Inspirational Romance Writer's Workshop

"Hooking the Reader" 

December 4, 2000

LColeman: Welcome to the Inspirational Romance Writer's Workshop. Our guest tonight is Gail Martin, her topic is "Hooking the Reader" Welcome Gail.

Gail: Thanks - Lynn

LColeman: Gail would you begin by telling everyone a bit about yourself and your current books available for any last minute Christmas shoppers? GA

Gail: I'm multi-published with 8 novels and 3 novellas - Barbour, Steeple Hill Love Inspired and Silhouette Romance. My novels out now are UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR - and CHRISTMAS THREADS an anthology. And coming in December is ONCE UPON A TIME- which also has a novella by Lynn. I'm a contributing editor for the Christian Communicator - and do lots of worship materials also.

LColeman: Great, Gail. Why don't you begin with this workshop and I'll just help navigate. ga

Gail: When Lynn asked me to do the workshop - it was just this evening - I thought about something that might be helpful, a topic that might interest you Hooking the reader - that's what we all want to do. Keep them reading all night long.

Gail: I love to hear that from readers - and I thought I'd share some of my techniques with you and then have you share some with me.

Gail: Hooks - make our books page turners - we want to stop at the end of the chapter because its time to cook dinner - but we can't. At the end of the chapter we're drawn into the next one.

Gail: What are some of the things you can do? First - create compelling characters.

Gail: Compelling believable characters are not perfect people - they are men and women who have difficulties, who are flawed and who have weaknesses. Make sure that you give these things to your characters - this makes them vulnerable.

Gail: Then allow those weaknesses to surface - let the reader see them. Here's an example.

Gail: (Internal monologue) Sailing! His stomach rose to his throat and knotted. Not sailing. Not water. How could he tell them his fears? He wouldn't. When they suggested sailing in the afternoon, he'd suggest something as exciting - something far away from the water.

Gail: If you heard this in someone's head - you'd ask yourself questions - Why is he afraid? Will he distract them from sailing? Will something happen to force him to be in the water?

Gail: So Compelling characters with flaws and weaknesses is one way to hook a reader.

Gail: Next - you can provide an exotic or frightening setting - a strong mood setting.

Gail: Name some settings that you think would draw or hook a reader - ga Jump in!

Gail: Tropical island -

nettiekd: Alaska

Wanda: the jungle

Gail: yes - a cave, abandoned house

smoore: the middle of a battlefield

SageDenn: Greek island

Patty: hospital

Gail: Yes - Definitely - good. Now think about this. Even a normal setting can become compelling and a hook if you give it a twist. If you create an unusual situation.

Gail: Here's a scene from my upcoming Love Inspired called A Love For Safekeeping. This is a romance suspense - a woman is being stalked - she's an elementary teacher and returns to the building to pick up something she forgot to take home. Here's the scene: (or part of it!)

Gail: A lone vehicle remained in the dark parking lot. Her pulse escalated as she climbed from the car, and she glanced around the shadowy entrance, then steeled herself against her foolish fears.

Despite the words of assurance rolling in her head, she dashed for the back entrance while glancing over her shoulder. When her hand clasped the handle, she was relieve the door was unlocked. Inside, a strange eeriness settled over her in the familiar surroundings. She'd never had occasion to be in the building alone at night, and in the morgue-like quiet, she peered down the dim hallway before heading for the classroom.

Gail: Her rubber soles made a muffled thud in the silence. Amid the hush, a few dimmed lights seemed to hum with electricity. She turned into a darker corridor, and a fearful dread shivered through her. She berated herself for her foolishness.

Gail: At her classroom door, she turned the knob. Locked. Good sign. She felt safer. She used the key and stepped inside. To avoid alarming the lone custodian, she ignored the light switch and allowed her eyes to adjust to the dusky room.

Gail: The primer was in the bottom drawer, and she darted to her desk and snatched it out, releasing her pent up breath. Success.

Gail: When she straightened, a shadow covered her as a hand grabbed her arm. Her scream froze in her throat, and her knees buckled when a stick rose above her head.

Gail: Now - notice that her normal everyday class room is different in the night - in the dark when she knows that someone has been watching her and following her.

Gail: Check out the words - Morgue-like, for example, that I used to help create this eerie feeling.

