Top Analog Hooks and Why They Reel Readers In

If you write stories, chances are you have been told to begin your book, your chapter, and your scene with a hook. What is a hook? How do they work? A hook in my mind is any set of words that produce a reaction in the reader that makes them want to read more. Here is a list of the short stories published in the last year or so that really start with a great hook. I explain my reaction and provide the lesson I learned from reading it.

Analog Hook #1 Forever Mommy by David Grace, September 2008

"Jimmy's ear hurt and for an instant he thought about crying, then clenched his lips into a rgid line and fought back the tears."

Reaction: This start establishes a strong, young hero and you can't help but wonder what is wrong with his ear. If you've ever had an earache that hurt so bad you want to cry, you know you can relate to this hero.

Lesson: take a sense you have at a given moment and let your audience know how it feels. Tell what do you do to stop or increase the feeling.

Analog Hook # 2 Cold Fire by Alan Dean Foster, November 2008

"By four p. m. the arctic sky was ablaze with a haunting wispy green that twisted and writhed in front of the stars like the fluttering wings if a frightened tropical songbird, and Morgan knew he was freezing to death."

Reaction: Although a bit wordy, I liked this start. It caught my imagination and placed me somewhere cold, looking at the starts. Then, the image of the songbird put me there, cold. Attaching that sense of cold to the hero Morgan not only taught me that the hero didn't live in this location, if made me relate to him.

Lessons: Paint a picture of where the character is. Use a metaphor to relate how you feel to some other object.

Analog Hook #3 Chain by Stephen l. Burns, June 2009

"Silver is on my mind as I negotiate the wet and crowded sidewalk."

Reaction: Even today we don't much use silver. The fact that silver is on the main character's mind is really unusual. Then, my brain made a further leap, that of Judas Iscariot's 40 pieces of silver. Was this story about betrayal? How could silver be important?

Lesson: Make an ordinary statement that raises questions in the reader's mind. Use a well-known symbol to increase the reader's curiousity.

Analog Hook # 4 The Man in the Mirror by Geoffrey A. Landis, January/February 2008

"It was pure luck that Lynn Rockross was there. Pure bad luck."

Reaction: Wow, this one sets the reader up to know there's a conflict, i.e. something requiring luck and making the reader feel hopeful, then dash it. Now the conflict is twice as bad as it initially was. Not only do you require luck, but you've got bad luck on your side.

Lesson: Use your hook to establish conflict. Imply an emotional reaction, and then turn opposite what you initially thought. This creates curiousity in the mind of the reader.

Analog Hook # 5 Worlds Enough and Time by Harry Turtledove, January/February 2008

"So Many Worlds, So Little Time, said the slightly scorched sticker on the side of the starship."

Reaction: None of the words in this statement are all that unusual until you read scorched and then the last word starship. In fact, the cliché opening quickly establishes what we all know about bumper stickers, people buy them on vacation and you see them everywhere. Why this one works is that you feel kindly toward the characters because they do the sort of things you normally do, but they do it throughout the stars. You hope to go on a trip and are ready to read more.

Lesson: Even cliché can be effective as a hook if it is used purposefully to help you relate to the situation. Give one item of hope to the reader and they are ready to read more.

Analog Hook # 6 How the Bald Apes Saved Mass Crossing by Wil McCarthy, January/February 2008

"When the Salamander People of Antares IV fed their encyclopedia to a Synthetic Brain of Prodigious Intellect, they believed they were solving all of their problems."

Reaction: This hook is a little wordy, too. But, it has humor. And it establishes conflict. People somewhere were working at solving a problem. Feeding it an encyclopedia sounds humorous but you also wonder, does the mulch help? Why doesn't the brain have this information?

Lesson: Again the hook raises questions in the mind of the reader. But also a humorous action implies you're likely to find an entirely humorous story which most people like.

Analog Hook #7 Permission to Speak Freely by David Walton, November 2007

"I stood watching my friend through the glass, knowing that the thick cable hanging from the back of his head like a samurai's queue was delivering terrible pain to his nervous system."

Reaction: Ow. You can't help but feel for both the hero and his friend. The question is why isn't the hero doing something? Why allow his friend to hurt? Why watch? Again there is both conflict and the ability to relate to the character. The use of samurai also establishes a sense of curiousity, did the author mean to imply an unusual setting?

Lesson: A strong emotion like pain combined with friendship really creates a powerful relationship between two characters and will hook the reader in. A good unusual contrast is also helpful.

Analog Hook #8 The Space Time Pool by Catherine Asaro, March 2008

"The hiker vanished."

Reaction: Short but sweet because it immediately establishes questions. How? Why? And even more important given the title, how could a hiker have importance?

Lesson: You don't need a lot of words to catch a reader's reaction. You just need to establish curiousity. A good title helps set your stage but don't rely on that alone. Also, people's reactions to a shocking event are often short, immediate and cryptic.

Summary of Analog Hook Lessons:

1) Connect the reader to the hero and his emotional and physical state.

2) Create curiousity in the mind of the reader by using opposites and items out of the ordinary.

3) Provide unusual and vivid description.

4) Establish there is a conflict.

5) Play with the readers emotions by setting up a reaction and changing it.

6) Use humor to imply a humorous story.

7) Use common symbols to create expectations even if they aren't satisfied.

8) Establish an emotional relationship between characters.
Sounds easy, doesn't it?