What’s the problem?
Hey there! Welcome back to our HOOKS discussion! We’ve been talking about the elements of a great HOOK – using the acrynom SHARP S= Stakes (Public or Private) H = Hero Identification (or Sympathy) A stand for ANCHORING! Or, using the journalist inside to create place!R – Starting your story on the Run, or two steps into the story.
This week, we’re on our LAST element of a GREAT hook, and probably the most important in creating a hook – the Problem, or identifying the Story Question. The story question is the one thematic question that drives the book.
? Will Richard Kimball ever find out who killed his wife?
? Will Frodo be able to destroy the ring?
The Story Question permeates all the decisions of the hero and/or heroine throughout the story, and needs to be hinted at in the sentence, in the first paragraph, and in the first scene.
Let’s take a look at some famous first lines:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)Is it true? Does a single man with a fortune need a wife? We’ll find out that yes…it is. But this story question drives the entire story.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. — C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
Is Eustace as bad as his name indicates? Is he a scoundrel? Does he deserve it? This story is one of my favorite redemption stories, and the fact that Lewis makes us wonder if he deserves redemption in this first sentence permeates our entire attitude about Eustace, and ultimately, our feelings about grace.
This is the rough draft of my upcoming book Here Comes Trouble, the madcap adventures of PJ Sugar, PI
It’s because of Boone that I was run out of my hometown.
There are some men in a woman’s life who should have the word Trouble stamped on their foreheads. These are the men whose smile can turn her common sense to stupidity, who know how to sweet her onto the back of a motorcycle, and can seduce her into saying yes to all the things her mama told her to run from.
Incidentally, it’s also because of Boone that I’m back and sitting in the Kellogg town jail, fingerprint ink wedged into my manicure, hungry and cold and accused of murder.
Maybe I just can’t escape Trouble.
~~~I’m still working on it, but as I’ve been sorting out the themes of the book, the question is, can a girl escape her past…and should she? Often, I find myself discovering the theme as I go along. Here’s a secret. You can change your first line. Even…your first paragraph, or first scene. In my most recent book to Tyndale, Finding Stefanie, I changed the first scene about five times, and finally chose one I’d written in the early stages.
How do you find a story question or problem? Ask: What is the lesson my character will walk away with? The question that accompanies that answer is the theme.
Going back to my book Flee the Night: This is the continuation of the first scene (We looked at the first line in previous posts):
She (Lacey) couldn’t stifle the shiver that rattled clear to her toes. Why hadn’t she listened to divine wisdom fifteen years ago and stayed at home instead of running after adventure? Lacey forced breath through her constricting chest. She hadn’t hoped to outrun her mistakes forever, but why today with Emily watching?
Lacey pried her fingers out of her daughter’s sweater and laced her hands together in her lap, cringing at her weakness. She’d been taught not to give away emotions, liabilities, secrets. But she’d die before she’d let them harm a hair on Em’s head.
So, the question is – what is Lacey willing to do for her daughter, and will her past cost her daughter’s life?
Using your story question to help you craft those first few paragraphs will help you reader understand what is at stake in the story, and commit them to sticking with it.
Next week, I show you how to incorporate these 5 elements in a hook – we’ll look at some examples, and then in July – let’s have a contest!!
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