How to HOOK Your Audience (Writing Advice)
Summary
TLDRIn this informative video, author Brandon McNulty explores the concept of narrative hooks, essential for engaging an audience from the start. He defines hooks, discusses their importance in storytelling, and provides strategies for effective use. McNulty illustrates his points with examples from films like 'The Thing' and 'Breaking Bad,' offering tips to avoid common pitfalls in creating compelling openings. His insights aim to guide writers in crafting stories that captivate and maintain audience interest throughout.
Takeaways
- 📚 A hook is a narrative device designed to grab the audience's attention and invest them in the story.
- 🎬 Hooks can be placed at the beginning of the story, at the start of subplots, or at the opening of scenes.
- ❓ Raising questions in the audience's mind is an effective way to hook them.
- 😲 Surprising or shocking events can serve as strong hooks.
- 🤝 Establishing a strong emotional connection with the protagonist helps in hooking the audience.
- ⚔️ Showing conflicting ideas or emotions creates tension and hooks the audience.
- 🚀 Starting the story in the middle of dramatic action (in medias res) can be an effective hook.
- 📝 It's important to open with a strong hook but smaller hooks throughout the story are also effective.
- 🔀 Combining multiple types of hooks strategically can create a greater impact.
- 🚫 Avoid too much description, info-dumping, or overwhelming the audience with too many hooks at once.
Q & A
What is a narrative hook?
-A narrative hook is a device used to grab the audience's attention and get them invested in the story. It may or may not be the story's inciting incident, which is an event toward the beginning that shakes up the main character's world.
Can a story have multiple hooks?
-Yes, a story can have multiple hooks. These can appear at the opening of the story, the beginning of a subplot, or at various scenes throughout the story.
What is the primary purpose of a narrative hook?
-The primary purpose of a narrative hook is to grab the audience's attention and keep them engaged in the story.
How can raising questions act as a narrative hook?
-Raising questions puts intriguing thoughts in the audience's mind, making them curious about what will happen next in the story.
What is an example of a narrative hook from the movie 'The Thing'?
-In 'The Thing,' the opening scene features a helicopter chasing and shooting at a dog, raising questions about why the dog is being hunted and what will happen if it isn't killed.
How can showing something surprising or shocking serve as a hook?
-Showing something surprising or shocking grabs the audience's attention with a punch, making them eager to understand the unexpected event.
What is an example of a surprising narrative hook from the movie 'Frailty'?
-In 'Frailty,' the opening scene where a man claims to know who a serial killer is and reveals it's his brother creates a surprising and engaging hook.
How can establishing an emotional connection to the protagonist serve as a hook?
-Establishing an emotional connection by showing the protagonist's suffering, sacrifices, or private moments can make the audience sympathize and root for the character.
What is an example of an emotional narrative hook from the movie 'Joker'?
-In 'Joker,' Arthur Fleck being attacked and beaten while trying to recover his stolen sign makes the audience sympathize with him and wonder how he will respond.
What is in medias res and how does it serve as a narrative hook?
-In medias res is a technique where the story starts in the middle of dramatic action, immersing the audience in high-stakes conflict from the beginning, which can effectively capture their interest.
What are some strategies for using narrative hooks effectively?
-Effective strategies include opening with a strong hook, building toward a major hook with smaller ones, scattering hooks throughout the story, raising new questions as old ones are resolved, and combining different types of hooks strategically.
Why should writers avoid too much description or info dumping at the beginning of a story?
-Too much description or info dumping can overwhelm the audience and detract from engaging them in the characters and their goals. It's better to introduce details gradually after the audience is invested.
What is a common pitfall when using multiple hooks in a story?
-A common pitfall is overwhelming the audience with too many hooks, which can cause confusion and dilute the impact of the story's engaging elements.
What should writers consider when opening a story with action scenes?
-When opening with action scenes, it's crucial to provide context and stakes to ensure the audience cares about the action and understands its significance.
