[Democracyman]

I am working on the craft of writing some, reading a book about it, pretty good. A lot of hints in it.

One thing it says is to have constant motion forward, a challenge or threat in place that must be dealt with, it can be physical danger or a problem of solving a murder with physical danger present. Or a monster to kill, and a damsel (or man) to save etc.

I guess the ever present 'hook' is a constant motion forward and a constant problem to be solved of some sort. A hook at the end of a chapter is a particular smaller problem to be solved at that moment. Maybe getting down a cliff face or having to get your warp drive working as the enemy ships are diving in. It seems to me the most emotional problems that hook readers in a book are the same ones that hook people in life, like finding true love, or facing a evil person in a challenge.

The book I am reading says you must make the character traits in the book very big to show them to a reader, must paint them fairly large, like evil or impatience or a bi polar mental disorder etc.

One hook that I think is important is surprises, you must surprise the reader in the plot in a believable way, in way that
turns their emotions on as well. This kind of craft keeps them reading.

I think it better for me to understand the guidelines of a successful novel way before I try to write one. Then at least I may have a rough draft that after a million edits would be fun to read.

The book I am reading is "The 38 most common problems fiction writing mistakes" (And how to avoid them) by Jack M. Bickham

I think it is pretty good.

Dan