Welcome to Season 2 of Screen Tones! Today we’re going to be going fishing… for webcomic readers! For a successful fishing expedition, it’s important to have a good hook.

A story’s hook can be difficult to pin down– it’s that chemical X, that plot point, character dynamic, quirk, or memorable worldbuilding factor that grabs a reader and makes them keep reading.

Marketing will often discuss a “hook” as it relates to crafting a logline or elevator pitch for advertising purposes, but we’re going to be focusing more on those moments in storytelling that make readers go from “I’ll give this a chance” to “oops, I can’t stop reading”.

1:45 What is the hook of your story? How did you work that out? Was it planned, or a realization after the fact?

Our hosts talk about the hooks for their comics. From the expected and planned to the unexpected turns their stories took that drew in their readers.

Hooks are always technically present, whether you intended to or not, and they can also vary from reader to reader. What made one person stay may not be the same as why another has stayed.

13:38 What makes a hook unsuccessful?

Having your hook rely on an event that happens too late in your comic. If you find yourself thinking “I just have to get through the boring parts and then this gets realllly good” it’s likely you will have difficulty holding readers with this hook.

Hooks that are exciting to you but don’t actually surprise or have meaning to an outside reader. You may think something is super interesting, but if you conveyed it incorrectly or left out some details to readers, a hook may not hit as well as you thought it would.

Working out a concise way to describe your comic that includes and clearly displays your hook can be way more effective than simply saying, “My work is like X and Y. If you like those, you’d like mine!” Focus on sharing the feel and specifics of your story. Know what makes your story exciting and convey that in your writing and art and how you tell people about it.

31:05 How do we make a hook stronger?

Move it forward. As far forward as you can to avoid the less than reliable hook of “It get’s better I promise. You just have to wait!”

Share some juicy details in the beginning. You don’t need to share ALL of them, but sprinkle enough to create a question in the readers head. That question will be a hook of its own to keep them reading.

Workshop your comic with others. Hear their feedback and see what they’re getting out of the story.

Start your story on the right hook. Don’t overuse new terminology and world specific words. This can sometimes cause readers to get overwhelm or lost before they even understand where the story is going to go.

Familiarity can help draw readers in and allows them to focus on the actual story and characters.

43:40 What are hooks you loved?

Bicycle Boy - Amazing art and poses a lot of questions within the first few pages.
The Meek - Surprising reveal a couple pages in

Running out of Time (novel) - “It’s 1845 where we are, but out there it’s 1946

Kill Six Billion Demons - Sets the intense, high paced tone very quickly

Mortal Engines (novel) - "the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried out bed of the North Sea”. Things you know doing things they shouldn’t normally do.

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Episode Release Date: January 11, 2023

Episode Credits:

Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane) - she/they, chirault.sevensmith.net wychwoodcomic.com

Claire Niebergall (@phantomarine) - She/Her, phantomarine.com

Kristen Lee (@feathernotes) - she/they, ghostjunksickness.com lunarblight.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.