Okay, I have a bit of a challenge for you. One hook I see used a lot by beginners is to have the MC withhold information from the reader as a sort of mystery guessing game.
I don’t want to use any specific writer as an example, so I’ll make up my own:
An MC is walking down the street and people call them all sorts of nasty names, like “Campbells” or “RedBall” or just really vague things. They keep getting attacked by people in tall white hats, and then in chapter 3 the MC steps in front of a mirror, and it’s revealed that they have a tomato for a head.
I call this an information hiding hook. And I think it varies from a plot twist like “he was a ghost the whole time” or “the narrator is Tyler Durden,” because in those examples the MC isn’t aware of the information either.
I’ve been generally poo-pooing it (highly technical term, I know). But I’d like to know if I’m off base. So if you can think of any examples of information hiding hooks that work, and are brilliant, I’d really like to have my preconceptions annihilated.
I don’t want to use any specific writer as an example, so I’ll make up my own:
An MC is walking down the street and people call them all sorts of nasty names, like “Campbells” or “RedBall” or just really vague things. They keep getting attacked by people in tall white hats, and then in chapter 3 the MC steps in front of a mirror, and it’s revealed that they have a tomato for a head.
I call this an information hiding hook. And I think it varies from a plot twist like “he was a ghost the whole time” or “the narrator is Tyler Durden,” because in those examples the MC isn’t aware of the information either.
I’ve been generally poo-pooing it (highly technical term, I know). But I’d like to know if I’m off base. So if you can think of any examples of information hiding hooks that work, and are brilliant, I’d really like to have my preconceptions annihilated.