What interests a reader enough in the beginning of a book that he will continue reading? I know, most books, even the simplest, are difficult to get into. At least, that’s the problem I’ve had all my life in reading. The Stand, which has since become my favorite novel, took me three tries to get beyond three chapters. My persistence paid off, but most human beings are not as doggedly persistent as I am.

The most trite and pat answer to that is to create a hook to grab the reader. But just what is a hook, and how does it grab a reader?

In my own researches, a hook is merely a huge conflict from which to extricate the protagonist. I’ve been accused of starting a story in the middle, jumping headlong into it without thought of what went before, forcing the reader to catch up to what’s going on. Okay. So start anywhere before that and I’m accused of creating nothing but an info dump. (Which is telling the reader all the information he needs to understand the current crisis. Long ago, this is the way a lot of books began. It’s fallen out of favor, and is now considered boring and unnecessary.)

The problem, I guess, is how do I know my story isn’t trite or just plain stupid? It interests me, but do I really have a brain? It comes down to – do I really have anything interesting to say? I’m getting older, and the readership is getting younger. The world moves far faster now than it used to, and I feel like I’m sitting on my porch – just watching and wondering how these people have so much energy.

All right, ask that question of myself as if someone else asked it. How do I know my story is worthwhile? I’d tell the aspiring author that all stories are worthwhile. If it interests you, then it will interest another. All human beings have the same kinds of feelings. Concentrate on those. Find the things that connect you with the rest of the world and include those things. Love, friendship, anger, sorrow… All feelings.

A story is always about a person, not a thing. It may revolve around a thing, but the story is always about how a person reacts to that thing. So the character is the story, not the crisis the character has to overcome.

Ah, I’m starting to think again. It’s morning, and I’ve only gotten to my second cup of coffee, so I’m a bit slow, perhaps.

The character has to be someone the reader likes and wants to see overcome the crisis. What helps a reader to like the character? Not that the character is beautiful or smart. The reader will like someone who is just as flawed as the reader is. Someone beautiful might make the reader feel jealous or insecure, promoting not attraction, but its opposite. Someone portrayed as smart and beautiful would make me think the writer is just doing some wish fulfillment.

The character has to have self-doubt, just as everyone on earth has. The character must have imperfections.

Not that the character needs to be ugly and stupid in order to win over a reader. The character needs to balance those things out and be, perhaps, beautiful to others, but sees all her imperfections in the mirror rather than her good points. Smart characters need to know how much they don’t know. Golden hair and sky-blue eyes do not beauty make. The internal view has to be different than the outside one. A character who seems smug and pompous on the outside might really be insecure and frightened on the inside. Get to know your character.

Okay, so what has all that got to do with the hook?

A hook, since it’s merely setting the character into a conflict that needs resolution, is to find something in the story the character needs to overcome in order to reach the goal, the end of the story. In that first scene, the conflict has to be unsolvable. It has to force the character to take some action or the consequences will be unlivable. Then put yourself in the character’s head. Find out all the reasons why this is such a large problem. Find out while the problem whirls around the character, and make the flaws in the character responsible for not being able to solve the issue.

That sounds pretty pat, easy, and otherwise obvious. Why, then, do I have such trouble doing it?

Just keep writing.