How to Come up With a Hook for Your Screenplay?
“A hook is a concept of the picture in a nutshell” — Alex Epstein.
For a reader, filmmaker, producer or an agent to become interested in your screenplay, you need to find a “magical” way to grab their attention. In reality, no one will devote even five minutes of their time to your project if their interest hasn’t been tickled. And, the easiest and the fastest way to do so is with a mind-blowing, one of a kind, HOOK.
A hook is an integral part of your logline and your pitch to spark the interest of a reader or a listener. Your logline could be just one sentence long hook.
It’s not easy to develop a good hook and polishing near-perfect one needs time and practice.
Some screenwriters come up with a logline with a very intriguing hook, even before sitting down to write the script. The idea behind this tactic is to sell the logline first and have someone pay you to write the script, instead of investing all this time into writing something that no one may be interested in.
However, if you already have a book, which you are planning to adapt, you will need to build/create the hook from the material you already have.
The best way to start learning how hooks and loglines work and are structured is to…
