By Ann H. Gabhart,
Author of The Refuge
“I read one of your
books and now I’m hooked!!” (Amazon reviewer) I don’t like to fish.
I went fishing once on a school trip when I was twelve. Didn’t catch anything.
More telling is that I didn’t want to catch anything. So, I didn’t bother
baiting my hook. Fast forward a few years and I’m writing novels. Now I want to
catch some readers. I need to bait my hook.
Recently I asked my
Facebook reading friends why they picked up a new book to read. Some said the
author’s name, but what if you had never read that author before? What then?
The cover made some of them grab a book off a shelf or click on a link to find out
about the story. Back cover copy was a big key too. My new Shaker story, The
Refuge, has an appealing cover and a snappy tag line. “Can love live
again for this widow in a community that doesn’t believe in marriage?”
While a novel’s window
dressing is important, the words inside are what reels in readers and makes
them want to stay in the story. Some readers said they look at the first page
to decide what to read. So, a dynamite first line can be perfect bait to catch
a reader.
Try noticing first
lines to see if the author grabbed your interest right away. You can find
famous first lines online such as this one from George Orwell for 1984. It
was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. The
weather update might not grab you but the clocks striking thirteen pulls you
into the story to find out why.
But what makes a great
first line? You need something that not only gives a hint of the story but
stirs the reader’s curiosity about what’s to come. I try my best to come up
with a good beginning. Sometimes my first lines are edited time and time again,
perhaps not being set in stone, or rather print, until after the story goes
through many edits. Other times, the first line is in my mind even
before I put my fingers on the keyboard to start that first chapter.
That was how it was
with The Refuge. This line echoed in my head and drew me into
the story. You can’t cheat death. I hope that line will make
my readers curious enough to keep them reading the second line. We
thought we could. And on and on until they are firmly hooked on my
story.
Bait the hook for your
readers with every enticement you can imagine. That great cover. Fabulous back
cover copy. A hard-hitting tag line. A compelling first sentence, but most
important of all, tell such a good story that after they’ve read it to the end,
you’ll have them saying, “I’m hooked!!”
_____________________________________________________________________________
Ann H. Gabhart is the bestselling and award-winning author of several Shaker
novels—The Outsider, The Believer, The Seeker, The Blessed, The Gifted, and The
Innocent—as well as historical novels—River to Redemption, These Healing Hills,
Angel Sister, Love Comes Home, and more. Writing as A. H. Gabhart, she is also
the author of the popular Hidden Springs Mysteries series. She has been a
finalist for the ECPA Book of the Year and the Carol Awards, has won two Selah
Awards for Love Comes Home, and won RWA’s Faith, Hope, and Love Award for These
Healing Hills. Ann and her husband enjoy country life on a farm a mile from
where she was born in rural Kentucky. Learn more at www.annhgabhart.com.
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