“New Hooks For Old Books: Saving Classics from Obscurity with a Little Rewording,” by Tom Ballard
Aug 2nd, 2023 | By Defenestration“The hook,” I tell my creative writing students, “is the secret of getting read.” Unfortunately, powerful first-line hooks were nonexistent before the mid-1950s. This is probably why few readers willingly pick up a book published before that decade. Let me illustrate with examples of how once-famous novels could have been saved by inserting a commanding hook.