How to fish for readers

Authors of novels strive for the best opening sequence to their stories. The key here is quick immersion, getting the reader into a flow of early expectation and anticipation.

A great way to do this is by throwing the reader into the middle of an action. It could be a fight, an argument, a confusing event, a physical dilemma or movement etc.

In my first novel, Nothing Purple, Nothing Black, optioned for film with The Drama House, I started with the main character, Harvey, in flight, jumping a “wave of steps” at a railway station, pursued by a journalist. It worked because the reader is immediately pulled into visualising the leap, feeling its urgency, and wondering what follows next.

To follow the fishing metaphor, novelists need to be skilled in applying the baited hook, line and sinker elements. Let us look at each of these in turn.

The Baited Hook

Clearly the opening scene to any novel will need to catch the reader’s attention. This is probably more important today that at any other time in the history of writing. We now live in a fast, blip society where communication occurs in rapid ways and people can become impatient with longer messages.

Obviously, the novel form puts the brakes on that. The reader commits for the duration. However, as a writer you need a surprising baited hook to catch the reader’s imagination for the journey to begin at all.

In my recent novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent, a short prologue provides exactly this—a vivid mystery of three corpses hanging from a metal frame that resembles a swing “in any public park”. The homely or familiar alongside the unhomely or unfamiliar clash to generate curiosity.

The Line

In fishing, the line keeps the fish connected to the person at the end of the rod, right? The novelist needs to do this with the reader. But how? Well for a start, the writer needs to create some level of suspense that further revelations are coming down the line; some of these may be minor, keeping interest and engagement, or bigger, turning points in the plot. Then there is ‘poetic glue’ that captures a vision of the described world.

Early on the reader needs to feel that the plotting is not random but progresses meaningfully, especially in non-experimental fiction. There is a journey to be had, a direction to explore together with the writer. I often think of this connection as the scaffolding that the novel presents to generate types of reception.

There needs to be sufficient balance here between place and character – a 'join-the-dots' where the writer outlines the possible read, assists but does not dominate the reader’s contribution to the textual hallucination of the novel. If the reader experiences strong writer intrusion early on, the spell, the line between them can easily break.

The line between the writer and reader is a fragile thing. The writer is present but disappearing at the same time. Welcome to the magic of creative writing.

The Sinker

In fishing, the sinker is a weight that pulls the hook and bait to the desired depth. Here we may think of readers in the shallows enjoying pure entertainment novels or in deeper water waiting for fresh, poetic writing or philosophical provocation. Literary fiction often suits readers who go deep, seeking to be doubly entertained, in minds as well as hearts.

First, they will want that engaging plot, with a character or characters that carry them along. Second, they will want a story that makes the familiar unfamiliar at some level. Third, they will expect a disruption to or resonance with their own thinking, beliefs, perspectives.

Fourth, they will look for a richer prose that allows them to dwell on and extend their appreciation of artful description. Finally, they will want to bite on new, possibly profound, insights about human consciousness and actions.

Characterisation

Novels are largely dependent on the voices and actions of the characters in them. The main character or characters need their place and duration in the novel as they interact, often with a cast of minor characters.

The main character or characters will tend to appear at the beginning of a novel, usually within the first chapter or so. Appearing early on, they will need to grab and satisfy the reader that it is worth walking with them into the story.

In a novel with more than one main character, the first of these may act as a kind of ‘meet and greet’ for the reader, preparing the path for another important or more significant character to come later, as happens in my novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent.

Battle Ahead

The next thing that readers will be expecting from a novel is tension or complicating action. Without tension of some kind – think of it like blood pressure – readerly momentum can quickly erode. The reader may ask a Billy Eilish style-question: ‘What was this made for?’ The timing of some kind of conflict or dilemma to overcome will come down to writerly intuition.

In The Wonders of Doctor Bent, I begin to drive this through an early scene in Ardinweald cemetery where Jason Hemp is at the grave of his twin brother, determined to seek revenge for his murder. How he might do this is yet to be described. The scene lends itself to an emotional deepening of Jason’s refusal to grieve, prepping the reader’s curiosity about how he might proceed.

Epiphany

You may or may not be familiar with the word epiphany. The term comes from the biblical story of the presentation, manifestation or showing of the baby Jesus to the world, memorably to the three wise men or magi. In novels, showing takes centre stage as opposed to the writer telling or explaining everything to the reader. Think of the gaps between the 'join-the-dots' as the key matter, that is, what the reader imagines based on the ‘dots’ you show.

The novelist shows the story through actions and character interaction. The writer scaffolds the reader’s imagination to ‘see’ places and people in a hallucinatory way. The reader 'sees' the fictional events. Key to this is developing the tone of the opening scenes and characters. Think of stage craft in creating the ‘dots’: the place of action, the time of year, the weather, the objects or props that lend to the quality of the emergent story or unfolding events.

Action and Reaction

Not quite the world of Newton's Third Law of Motion, but the novelist will endeavour in the early part of the novel to help the reader move with the main character or opening character to the novel. How they think, talk to themselves or others, interact with their surroundings or people around them will provide the reader with a compelling vision of their personality, size and shape, fashion, physicality, emotional make up and so on.

They will follow of the shoulder of the character, experience in their imagination what happens when others come into their world. They will want to learn more about the main character or characters through the ‘eyes’ of others in the story.

Not Spilling the Beans

A key aspect to the opening section of any novel and those early descriptions of a main character, is not spilling the beans. The writer will be careful not to reveal too much in terms of the story direction or characters. No reader wants a full account or confession of the life and soul of a character within the first pages or to have an easy map for what’s coming.

Think drip line instead of injection. Think slowly showing. Readers will be keen to wonder. They want to wonder about what is unfolding. They will enjoy what is left out, the gaps between the writerly ‘dots’ of information, the absences, the spaces. They will enjoy puzzling through where the novel is going. What might happen next? Why are characters acting in particular ways?

Try think about those dates you went on when the conversation didn’t seem to be going anywhere, when there was no anticipation of increasing enjoyment, no magic in the air. Now do the opposite of this for your readers.

The Baited Hook Revisited

Let us end with a couple of examples of how the first sentences of novels can ensure the reader takes the bait and cannot easily wiggle off the hook.

First, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye:

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me …”

Here, Salinger hooks ‘you’ directly as keen to learn what has gone on in terms of the where, what and how of Holden Caufield’s young life. The bait of a ‘lousy childhood’—a major and compelling trope in fiction—is swallowed whole.

Second, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four:

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

In this short sentence, Orwell brilliantly contrasts something we can easily picture [‘a bright cold day in April’] with something very odd [‘clocks were striking thirteen’]. Immediately the reader is launched into a different kind of world. The reader experiences the shimmering bait of ‘thirteen’— the hook is in!

Paul Crawford’s latest novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent, is available at Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles, WHSmith, Cranthorpe Millner, and all good bookshops. Author website: www.paulcrawfordauthor.com