Hooks and spoilers...

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm having real problems with Galaxy - see crits. It's not that there aren't possible hooks, there are lots. But many of them foreshadow the later events so much that they are edging in toward spoilers. So the company might cut corners is a hook, unless they really do, in which case it's a spoiler.... How to get around this? Do we leave so many hints we don't know what the hook is, or go for a slow build and risk not hooking?

Sigh....

 

[Brian G Turner]

I would suggest a hook as a way to develop tension, but eventually any tension needs release. Foreshadowing is never a spoiler IMO, unless it is both utterly blatant and without tension. And even some very successful books can do this and get away with this. Forget worrying about spoilers IMO and just look to build tension.

 

[Kissmequick]

Hmm

A hook is what gets people to read on

It's not the same as a spoiler, or shouldn't be,

Using a few films cos it's morelikely we;ve seen 'em

The Matrix hook is a guy who is sure there is something else going on, and we ant to find out with him

The Avengers hook is ONG all these super heroes! What will they be fighting?

The Hobbit hook is (arguably) everyman gets sucked into adventure.



The hook is what grabs your reader's attention right from the off, night be the basic premise, teh voice, the initial action (which may link into the main plot, even if tangentially) The hook as in the first page or so does NOT need to telegraph any plot. (though it probably should link to it...subtly, or not so depending) It does need to hook the reader in.

So, say the Dresden Files, The hook was the premise (wizard PI in modern Chicago) plus the voice. The plot was incidental to that.

 

[Coragem]

Agatha Christie used to write her novels so pretty much every character had a motive for murder / may possibly have committed the murder. So, why not throw in some blind alleys. Why not hide the "real hooks" that foreshadow what WILL happen in amongst some dead ends.

Obviously, this needs to be handled with care. The "dead end" stuff needs to be tied up carefully enough that it doesn't leave the reader feeling cheated.

Coragem.

 

[thaddeus6th]

It's tricky. You want something for the blurb which sets up the premise but doesn't screw the major plot twists later.

You could try looking at the first 3 chapters or so and summarise the premise using info contained just in that opening section.

 

[allmywires]

Well, my hook at the beginning of Hunted is that he's going to kill himself. That is, technically, a spoiler. But a spoiler can get you intrigued. I like to think it works in Hunted because you want to know *why* he wants to kill himself. Me explaining the exact reasons why he wants to kill himself in the first page negates any reason for you to want to read on, because you already know. Maybe think of it in that way?

 

[Bowler1]

Big hooks or small hooks is my question.

Small hooks, are little questions answered quickly, within the next few sections. I think these keep the reader engaged as the plot unfolds. Plot twists etc.

Big hooks, the ending for example, just who is the killer?

Not all the hooks need to be hidden, such as who the killer is. Some tension release as you go along is important for the reader as well, you don't want all the excitement in the last few pages.

Shogun, mentioned loads of times on here. It has a constant build of tension through the book with a sneaky ending - but, all along there are flash points of action, such as the escape from the castle. Build and release tension, build some more and release just a little, and so on. Easier said than done, but careful plot planning should help, and I'm a planner!

I hope the above helps, I have my doubts.

 

[Montero]

Not exactly a spoiler, but I also dislike prologue-ish things, or other ways of foreshadowing, that overshadows the current story. The "little did he know but soon his life would change" - for the unsubtle version. The kind of thing that makes me a little impatient with what I am currently reading in the book (despite it being good) because I know that something else is coming round the corner. For me, that is not tension, that's irritation.

 

[BetaWolf]

Not exactly a spoiler, but I also dislike prologue-ish things, or other ways of foreshadowing, that overshadows the current story. The "little did he know but soon his life would change" - for the unsubtle version. The kind of thing that makes me a little impatient with what I am currently reading in the book (despite it being good) because I know that something else is coming round the corner. For me, that is not tension, that's irritation.

