HOOKing the reader – it’s essential for a great story. I was watching television with my children who have apparently been listening to me rant about hooks for too long because my son paused the show (yes, Tivo!) and said… “Mom, there is nothing sympathetic about this heroine that would make me like her!” Ah, the sympathetic hook! We’ve been talking about stakes in a hook, but what is at stake for a character will only work if there is also a reason to CARE about the character.

Which brings me today to: Hero/Heroine Identification – Or creating Sympathy (and thereby creating connection with the reader.)

We’re only going to read a book about someone we can, at least remotely, relate to. Someone we at least a little understand. Maybe they don’t live in the same culture we do, or they lived two hundred years ago, or maybe they’re from another planet, but if they care about the same things we care about, or if they find themselves in a situation we might find ourselves in, then we can identify with them.

Creating that piece of identification at the start will give your reader enough of a connection to continue on to let them into their lives.

I’m going to use an example from my own collection of books: Flee the Night.

My heroine is an ex-CIA agent, on the run from a crime she is accused of committing years ago. Not many of us have been accused of crimes, and are on the run from an international assassin…however, many of us have had a secret we don’t want to come out, and it was this collective sympathy that I used when crafting the first line:

The past had picked the worst time to find her.

I go on in the paragraph to insert another element of sympathy, or identification with the reader – the fact her daughter is traveling with her, and that if she is killed, her daughter is also in jeopardy.

How do find that sympathetic element?

1. Ask yourself: What do I have in common with my character? What need, or dream, or situation, or fear, or past experience do we share?

2. And what about that can I extrapolate that fits into my story?

Also, it’s important to identify your character for who they are…meaning, their most important role in the story.

In my story, “Everything’s Coming up Josey” the main character is a newspaper reporter. But that’s not the most important identity in the story. Her identity throughout relates to the hero, Chase, and the fact that they’ve been rivals all their lives. It’s within this identity that I start the story.

Give your reader a reason to CARE about your character, something that touches his/her own life…and they’ll turn the page to see what happens!