10 Writing Hooks

Writing Class Notes: Beginning Hooks - Strategies to use to catch your reader's attention


1. Begin with a simile or a metaphor.
My life has been a carnival. My family is like an open book.

2. Begin with a question.
Who is the greatest athlete of all times?

3. Begin with a definition.
Amiable is the best way to describe my personality: I am friendly and caring. Perfect is the best adjective to describe me: I am flawless in every aspect of my life.

4. Begin with a quotation.
“Learn to laugh” is something my kindergarten teacher told me after Ralph Thorsen spilled paint on my daffodil picture.

5. Begin with a comparison to a well-known person or celebrity.
I am as photogenic as Tyra Banks.

6. Begin with placing yourself in the future.
In the year 2012 I see myself as a supreme ballerina performing in Camelot at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

7. Begin with a dilemma.
Deciding to attend Hampton Roads Academy, a private school, was one of my most difficult decisions.

8. Begin with a scene.
The day of my birth began with Hurricane Charlie pounding at our door in Charleston, South Carolina.

9. Begin with the best advice you have ever received.
“Butch, did you practice the piano?” Since I was six years old, this has been a daily reminder from my dear mother. “Be all you can be” has been my inspiration from my grandfather who is a retired Marine Corps colonel and my mentor.

10. Begin with an anecdote.
As my cousin and I pedaled our new bikes to the beach, 6 years old, suntanned and young, we met an old, shaggy-haired man weaving unsteadily on a battered old bike.


What other beginning "hooks" have you used?