How can vague or inconsistent openings negatively impact a story?
-Vague or inconsistent openings can confuse or bore the audience, making it hard for them to understand the story's direction or feel compelled to continue watching or reading.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Narrative Hooks
In this introductory paragraph, the speaker, Brandon McNulty, sets the stage for a discussion on narrative hooks. He introduces himself as an author and the channel's focus on writing. The main topic is narrative hooks, with an explanation of what they are and their purpose in storytelling. Hooks are narrative devices designed to capture the audience's attention and engage them in the story. The speaker outlines the structure of the video, which includes defining a hook, exploring ways to use them to grab attention, providing strategies for their effective use, and warning against improper use. Examples from various movies are promised to illustrate these points.
🎬 Techniques for Capturing Audience Attention
This paragraph delves into the various techniques for capturing an audience's attention using narrative hooks. The speaker discusses five main methods: raising questions to pique curiosity, showing surprising or shocking events, establishing an emotional connection with the protagonist, presenting conflicting ideas or emotions to create tension, and starting the story in the middle of dramatic action. Each method is exemplified with a movie reference, such as 'The Thing' for raising questions, 'Frailty' for surprising revelations, 'The Joker' for emotional connection, 'Gran Torino' for conflicting emotions, and 'in medias res' technique illustrated by 'Breaking Bad'. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of a strong opening but also notes that hooks can be effectively used throughout the story.
📝 Tips for Using Narrative Hooks in Storytelling
The speaker provides five practical tips for employing narrative hooks in storytelling. The first tip is to start the story with a strong hook. If that's not possible, the second tip suggests building towards a major hook with smaller ones along the way, as demonstrated in 'The Menu'. The third tip advises against limiting hooks to the beginning, suggesting their use throughout the story, including when introducing subplots or side characters, with '1408' as an example. The fourth tip is about raising new questions once old ones are resolved, as seen in 'Alien'. The fifth tip is about combining multiple types of hooks for greater impact, using 'Breaking Bad' as a successful example. The paragraph concludes with a caution against overwhelming the audience with too many hooks at once, as seen in the movie 'Neza'.
❌ Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Hooks
In the final paragraph, the speaker outlines common mistakes to avoid when crafting narrative hooks. These include excessive description or info dumping at the beginning, which can bury the audience in details without engaging them with characters or goals. Overwhelming the audience with too many hooks is also cautioned against, as seen in the chaotic opening of 'Neza'. Starting with action scenes lacking context or stakes is another pitfall, especially in novels where the reader needs a reason to care about the action. Vague or inconsistent openings that leave the audience confused or bored are highlighted, using the 'Justice League' theatrical cut as an example. The speaker emphasizes the need for clarity and effectiveness in the opening scene to ensure the audience's engagement.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Narrative Hooks
💡Inciting Incident
💡Raising Questions
💡Surprising Revelations
💡Emotional Connection
💡Conflicting Ideas
💡In Meduis Race
💡Info Dumping
💡Overwhelming the Audience
💡Contextual Action
💡Vague Openings
Highlights
Introduction to the topic of narrative hooks and their importance in engaging an audience.
Definition of a hook as a narrative device to grab audience attention and potentially invest them in the story.
Explanation of how a hook may or may not be the story's inciting incident.
Discussion on the possibility of having multiple hooks throughout a story.
Strategy of raising questions in the audience's mind to create curiosity.
Use of surprising or shocking elements as a method to grab attention, exemplified by the movie 'Frailty'.
Establishing a strong emotional connection with the protagonist as a hook, demonstrated in 'The Joker'.
Creating tension through conflicting ideas or emotions, as shown in 'Gran Torino'.
The technique of starting a story in the middle of dramatic action, or 'in medias res'.
Tip to open a story with a strong, impactful hook for immediate audience engagement.
Suggestion to build towards a major hook with smaller ones if a strong opening hook is not feasible.
