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Misplacing Your Hook and Climax


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  • Site Administrator

So, this is a common editing mistake, one of the top five. Plot is very important. As a beta/sometimes editor, it's something I've seen before myself.

 

So, when we read there are two things that make a story stand out. The 'hook' is what intrigues us and makes us want to read your story. The climax is the point the book wouldn't exist without; the whole reason for your character and plot to exist.The problem comes when a writer doesn't have a good idea of what their hook or climax is... or when they happen in the story.

 

In my mind, the hook is Point A-the place that gets the story off the ground and gets the reader engaged in the world. A man standing before a gravestone, a plane is going down over the ocean, the world is blowing up and aliens are kidnapping humans... what have you. Without a good intriguing beginning, I get bored and usually won't keep reading. So, you really need that hook to pull your reader in at the start of your story.

 

The climax is pretty obviously Point Z. Your story and all it's sub-stories and plot devices should culminate into a final point that gives the reader the satisfaction that whatever your story is, it's now over. The bad guy is caught after a graphic shoot out, a couple-newly married-walks down the aisle hand in hand, the aliens are heroes and help re-seed the earth and put the humans back... You get the idea.

 

Between Point A and Z you have all the other letters of the alphabet. This is the journey you must take your reader on from the idea you start the story with and the way you end that idea. You need to show the world your characters live in, their lives and emotions-good and bad, events in their lives. They're clues along the way to your climax really. The biggest thing is to make sure that each one builds on the last and that they all further the story without dragging it off-topic. Each scene must contribute to that journey you are taking toward your climax.

 

So, when you write, keep in mind the journey you are taking the reader on and don't forget your hook and climax!

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