HOW TO HOOK YOUR READER _ IWSG post

THE TITLE:

The title TUGS the eye of the browsing would-be reader on Amazon.  

It snares and entices.  

It makes your first impression.

THE COVER:

A successful book cover makes a reader 'feel' things rather than 'tell' them something.

The cover sets the mood of the book.    

If the cover is mostly dark colored with shadows and a disturbing image, 

it shows that the story inside the book must be scary.

THE FIRST PAGE:

 How to Write a Good Hook and 

Start Your Novel with a Bang! 

1.) Startle readers with the first line. 

2.) Begin at a life-changing moment. 

3.) Create intrigue about the characters. 

4.) Use a setting as the inciting incident. 

5.) Up the stakes with the first page.

6.) Introduce something ominous right away. 

 7.) Set the mood. 

8.) Make your characters sympathetic and relatable — immediately.

EXAMPLE: 

Take the first page of my next novel:

 WITHOUT MERCY OR NAME

(Did you know that hurricanes in 1947

 had no names?)

A POLISHED LIFE OF LIES

“It was a beautiful lie that Hoover had been telling himself: that he could bend his own rules to protect his sin without becoming more monstrous than those he was sworn to arrest.”

– Diary of Ingrid Durtz, 8 March, 1947

I once thought you had to be stabbed to hurt this badly.  I have come to realize that there are some memories that cut deeper than any surgeon’s scalpel.  Though our flight through the night skies was smoother than the softest velvet, I seemed to feel the aircraft shake violently from Nazi flack exploding all around us.

My memories had me back aboard the Douglas C-47 of my last mission ... the mission in which I died.  The airplane was originally designed as a passenger airplane for TWA airlines. However, it became a vital part of the Allied fleet in World War II, particularly during D-Day and missions over "The Hump,” the India to China airlift over the Himalayan mountains. 

It served in military missions for a long list of countries.  In addition to being well suited for carrying supplies, the C-47 was ideal for dropping paratroopers, with its wide rear door located between the left wing and elevator. Hence why I and my O.S.S. team members were then aboard.

That particular C-47 had been adorned with nose art done by Captain Lucas which gave the craft its much too melodramatic name: “Devil's Darlin'.”  

 Since he was my superior officer in the O.S.S. and the man I loved, I did not object … much.

Love.

The most used and least understood word in any language whether it be my native Swedish or Lucas’ American English.   

I thought I never would find a man I could love until I met Lucas.  He thought himself incapable of love, of loving me … until I died in his arms.

Life, love, death, undeath … they are never what you expect.

HOW DO YOU
HOOK YOUR READERS?

For How To Write Your 1st Chapter:
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-to-write-great-first-chapter.html