Gail: Can anyone think of another setting like this that is normal but weird and eerie when an unusual circumstances comes around? ga.

nettiekd: Hometown/ex-boyfriend

Wanda: lost in the woods at night

Gail: Yes

Aisha: empty hospital

Gail: Yes!!

Patty: your own house.

LColeman: cold basement

nettiekd: camping

FeedaStray: Storming lights go out

Gail: Storms are good and camping is good. Great.

Aisha: kitchen at night with open curtains

KiwiElle: anywhere during a storm

SageDenn: lost on beach at night

Joyfulbee: Church when everyone left and turned out the lights.

Gail: You can add excitement and suspense to a story when you add scenes like this.

Gail: So - we have characters and we have settings.

Gail: Here are some techniques that will also help you.

Gail: Hooks - need techniques - different ways to interest the reader, make them curious, draw them in. Hook them!

Gail: First. Do not put all your backstory out right away. Tell only the tiny bit that needs to be told. Lay it out in bits and pieces. Hold back the most serious flaw or problem and only hint at it so the reader is curious.

Gail: If any of you read my novel Upon A Midnight Clear. You will remember the dream scenes that begin hinting at what's happening, then adds a little more each time the heroine dreams - until you receive the whole story - in her dream.

Gail: This draws the reader in and makes them curious.

Gail: Here's a short example from Secrets Within that's being published as an e-book on the new Storybook Series on OWEG. 

The heroine asks - Tell me about you.

"You'd be bored out of your mind."

"That's what I need. Maybe, I'd have a good nights sleep, reminiscing our conversation."

Her smirky smile tickled him and for once, he wished he could be honest and tell her about his life. But that wasn't possible. He lifted his eyes to hers, pushing the real Jeff back in the trunk and told her a mixture of truth and fiction.

Gail: Now -- you see how the reader will want to know what he's hiding.

Gail: I give little pieces later - and another later - until the story comes out but not right away.

Gail: Here's another, also from Secrets of the Heart - my next LI release in August 2001.

Hungry? Scott closed his eyes. Yes, he was starving, but for more than food. He'd allowed a college relationship to kill his taste for courtship. But the right woman could make him feel complete and whole and loved. When he lifted his eyelids, Kate's delicate frame filled his eyes.

Gail: Here again -- we see a hint of the "college relationship" - we wonder what could have happened. Another from the same story - but Kate's introspection:

For so many years, she'd pushed amorous thoughts from her mind. She had built a wall whenever she sensed a man was interested in her. Relationships were too complicated. They required honesty, and she wasn't ready to spill out her past. She'd decided long ago to let her career be her focus, even though sometimes her personal life seemed too lonely. And too empty.

But she'd made her bed and now --- as her mother had so aptly put it -- she would lie in it . . . alone.

Gail: Again - we know she has something she's ashamed of - but I don't give the details right away. I like to keep the reader guessing for a while. Tell too much and it takes away the hook that keeps them reading. Another technique is to make the reader think things are going well --- and then turn the tables on them.

Gail: Same novel:

Clinging to him, Kate felt the thud of his heart against her own. She loved Scott, and if God were willing, she would deal with her sin, then accept his proposal. She wanted to be his wife with every fiber of her being. As if God presented her a gift, the weight lifted from her heart. Tomorrow --- the day she would say goodbye or embrace the love he offered.

Gail: Again - we get "sin" but no more. Tomorrow comes in this story - and she details her sorrow - her hurt and pain and here's where you pull out the rug.

Gail: The hero - you expect him to forgive and forget - to be strong. Here's Scott's reaction.

Scott reached out to hold her, but she pushed him away, sensing this shock, knowing he was repulsed. Before she could stop herself, before she could catch her breath and realize what she'd done, Scott rose and stumbled away from her. "I cant fight you any longer," he said.

"This is the last thing I thought would happen tonight. I'm sorry, but I can't handle this." He spun on his heel and tore across the grass out of sight.

Kate curled into a ball on the glider, her body reeling with spasms of guilt, her sorrow knotted within her like hangman's noose. She'd taken every measure of her inner bitterness and flung it at Scott as if he were the sinner, instead of her. Rather than kissing Scot's feet and anointing him with oil, she poured venom on the fresh wound that she had opened.

