How to Start Your Romance Novel: 3 Tips to Mastering Your Book's Hook

Writing a best-selling romance novel is tough work. You have a great idea, fun characters, a memorable meet cute, and a compelling setting, but when you sit down to write the opening lines, you freeze. How do you captivate an audience with one sentence?

For many authors, it takes time to invent the perfect opening. Making sure your novel balances intrigue and drive is something of an art in itself. You draft, craft, and redraft to hit all the right marks. But how do you know it's going to sell? With a hook readers can't resist.

Here are 3 tips on how to grab your reader's attention right from the start.

1. Observe a Moment

   Drop your reader directly into a scene. This can manifest as a conversation the main character has with a friend or relative, a moment where the MC makes an epiphany, an accident-turned-meet-cute, or an equally stimulating slice of life.

   
   

   The perfect opening line for a moment in time often relies on action: a snide remark, a twist to a perfect day, a plan gone awry. If you opt to write a line with humor in it, make sure it ticks all the "funny" boxes and doesn't come across as cliche.

   
   

   Some of my favorite "observe a moment" lines are:

   
   

   "The thing I dread the most about junior year begins on a Wednesday morning, a couple of weeks before the start of the autumn quarter." Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

   
   

   "The second Beat Dawkins entered the television studio, it stopped raining outside." Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey

   
   

   These drop-in moments dangle a mystery as well, but their main focus is introducing the reader to a scene, a setting, or a potential problem.

   
   
   
   

2. Ask a Question or Give a Statement

   Questions and statements are great ways to start novels as well. They dazzle a reader's sense of curiosity and appeal to a reader's emotions, two key factors that make a book a page-turner.

   
   

   If you choose this method as your first-line approach, however, keep it short and simple. You don't want to overwhelm the reader with information, since that might turn readers away.

   
   

   Examples of questions and statements that caught my attention are:

   
   

   "I wake up to two million views." You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

   
   

   "Mona, are you there?" Between Takes by Morgana Bevan

   
   

   "We've known each other for almost half our lives." The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo

   
   
   
   

3. Dangle a Mystery

   Promising a reader something with intrigue is another way to pique interest. Many of the examples above do this as well, but the teasers below do this a bit quicker.

   
   

   Your mystery can play on human emotion as well, which also compels a reader to continue the story. By handing your reader kernels to investigate at the beginning, you're laying the foundation for a page-turning success.

   
   

   Examples of opening lines that include mystery:

   
   

   "They're calling him Dr. Death." Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

   
   

   "Call me harlot. Call me impulsive. Call me hungover." In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

   
   

   "There were two things in life that scared the ever-loving crap out of me." Wait for You by J Lynn

   
   

   Writing the perfect romance novel starts at the beginning. Having an irresistible opening line lets readers know they're in for an incredible journey in your world. You might have to take some time to get it right, but honing the dawn of your novel will shepherd people through to The End.

   
   

   If in doubt of your opening phrase's impact, ask a group of friends to read it and rate their reactions. Better yet, find a writing critique group to analyze it. And be open to rewriting it until it sings the right tune for a reader's ears.