Truth or Fiction

She waits.

It is a waiting room, after all.

There's a book in her purse; she doesn't take it out, open it, read. There are people down the corridor, but she doesn't mind them. Not like she normally would, curious by nature as she is.

She studies the linoleum floor, wondering how many steps cover the space between where she is and where she'll be. Somewhere back behind that closed door, to where a nurse must invite you.

News waits.

The hard plastic chair grows, well, harder, though its chemistry hasn't changed since she sat down. It's just... maybe somehow, because all her nerves are alerted, she feels it like she didn't before, leaden and solid. Like that heft of unease in her stomach, leaden and solid.

She hears the rattling of the knob, sees it turn. She imagines a significant woosh of air, one she might saddle, mount and escape on, as the door swings open.

She hears her name called. Pries herself from the weighted chair. Wants to smile at the warm nurse, who offers a grasping and guiding arm, but she can't get the right muscles to cooperate. Not in this moment.

Instead, she draws a deep breath. Again.

Reality waits.

Happy Easter

Photo from Google images

Hooked

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6th, 1973.
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These first sentences from Alice Sebold's bestselling novel, The Lovely Bones, knocked me to the floor. Dynamite, don't you think? Immediately we know who we're reading about, in what perspective, and why. And the why, wow. That past tense is chilling.

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All of that is Sebold's hook. A hook is a device especially in music or writing that catches the attention.* In this case, just two sentences had it.

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Sebold's hook didn't allow me room for pause. I was off, into the novel at breakneck pace, into Susie's narrative. And I'm not done reading it yet, but still, I feel that hook. Hers is one I'll refer to as I work with my own.

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Think about the hooks that have most grabbed you. What made them work? Were they tight and concise, like Sebold's? Did they build over paragraphs or pages?

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Have you written an effective one?

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Share with us.

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*as defined by Merriam-Webster Online