Advice against limiting hooks to the beginning of the story, advocating for their use throughout.
Importance of raising new questions when old ones are resolved to maintain audience interest.
Recommendation to combine multiple types of hooks for a greater impact, using 'Breaking Bad' as an example.
Warning against overwhelming the audience with too much description or info dumping at the start.
Caution against using too many hooks at once, which may lead to audience confusion.
Advice to avoid starting a story with action scenes that lack context or stakes.
Warning against vague or inconsistent openings that may bore or confuse the audience, using 'Justice League' as an example.
Final advice to focus on a clear and effective hook to engage the audience from the start.
Transcripts
get ready because today we're going to
discuss what it takes to win your
audience over and keep them on board by
the way my name is Brandon McNulty I'm
the author of bad parts also the author
of Entry wounds and welcome to my
writing channel one of my subscribers
requested a video on the topic of
narrative hooks how to use them and how
not to use them so what we're going to
do today we're going to start off by
answering the question what is a hook
then we'll explore different ways to
grab your audience's attention and I'll
give you some strategies for using Hooks
and I'll also wrap things up with a
warning on how not to hook your audience
I'll also be giving examples from
several different movies today I'll put
them all up on your screen most of these
examples are going to focus on things
that happen at the very beginning of the
stories but if you are concerned about
spoilers just keep this list in mind all
right now let's answer the question what
is a hook and a hook is a narrative
device that grabs the audience's
attention and gets them invested in the
story and it may or may not be your
story's inciting incident and the
inciting incident of course it's an
event toward the beginning of the story
that shakes up your main character's
world and sends them on their Story
Journey that may be the hook in your
story or you may have a hook before that
you may have several hooks throughout
the story and that's another thing to
keep in mind you can have multiple hooks
you can have a hook at the opening of
the story then maybe at the opening of a
subplot the opening of one scene or
several scenes there are a lot of
different times you can use hooks you
don't have to limit them to the very
beginning of a store now as I mentioned
the main purpose of a narrative Hook is
to grab the audience's attention and now
I want to share with you a few different
ways of doing this first way is by
raising questions putting questions in
your audience's head making them curious
about what will happen down the line and
this is the best way to get their
attention you want to show the audience
something interesting or unusual that
Spurs their curiosity and makes them
wonder what will happen later on in the
story a great example of this comes from
the 1982 movie The Thing and this movie
opens with a scene where a helicopter is
flying over Antarctica and it's tracking
down a dog and the people inside the
helicopter are shooting at the doctor
trying to kill it and this scene raises
a lot of questions because nothing is
explained to us we're just left with the
image of these people trying to kill the
dog and we're wondering why is this dog
so important why are those people trying
to kill it what will happen if they
don't kill it second way to grab an
audience is by showing something
surprising or shocking this works
basically the same way as raising
questions but it has more of a punch to
it an example of this comes from the
2001 movie Frailty and this one opens up
with an FBI agent who is in the midst of
an investigation he's trying to track
down a serial killer known as the gods
hand killer and the FBI agent he returns
to his office and he finds a mysterious
man waiting there for him and this man
says that he knows who the Killer is and
then the two characters have this
exchange listen this may sound a little
bit crazy but
I know who the goddamn killer is nobody
just walks into the office and tells you
who the Killer is it just doesn't happen
that way
sometimes truth defies reason agent
don't yeah
so who is it then
my brother so the Revelation here is a
surprising one and it lights up the
story right at the start it puts
questions in the audience's head who is
this mysterious man what is it that he
wants why is he willing to reveal his
brother's involvement and then those
questions get answered over the course
of the movie third way to grab an
audience you establish a strong
emotional connection to the protagonist
and this usually means that you'll show
characters suffering or making
sacrifices or experiencing a private
moment we see this in the opening of The
Joker movie Arthur Fleck is trying to
make a living as a clown who Twirls a
sign on the sidewalk then he gets his
sign taken away from him he tries to
recover it but then he gets attacked and