I tend to jump right into a conflict, whether conversational (YOU DID WHAT!?) or an old fashioned firefight (KEEP YOUR BRAINPANS DOWN, YOU FATHERLESS SONS!). No offense, but I don't especially like finding a corpse, waking up to start the day, or something falling out of the sky particularly--though good stories have all started on those premises.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Even if you know before you start how something is going to end, there can be joy in the journey. Think "Apollo 13" or "Titanic". Notwithstanding the uneducated young fools out there (who may or may not be apocryphal) who didn't know how those ended before they saw the movies, we went in knowing how they ended and still enjoyed the heck out of them.

I have read books that started out as AMW says, where the first thing mentioned was that the MC was going to kill himself (or die) and, in some cases, why, and it didn't keep me from wanting to know how it was connected and what made it happen.

The right kind of spoilers just make you want more story -- you can do this.

 

[Lenny]

Can't help but agree with TDZ.

I watch a lot of television shows that finished before I started them, and I invariably come across spoilers whilst I Google the odd thing from them (usually: now where have I seen that actor before?). Rather than spoiling my enjoyment of the show, the spoilers usually enhance it, and I find myself paying greater attention to the story than I might have done simply because I try to work out where everything has to go from a point for the spoilerised event to happen.

Obviously, a spoiler like "A is killed by B during the finale to series X" ruins everything, whilst something like "A dies at the hands of B" is far more exciting -- the specified time and location takes all the fun out of guessing.

 

[Glitch]

So the company might cut corners is a hook, unless they really do, in which case it's a spoiler.

Knowing a company cuts corners isn't necessarily a spoiler. We still don't know how that do it or what consequence it has.


Using the film analogy. How many film trailers give away the big reveal?

 

[hopewrites]

Using the film analogy. How many film trailers give away the big reveal?

All of them from the 80's- early 90's especially all the ones before opening credits we're moved mostly to the end and overtures fell mostly by the wayside.

I think this question addresses a cultural shift in people nowadays and is more telling of expectati than is readily apparent. There are some books I pick up and after scanning the back bit put back, because there was nothing their to invest me in the story.

I was debating with a friend the other night on the pacing of certain blockbuster titles. I agrued that the director could take his time setting up the story, though still more rushed than the books pacing, because the producers know there is already money out there that will show up just because the movie is being made.

Have our books reached a point like the movies when people are going to read the back (a books trailer imo) and then shelf it saying "naw I read the back and they put all the vest parts there so what's the point?"

Without having read what you've got available in crits (yet) I'd say stop fretting spring dear. It can be both hook and spoiler, because IMO its only a spoiler if someone else tells me. You are the creater, you decide when to let readers in on what's going on. So its never a spoiler from you. If I've got a friend whose reading the same book and tells me what happens two chapters a head, that's a spoiler because the auther didn't intend me to know two chapters ahead what was up. They want me to know when they tell me, and possibly guess beforehand.

Don't feel bad if your readers guess your plot points. Be complemented that you led them to the conclusions you wanted. Reading is like sex. Some silky obsfucation is an alluring way to begin. But there should be some open nakedness of plot before the end.

 

[allmywires]

Reading is like sex. Some silky obsfucation is an alluring way to begin. But there should be some open nakedness of plot before the end.

I love this analogy. For some reason I always think of an important reveal a bit like a delayed orgasm. Left too long it stops being exciting. Too soon it's equally disappointing...

Sorry, I'll stop now.

 

[steve12553]

I love this analogy. For some reason I always think of an important reveal a bit like a delayed orgasm. Left too long it stops being exciting. Too soon it's equally disappointing...

Sorry, I'll stop now.

I'm not gonna say "Don't stop it was just getting interesting," because that would be classless. So I won't say it.

 

[hopewrites]

I love this analogy. For some reason I always think of an important reveal a bit like a delayed orgasm. Left too long it stops being exciting. Too soon it's equally disappointing...

Sorry, I'll stop now.

No I completely agree. Granted I've been told by more than one therapist that the early and prolonged quashing of my higher than normal sex drive has led it to leak out into normally unsexed parts of life, so it might just be my brains funny workings. But I felt that the total mind experience of reading that engages emotions, thoughts, and imagination paralleled physically sensuous experiences in the same manner as those compelling conversations labled "social intercourse."

But I've also had too much cake and tea tonight and my head is painfully fuzzy. I hope I don't regret this post come morning. *perverse gigging*