McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
hook, hold, and payoff
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: slrogers on October 29, 2013, 04:52:01 PM ---But how do you do it? How do you find the hooks that your story needs? How do you recognize the difference between those hooks you think will bring readers in but end up really being distractions, and those elements that you thought weren't all that necessary but really grab the reader's attention?
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Sheer self-confidence, backed up with the technical skill to make it work.
I don;t want my readers to be thinking about whether an element is interesting. If they have that much critical faculty left at the time the element isn't being compelling enough. I want them on the edge of their seats. laughing, heartwarmed, or terrified as appropriate.
meg_evonne:
2 cents worth... A Hook is commercial, however your Hold and Payoff elements are grounded in the ancient art of storytelling. By definition it is an art. Even the writer following a prescribed format or structure is crafting their words as art. If there was a magic fix that guarantees to satisfy a particular reading community, everyone would have it, instead simply those who are great storytellers.
I think your Hold and Payoff is what some writers call tension and story arc. I'm pretty sure JB refers to this in his writer's blog. In other words, each of your interwoven threads tightens through tension and then is released at a slightly higher level. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. etc. (Another way to say this is to craft a constriction of tension followed by the relief by a slight break before diving in again to the next level.)
My suggestion is to reach deep into your own heart and your own experiences to add depth and honesty to your writing--if it is compelling and the pace is satisfactory, then readers will find you.
It's hard enough to crank out that first draft; just plug it out. Later in revision and editing, you will fine tune your Hold and Payoff to fix your tension, release, and pacing.
Best wishes on your writing!
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on November 15, 2013, 07:07:23 AM ---My suggestion is to reach deep into your own heart and your own experiences to add depth and honesty to your writing--if it is compelling and the pace is satisfactory, then readers will find you.
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The failure mode of that is reaching deep into your own heart and experience for things you feel very strongly about that other people whose emotional wiring is different just flat-out can't believe.
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on November 15, 2013, 04:10:00 PM ---The failure mode of that is reaching deep into your own heart and experience for things you feel very strongly about that other people whose emotional wiring is different just flat-out can't believe.
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A couple thoughts. You can't be all things to all people. I mean sure you can cross Fantasy or Sci-Fi with say Romance or Mystery and have a blend that 'appeals to a wider audience' but in gaining some you'll lose others. Now if that's what you love. Fantasy/Romance or Sci-Fi/Mystery then by all means write it. But Battlestar Galactica for instance lost me as a viewer because it tried to be too many things for too many people and the stuff I was in it for, the sci-fi, adventure and space battles left me feeling cheated.
So I would advise not to 'deliberately' try to broaden your reach too much. Not as a 'I need to reach a bigger audience!' idea but instead stay true to what you love to read. So if you love the genre/gender blended whatever pink unicorns and fairies in galactic striding battleships that are falling in love while solving the mystery of who killed the ship's captain and the Federation President then by all means, if you love it, write it. But otherwise don't.
The other thing I'd advise is don't alienate your audience by trying to specialize too narrowly and/or force feed them your heart wiring. A simple realization that other people are wired other ways and that its alright for them to enter your masterpiece, play around and have fun on your canvas is perfectly fine. Say you're a raging polygamist or believe that Social Democracy is the best, brightest, and only, way to go. Doesn't mean that you have to preach it or make it the sole facet of your society that we see. Same thing if you've got a raging hard on for firearms and believe that everyone should or shouldn't be weapons trained and/or part of a militia because its great/in-human. Reasonable and reasonably intelligent people are going to be different with different opinions.
If you embrace any one philosophy or line of thought you 'will' limit your audience, just like the popular Dixie Chicks did when they insulted a large part of their audience and called them stupid. Sci-Fi to me is about exploring, interacting with strangeness and having a grand old time with a space adventure which (having a grand old time) is precluded by making too many judgements about non-genocidal aliens/humans/or your fellow citizens on Planet Z who don't want to kill/and-or eat you.
I would say that so long as everyone is having fun, and that bad guys are baddies you'll do fine.
To other points: A hook is needed to let your reader know 'why' they should read your book, in your hook you're basically telling them what the pay off is (or part of the pay off) and thus why they and their dollars should pay attention to you and your writing over a thousand other guys/gals or deliberately gender mysterious individuals.
As for the body or story arc and all the insides of a book. You just have to keep it from getting slow and not leave the readers a place to stop and ask themselves why am I reading this, where's the (insert desired part of the story that's missing).
The Deposed King
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: The Deposed King on November 16, 2013, 12:45:35 AM --- Say you're a raging polygamist or believe that Social Democracy is the best, brightest, and only, way to go.
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Have you been looking back through my off-topic posts or something ?
--- Quote --- Doesn't mean that you have to preach it or make it the sole facet of your society that we see.
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Nah, but on the other hand, I'd rather have something sincere and heartfelt that I could disagree with in almost every particular and enjoy anyway (see, most of Daniel Keys Moran's work, for example; I am entirely on the side of the antagonists in the Tale of the Continuing Time) rather than something that's trying to avoid controversy and ends up being insipid or worse, raising blatant questions about its set-up that it falls short of answering.
--- Quote ---If you embrace any one philosophy or line of thought you 'will' limit your audience, just like the popular Dixie Chicks did when they insulted a large part of their audience and called them stupid.
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Ideally, one could hope to get around this by depicting characters with strongly-held beliefs but writing them in such a way as to show the negatives as well as the positives. This is however difficult and there are many readers who won't get it anyway because of, sfaict being absolutely convinced that if someone is presented as a hero/protagonist we are therefore meant to find them sympathetic. (As witness a goodly fraction of my on-topic posts; my personal read on the DF is that Jim is doing an amazing job of critiquing the values Harry espouses, without haryr himself being remotely aware of that.)
--- Quote ---I would say that so long as everyone is having fun, and that bad guys are baddies you'll do fine.
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Meh. Good vs. Evil is easy and has been done thousands of times. Good vs. Other Incompatible Good, now that's interesting. (Also heartbreaking.)
--- Quote ---To other points: A hook is needed to let your reader know 'why' they should read your book, in your hook you're basically telling them what the pay off is (or part of the pay off) and thus why they and their dollars should pay attention to you and your writing over a thousand other guys/gals or deliberately gender mysterious individuals.
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OK, if you're defining hook that broadly, I can't disagree with you; it's the notion that every book needs to start with an action-scene-type hook specifically ("Ford Prefect hit the ground running") that doesn't work for me.
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