beaten up and it's a hook that makes us
sympathize with the character and it
also makes us wonder how the character
will react going forward another way to
grab your audience's attention is by
showing conflicting ideas or emotions
and this is how you create tension in
your story and a great example of this
comes from the movie Gran Torino if you
remember at the very beginning there's
that serious setting where are in the
church there's a funeral mass being held
and we see the main character Walt
Kowalski he's mourning the loss of his
wife then his family disrespects him
they show up late they're dressed
inappropriately they're bad-mouthing him
behind his back and these clashing
emotions Walt being sorrowful while his
family is indifferent this creates
tension and signals that there's plenty
of conflict yet to come and then one
last way to grab your audience's
attention is by starting the story in
the middle of dramatic action this is
called in medius race and this is where
your story is already in motion you drop
your audience into a tense moment and
you're right there alongside the
characters experiencing some high
conflict high stakes okay so we talked
about different ways of grabbing your
audience's attention now let's shift
gears and focus on five tips five simple
yet effective tips for using narrative
hooks in your stories and the first tip
is to open your story right off the bat
with a strong impactful hook if you're
writing a novel find a way to get a
strong hook in your opening chapter your
opening page or even your open line and
if you're writing a movie a TV show or
something similar find a way to get an
impactful hook in your opening scene or
even your opening image tip number two
if for some reason you can't open up
your story with a strong impactful hook
then build toward one with smaller hooks
along the way an example of this comes
from the 2022 movie the menu and this
one opens up with a conversation between
two people who are about to visit an
exclusive restaurant that's on a private
island and the two characters Tyler and
Margo they're about to board a boat
Tyler is a huge food Enthusiast he can't
wait to go to this restaurant and he
invites Margo along as his date now
Margo on the other hand she doesn't
really care about fancy food at all and
in this case she's a total Outsider and
it creates tension here because we have
a situation where their attitudes over
food Clash so that's your small hook at
the very start later we get another
small Hook when everyone is checking in
we see that Margot isn't Tyler's
designated guest welcome to Hawthorne Mr
Ledford and Miss Westervelt
um sorry yeah no that was uh it's not
miss what the change of plans so miss
Westervelt this is Miss
I'm Marco this is an awkward moment that
builds an emotional connection to the
character it once again establishes her
as an outsider which works as a small
hook and then once they get to the
restaurant we get a major hook the
mysterious celebrity chef who runs the
island he notices Margot and reacts as
though he's alarmed by her presence and
it raises some serious questions and it
propels the story forward tip number
three don't limit hooks to the very
beginning of your story oftentimes
you'll hear people say that the
beginning of a story needs to hook the
audience and that's true but you can
also have hooks scattered throughout
your story sometimes you can even use
them when you're introducing a side
character or a subplot an example of
this comes from the movie 1408 and this
is about a man who doesn't believe in
the Supernatural and he does he goes to
various haunted locations and writes
books about them and then he receives a
postcard daring him to visit a haunted
hotel room in New York City and he takes
up the challenge and then right before
he leaves for New York City we get a
subplot Hook when his editor talks to
him over the phone yeah uh the more
personal though
are you sure you want to come here yeah
of course it'll make a solid closing
chapter of the book yeah yeah I know the
routine but
I mean it's New York
all that happened you really want to put
yourself through that so this is a minor
hook but it's an effective one and it
sets up the emotional heart of the story
tip number four when one question gets
resolved raise another one and this goes
back to the idea of scattering hooks
throughout your story an example of this
comes from the movie Alien if you
remember early on there is a major Hook
when the Facehugger creature latches on
to Kane's face and this raises all sorts
of questions like what is that thing on
Kane's face what is it doing to him why
won't it let go then eventually it does
let go and then that raises the question
well what was the whole point of all
that and then in the middle of the story
we get our answer with the chest burster
scene and then beyond that there are
still more questions where did that
chest burster creature go and then
what's going to happen next how are the
heroes going to resolve this issue how
are they going to stop the alien and
then the fifth tip strategically combine
