Bootcamp Mentors Workshop Topics

The Hook - Connections & Cliffhangers

* The Connection Between Hook and Resolution *

The Hook is the first beat that kicks off the story and pulls your readers in, while the Resolution is the final scene(s) in the story. The Resolution resolves any remaining questions about characters and plots, but more importantly, the Resolution brings the story full circle, harking back to the Hook to show how the characters and their world have changed since the beginning.

The hook and resolution mirror each other literally and symbolically, showing how things have changed and how they remain the same. There are a number of ways to frame your story and show that connection.

🏡 Setting - Your story may start with the character in his normal world before something happens (the hook or inciting incident). Perhaps, they go off on an adventure, either willingly or reluctantly. When the character returns to their normal world, they may see things differently because they have been changed by their experiences. Symbolically, the resolution shows us a new normal world. For example: In The Hobbit, we meet Bilbo in his comfortable home, which he is reluctant to leave when Gandalf asks him to go on an adventure. When Bilbo returns from his adventure, his home may look the way he left it, but it doesn't feel quite the same way to him.

👦 Character - A characteristic moment, one that shows the protagonist's nature or self-identity, is one of the foundational elements of a good hook, and it can provide an opportunity to create a link between hook and resolution. Let's say your character goes on this adventure and is changed by it, when they return to their normal world, they choose to live in that world differently. Moreover, the people who knew them before the change are surprised by these new characteristics. Just as the first characteristic moment is an opening snapshot of your character before the changes of the story, the second characteristic moment is a closing snapshot after the changes, showing the transformation. For example: (SPOILER) The character of Ironman, Tony Stark, is an arrogant smart mouth when we are introduced to him. However, by the end of his story, he is sacrificing his life to preserve the lives of others.

* Connect the Hook to the Story's Heart for a Winning Pitch *

Your story's hook and your story's heart are not the same thing, but they can work together when it comes to pitching your story to potential readers or publishers. If a friend asks what your story is about, you'll want them to know how the story is going to make them feel if they read it.

🧡 Think of the heart of a story as its soul. If it's a love story, a whodunnit mystery, or an epic fantasy, that will be a fundamental aspect of your story's heart. But we're talking more than just theme and genre. You need to ask yourself "What point am I trying to make with this story?" and "What is my story really about?"

Here is an example of a pitch that gets to the heart of the story: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is about a boy whose parents are murdered by cursed magic when he is a baby. He is raised in a cupboard by his awful relatives until age eleven when he learns he's a wizard. While attending a school for magic, he discovers connections to his real family and learns the value of friendship,

🎣 Think of the hook as something that catches people's attention. We've all read coming-of-age stories. We've all read ill-fated love stories. Without a hook to spark curiosity, readers will be hesitant to take a deeper look. To identify your hook, ask yourself "Why should the reader care about this story?" and "What is the single most unique element in this story?"

Here is an example of a hook that catches a reader's attention: Again, we will use our previous example. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, we are introduced to an ordinary man having an odd experience as he goes about his ordinary workday. Through his perception, we see people dressed in funny cloaks, and we hear whispers about the Potter's son Harry, which has this man completely flummoxed for most of the day. We are then introduced to a cat who turns into a professor, and from there we are hooked.

* The Power of a Killer Cliffhanger *

We've talked about how to start first chapters, but what about how to end them? One of the biggest challenges to writing can be working-in enough cliffhangers to keep readers wanting more, and the first one is the most critical. There are a number of ways to curate a great cliffhanger. Here are just a few:

👉 Ask a question - Who doesn't want to know the answer to an intriguing question?

👉 Create an arrival - Rather than divide your chapters so the end of the chapter concludes something, have the end of the chapter begin something new. This can often be done effectively with just one sentence.

👉 Write a description - This description should connect to the plot or characters in some fascinating way, perhaps as a metaphor for some ominous thing ahead. An example from All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr does this nicely: The clack-clack of small-arms fire. The gravelly snare drums of flak. A dozen pigeons roosting on the cathedral spire cataract down its length and wheel out over the sea. Doerr illustrates a calm image as a contrast to the bombs that will soon arrive; the flying pigeons are a metaphor for the town's citizens trying to escape.

👉 Create a mystery - Who doesn't love a good page-turning mystery?

👉 Use revelation or surprise - This might be viewed as the standard cliffhanger: a letter from an ex-lover is discovered, the breadwinner is fired from their job, a hurricane blows the roof off.

👉 Crack a joke - Humor is just as effective as the plot to keep the reader turning pages. If you can make a reader laugh at the end of a chapter, they will turn the page just as quickly as if you had left them on a cliffhanger.

👉 Play with subtext - Subtext is the underlying message that is not explicitly stated or shown, and ending the first chapter with subtext not only reinforces all the other subtext within the novel, it also propels the rest of the book forward.

📌PRO TIP: Don't get bogged down with exposition at the start of your story. It can be tempting to reveal everything about a character in the first chapter: their background, their struggles, their secrets. We want our readers to connect with them, but there are other ways to clue your readers in without dropping heavy chunks of narration on them. The way your character responds to exciting news or a difficult conversation will reveal something about them. The same goes when you're setting the scene. Stick to drawing your readers into the story with intrigue, conflict or action. You can get to the nitty-gritty stuff later.

On to Part 3...