Impelling her tear-stained eyes to open, Kate peered into the darkening heavens. The sunset bled across the sky in orange and scarlet, like fire and flames--like damnation.

Gail: Again - the unexpected. Notice the language used to create the evil, sinful, evil feelings.

Gail: Time is running away so let me hit on a few more things fast.

Gail: Sometimes you can let the reader in on the one secret - so that they can watch the hero or heroine react and act - and they will be yelling out telling them to stop. We see this in "the time bomb under the table theory" that is used in suspense all the time.

Gail: There's foreshadowing - giving hints of the problem - leaving items around to lead the reader to suspect something's going to happen.

Gail: In my suspense A Love for 'Safekeeping. Jane -gets notes that hint at what the stalker is going to do to her- the reader and Jane are frightened.

Gail: A major way to hook the reader is to end the chapter at the point of excitement

Gail: For example, in the same novel - end of chapter one - Kyle walks Jane out to her car and says, "Looks like you've got a problem." Chapter ends.

Gail: Chapter two ends with her running into the dark parking lot - and she touches her car when a "shadow fell across her and grabbed her arm. Her scream froze in her throat, and her knees buckled when a stick rose above her head.

Gail: Those will make the reader go on to the next chapter -- AND NO ONE STOPS ONCE THE'VE BEGUN A CHAPTER! <G>

Gail: Okay - I'd like to let you ask questions. ga

Aisha: How do you keep this type of interest if the novel is not necessarily suspenseful? Do all novels need a big secret? ga

Gail: I use the same techniques - not quite as suspenseful - but ones that make the reader turn the page into the next chapter. This is from my Silhouette Romance.

Her heart lurched, then galloped across her chest. She caught her breath before she whispered the words that had risen earlier in her thoughts. "No problem, Lucas, you can spend the night."

Gail: To explain, his transmission went out on his truck - he's doing a major fast carpentry job for her - so it's convenient if he stays. He's on the upper floor and she's on the lower - still clean - but that would get the reader to turn the page

Aisha: Thanks! I see now.

Gail: Great

FeedaStray: How much time to you have to put in research of areas etc. and where do you do your main research

Gail: I often write about things that I know - if not, I usually interview people who do know something. For this novel, I talked to construction people and read books about carpentry and building houses. I do use the Internet - but not as much as books and people

Gail: Any other questions?

smoore: Have any suggestions for hooking the reader when the main character is a man?

Gail: Same way - you need to start a scene - and at the most dramatic point - the line that really makes a difference - you stop the scene and go into the next chapter.

Gail: I just finished a novella that has a male as the main character Does that help?

smoore: I'm pretty stumped.

Gail: In other words - don't finish the scene - but carry it over into the next chapter

smoore: maybe I'm not asking the right question. Let me think about it a minute. Thanks.

Gail: For example. When the hero said, "Look you have a serious problem." The chapter ends on that line. The next chapter opens with: They moved forward and stared at her car. All the tires were flat. Can you see what I mean now?

smoore: Yes, I understand exactly what you are suggesting but the character lacks something and I'm at my wits end to figure out what's missing.

Gail: Oh, that would be hard for me to tell you unless I knew your story, etc. How about critique partners? They can be very helpful - to give you ideas and brainstorm. Have someone read a scene and see what's missing.

smoore: Well, I sent out my ch. to a friend today and she said it lacks something. I can't put my finger on it though.

LColeman: Gail do you have time for one more question? ga

Gail: Sure

LColeman: Okay who would like to ask it?

LColeman: What was the one book that you lost sleep over because of it's great hooks? ga

FeedaStray: ?

FeedaStray: We all bring people into stories that we have known how do you cover this up

Gail: I've read so many mysteries -I love the Ludlum books and couldn't put those down. But it's not just that - how about Prince of Tides? That book is so filled with hidden secrets and the reader knows it was something but it drags you through until you learn!

LColeman: thanks. I believe one of the best ways to learn is to read good writing.

LColeman: And to read bad writing, but fortunately we don't have to read too much of that <g> 

Gail: The quest asked about using real people - I'll answer that. When I use real people - I only use pieces of them so they're different than the real person. I usually use a blend.

LColeman: Gail thanks for filling in tonight

Gail: You're welcome Lynn.

LColeman: Thanks again Gail, great Job

smoore: Thanks

LColeman: Protocol has ended