multiple types of hooks I'm not saying
throw every single type into your story
or every single type into your opening
scene but in some cases you can combine
multiple types of hooks in order to get
a greater impact an example of this
would come from Breaking Bad in the very
first scene of Breaking Bad it drops us
into the middle of dramatic action as
Walt is driving away and then he ends up
crashing his vehicle and we see unusual
things like Walt wearing a mask and
driving around in his underwear and then
there's strong emotion when Walt
nervously addresses his family through a
video recording and finally the scene
ends with Walt pointing his gun in the
direction of approaching Sirens which
raises tons of questions like what's
going to happen next how will this guy
get out of this mess and why is he even
here in the first place okay now before
we wrap up this video I want to give you
some quick tips on how not to hook your
audience and these are some things you
want to avoid doing especially at the
very beginning of the story the first
thing to avoid is too much description
or info dumping most audiences do not
want to get buried under a pile of
details at the start of a story instead
get your audience invested in the
characters and their goals once you've
established the characters then you can
start unloading heavy details and
describing the history of your story
world second thing you want to avoid is
overwhelming your audience and when you
start a story there's going to be a
temptation to use a ton of different
hooks in order to find something that
works something that actually grabs the
audience but you need to be selective
you can't just throw everything you can
at them and if you do you may end up
confusing or overwhelming people an
example of this comes from the 2019
movie Neza and this one opens up with an
info dump about a special item known as
the chaos Pearl then we get introduced
to two Side characters who battle the
chaos Pearl and then there's fast-paced
action there's magic there's humor
there's backstory there's a wizard
master who saves the day and then the
cast Pro gets divided into two parts
before we get another info dump that
sets up the main storyline and the thing
is there's just too much going on in the
span of three minutes and thankfully the
movie gets better once it settles down
but the hectic opening can create a lot
of confusion now as I mentioned there's
nothing wrong with combining multiple
hooks like in the breaking bad example I
gave you however that example works
because it keeps things so simple it
focuses strictly on Walt and his
immediate situation Neza on the other
hand hits us with a whirlwind of
information right at the start and some
of the most interesting details get
buried among others another thing to
avoid is opening up your story with
action scenes that don't have context or
Stakes now movies and TV can get away
with this if they're visually stylish
but if you're writing a novel be careful
if you're starting things off with tons
of action it's critical that you give us
a reason to care about the action that's
happening don't just show us a bunch of
explosions or gunshots or swinging
swords answer the question why should we
care and then the last thing to avoid is
vague or inconsistent openings and
sometimes a writer will start a story
with a scene that tries to be clever but
in the end it only leaves the audience
feeling bored or confused it's important
to consider what types of questions you
want to put in your audience's heads
when that opening scene ends you want
them wondering what will happen next you
don't want them wondering what did they
just watch an example of this comes from
the movie Justice League the theatrical
cut and this one opens up with a kid
interviewing Superman on a cell phone
and this scene is just weird it the tone
the direction the purpose is just all
over the place and it's hard to know how
to feel after watching this intro it
definitely doesn't hook the audience and
in most cases it's only going to
alienate them so when you are coming up
with your intro scene try and settle on
one good hook if you want to include
some others like in Breaking Bad you can
do that as well but at least focus on
getting a clear effective hook in there
as long as you get your audience on
board you can have success with your
story so I hope this helps question of
the day what is your favorite movie and
at what point did it grab your attention
let us know in the comments section
below thank you for watching if you want
to support the Channel please pick up a
copy of either one of my books bad parts
is great if you like small town horror
it's about people trading away their
sick and injured body parts in order to
get healthy again and then entry wounds
is great if you like Thrillers it's
about a guy who picks up a haunted gun
and he cannot put it down until he kills
six people with it also be sure to check
out my other videos like share and
subscribe and as always remember to keep
on writing
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