In a post on DIY MFA, Karyn Fischer offers advice for finding the hook and the heart of your novel. “We need the hook to draw us in and we need the heart to feel any sort of emotional connection to, or resonance with, the story,” she says. “In other words: come for the hook, stay for the heart.”
So, how do you get both on the page? Like a movie trailer, your hook communicates your genre, setting, conflict, tone, characters, and story. “The hook is the essence of what happens in your book,” Fischer explains. You need to answer a few big questions about character, desire, and conflict, in one or two sentences. Fischer recommends looking up book deal announcements for examples.
Next, you have to find the heart. “The heart of a book is the reason why people fall in love with it,” Fischer writes. “It’s what connects them on a deeper level to the reading experience.” Heart is how readers relate to your story, even if they are very different from your characters, and is comprised of your story’s theme and your character’s change arc.
Fischer suggests identifying the point of your story and what you hope to say. “Like an article’s thesis, the point is the glue that holds everything together and is what you’re trying to prove through the events of your book,” she says. Then focus on your character’s emotional change to bring it home. “Mastering these foundational elements of fiction and learning how to convey them succinctly, is the best way to help your book find its way to the hands and hearts of readers,” Fischer writes.
