Yesterday at Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop I heard a lively debate on the writing technique called the hook, the concept that the story/poem/essay/memoir has to pull the reader into the text by “setting the hook” in the reader’s attention the way a fisherman sets the hook in a nibbling fish, a quick and forceful move. Isn’t this both manipulation and formula? Sounds painful and I wonder if there’s another way to lure the reader into the text. The jab/stab of the fishhook seems to me both unpleasant and emblematic of commercial fiction, like the blare of trumpets announcing the entrance of elephants under the big top. The expected spectacle. Editors and agents look for it. 

Let’s reframe this idea of the routine grab, that formulaic first sentence. How about an invitation for the reader to come in, like opening a door or gate, to step inside a created world, to join the party, walk through the fun house? Be welcomed and enticed, curious about the characters she meets. Willing to taste whatever info is on the table. Could not the aroma of good cooking tease a reader into the writer’s kitchen? Think of Tom Robbins’ wild and wonderful stories as a party. He holds the door open, “Come on in!” Smiles, let the fun begin. No barbed hook, no resistance, no mono-filament binding us to his words. We are happy to join his merry pranks.

The writer’s effort won’t change much. We still need the freshest words and the best tone, the energy of fluid text, but our attitude toward the reader could change. We could be helpful rather than adversarial.