Narrative Hook Quotes

If it's commercial fiction that you want to write, it's story, story, story. You've got to get a story where if you tell it to somebody in a paragraph, they'll go, "Tell me more." And then when you start to write it, they continue to want to read more. And if you don't, it won't work.

Questions that require answers are what keep readers going - and the place to start raising those questions is with your very first sentence.

Since the Greek myths, the greatest stories are premised on the idea of, 'A stranger arrives.'

If, in the very first pages, I'm forced to read gratuitous phrases or banal metaphors, I won't be able to get inside the story. Only if the sentences 'sparkle' can I get hooked.

Marley was dead: to begin with.

One of the great things about film is that, typically anything that's introduced in the first five minutes, the audiences will by into.

Character design, like story design, requires a hook to grab the reader's attention.

If you don't have something that glues the audience to the screen, you're in trouble.

Will the reader turn the page?

The opening lines of a book are so important. You really need to somehow charm your reader. If you can't get her attention in the first pages, you may have lost her. There has to be an ambience.

How you start the movie is critical. And how often you feel that there's no reason for how it's starting.

If you don't have people that the reader cares about and stories that are gripping, you've got nothing.

I think origin stories are a great way to get people reinvested in a story. I mean, we originally accepted 'Star Trek' without knowing anything about Kirk or Spock. All we needed to know was that it took place in the future.

I want to make sure that my writing grips the reader from the word 'go.'

There always should be something hanging unfinished before a scene ends so that there's a reason for going to the next scene.

I am fascinated by storytelling glue. Anytime I see someone who's good at it, I stop and wonder, 'How'd they 'do this? Why can't I tear myself away?