How to Hook a Reader: The 3 Questions You Must Answer Up Front

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Wired for Story" by Lisa Cron. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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When a reader starts to read your story, what are they looking for? What must you give them if you want them to keep reading?

Lisa Cron asserts that stories satisfy neurological needs that humans evolved over millennia. So, good writers understand these needs and satisfy them as they craft their stories. Arguably, the primary thing that readers require is a good reason to keep reading past the first page.

Read more to discover how to hook a reader by fulfilling their immediate need.

How to Hook a Reader

As soon as the reader begins your story, they start looking for the answers to three major questions: 1) Who’s the story about? 2) What’s the story about? 3) What’s at stake here? If the answer to any of these three questions is missing, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your prose is; the reader will not be interested in your story. Cron’s advice for how to hook a reader is to answer these questions quickly—on the first page, or even in the very first sentence. Then, you can take your time presenting the rest of the details because your reader knows what to anticipate.

The answers to these questions give the reader context for how to understand everything they’re about to read, which, according to neuroscientific research, is how they determine meaning, or the “why” behind every piece of information. Answering these “why” questions is critical to do because humans have a natural curiosity about why any given piece of information is significant or useful to us, and having that curiosity sated is what keeps us engaged with what we’re reading. 

How to Hook a Reader: The 3 Questions You Must Answer Up Front

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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Lisa Cron's "Wired for Story" at Shortform.

Here's what you'll find in our full Wired for Story summary:

  • How humans have a neurological need for stories
  • The formula that the human brain expects to encounter in a story
  • How to build a protagonist that engages your reader

Elizabeth Whitworth

Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books—and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.

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