can join at any level you get access to the live Hangouts and we hope to see you guys over there thank you so much for listening and until next time stay stoked and rock on

Channel: K.A. Emmons

Views: 24,051

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Id: OAEGOBkmR60

Length: 34min 52sec (2092 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 11 2023