Hooking for horror/mystery/future fantasy
I've written about 2500 words in Armor X. Re-reading them, I don't think they're bad, but I'm not sure they're a good enough hook for drawing a reader in.
The Blade of Time is fantasy/action. The introduction here is super easy - I was able to do a very short action scene followed by an explanation of what the time traveling character was up to. It's not overly actioned, but the action is a good hook to introduce the time travel mechanic and pull people into what's going on with the story. I'll grant, it's likely more appealing to an action audience.
Armor X is going to have some action at some point, but it starts out as a very different kind of story. The action that exists will be fairly deep in the story. It starts before launch and follows a fairly linear story. That isn't to say a constant build, as I know that doesn't work. I have some events already figured out that are higher energy and lots designed to heighten suspense. Unfortunately, this is leaving me with a problem of trying to find a hook. The story is multiple third person limited (which is just how I'm most comfortable writing). The hook is my problem right now. Within the first 10-20 pages I need to figure out what to do to make the reader want to keep going.
How do you go about hooking on this type of story? It's a genre I'm not horribly familiar with, honestly. In a film you've got trailers. The first few minutes of film aren't as critical to drawing in a viewer. If you're at that movie you've already spent the $10 to get in. You're probably not going to walk out after the first 5-10 minutes if you aren't sold on it because you were sold before coming in. In a novel you don't necessarily have that benefit. Sure there's the blurb on the back, but many people will read the demo chapter for an ebook or read the first few pages in the book store for hardcopies. If you can't hook them in that time you're not going to get a reader.
The current iteration of Armor starts on the ground 10 days prior to launch. It's focusing around the crew as they prepare for the ship's flight. Certain perspective characters get their time to have their intellectual and emotional responses to this time period. I think the quality for the writing is pretty good, but I'm not sure the energy for a hook is there. The story doesn't start off with mystery or action or horror. It just starts with the people and who they are/how they behave. The mystery starts once they're in space, which isn't super far in, but far enough that I'm concerned I won't have hooked the readers by the time I get to it.
Bleh.
The Blade of Time is fantasy/action. The introduction here is super easy - I was able to do a very short action scene followed by an explanation of what the time traveling character was up to. It's not overly actioned, but the action is a good hook to introduce the time travel mechanic and pull people into what's going on with the story. I'll grant, it's likely more appealing to an action audience.
Armor X is going to have some action at some point, but it starts out as a very different kind of story. The action that exists will be fairly deep in the story. It starts before launch and follows a fairly linear story. That isn't to say a constant build, as I know that doesn't work. I have some events already figured out that are higher energy and lots designed to heighten suspense. Unfortunately, this is leaving me with a problem of trying to find a hook. The story is multiple third person limited (which is just how I'm most comfortable writing). The hook is my problem right now. Within the first 10-20 pages I need to figure out what to do to make the reader want to keep going.
How do you go about hooking on this type of story? It's a genre I'm not horribly familiar with, honestly. In a film you've got trailers. The first few minutes of film aren't as critical to drawing in a viewer. If you're at that movie you've already spent the $10 to get in. You're probably not going to walk out after the first 5-10 minutes if you aren't sold on it because you were sold before coming in. In a novel you don't necessarily have that benefit. Sure there's the blurb on the back, but many people will read the demo chapter for an ebook or read the first few pages in the book store for hardcopies. If you can't hook them in that time you're not going to get a reader.
The current iteration of Armor starts on the ground 10 days prior to launch. It's focusing around the crew as they prepare for the ship's flight. Certain perspective characters get their time to have their intellectual and emotional responses to this time period. I think the quality for the writing is pretty good, but I'm not sure the energy for a hook is there. The story doesn't start off with mystery or action or horror. It just starts with the people and who they are/how they behave. The mystery starts once they're in space, which isn't super far in, but far enough that I'm concerned I won't have hooked the readers by the time I get to it.
Bleh.