Friday, April 20, 2007

Writing a Hook

A recent contest sponsored by Fangs, Fur and Fey (Urban Fantasy Novelists) asked writers to submit a 300 word hook for their book. The entries (which were capped at 250) were divided between judges. Slowly the results have trickled in. There are probably 50 of the hooks posted along with the judges feedback. It's quite interesting to read them. It's even more interesting to read comments made on top of the judges comments--mostly by other writers.

A friend of mine was preparing his entry the week before, so I went to check it out. I was surprised to find they had a mystery/thriller category. I entered with my thriller, but it hasn't been posted yet (#35 for those dying to know).

12 finalists will advance to the next round and have their first 5 pages posted and critiqued on the website. Then one winner will be selected to have an agent (Rachel Vater from Lowestein-Yates) read 50 pages with feedback.

I don't think I have a chance namely because I took my "hook" to my critique group and they lovingly told me it had to be rewritten. So I rewrote it and emailed it to the group the next day. Half loved it, the other half didn't. But the deadline was looming and I sent it anyway.

Regardless of my woes, it has been really cool to read each hook (90% fantasy novels) then read the judges comments. Check it out, you might learn something too.

http://community.livejournal.com/fangs_fur_fey/

3 comments:

Janette Rallison said...

But what was the hook?

Josi said...

yeah...I'm waiting.

How do you find these contests?

Heather Moore said...

It was linked to Miss Snark's blog. I'll let you know when it posts :) Should be later today.