Light novel writing tips and tricks

Writing advice part 1.1 The hook

Whether it be fanfic or OG, the hook has a huge determining factor whether people will continue reading your book. The hook is usually no longer then a chapter, not talking about Tolkien's 60pg chapter length but rather within 1000-2000 words, but if you were to go for the safest estimate, the hook would only be a paragraph. This is because people have short attention spans, and one study on yt shown, people have an attention span of 15sec, which is about the same amount of time to read a paragraph. So in less then 100 words you have to convince your reader why your book is worth reading? And to do that we must first look at the genre, but for the sake of explaining I will use fantasy.

Before you write anything, think about your target audience. And now think about what will interest them. Personally I recommend reading a lot of books and watch a lot of anime to do this, so it gives you an easier grasp of what is trending and what is hot. Once you have a grasp of it, now think of a scenario that will get your heart pumping or get yourself curious, and once you done imagining, put them down into words and let's see what we have:

Exp: Mint. I smell mint.

I don't recall eating any gum last night...

Slowly I cracked open my eyes...

Snow White long hair, skin pale and smooth as marble, petit doll like body, with a red gothic Lolita dress on top. Except it wasn't a doll. It was breathing and lying right beside me.

I am going to jail am I?

And if you want to make it into a horror, paranormal or mystery here is another example:

Mint. I smell mint.

I don't recall eating any gum last night...

Slowly I cracked open my eyes...

Snow White long hair, skin pale and smooth as marble, petit doll like body, with a red gothic Lolita dress on top. And it was staring right at me. And before I could even freak out, I realized I was staring at a mirror.

That's when I really freaked out.

Was the advice helpful? Let me know in comments down below xd