How far will you read before a story "hooks" you?

[Scribbler]

I've read a story before that started with its hook very very quickly, like, in the first two pages, or 600 words. The plot, world and main characters were all introduced in one fell swoop. And I liked it a lot, but the problem is that it was in first-person, and I'm trying my hand at third-person now, and am realizing the pacing of such stories is much much slower, and while first-person stories are much more personal, the world and characters are much more fleshed out in third, but because of that, it takes more time to establish everything.

I guess what I mean by "hook" is when you actually care about what's happening and why.

And so I circle back to my main question: how far do you generally go into a story before it hooks you? 3, 4 chapters? 10-20 pages? 1-2 hours? I know not how you measure your reading! In our media rich age, I would imagine the general populous to be fairly impatient, as I am as well. Or perhaps you don't care about hooks at all, and simply like to go where the story takes you? For first-person web novels, I probably wait 5 chapters, and for western novels, I probably read about a third of it before I move on to something new.

 

[Typing...]

It's never a question of if the hook catches. But if the fisherman can reel it in. Considering the worst case scenario, the hook should be in the title and the picture. It should be just enough to get them to read the synopsis. There the hook is reinforced and expanded on. Here is where many fish will swim away. Without so much as reading the first chapter.

To get them to read the first chapter means that the hook has landed, and from there it's the fisherman's job to keep that fish from escaping.

The battle starts before the book is opened.

 

[minacia]

3-4 chapters to hit something that I like.

That something can be a lot of different things though, and it doesn't have to be a bunch. There just has to be one thing that I like. xD

 

[UnknownNovelist]

Depends. I think I go through stages.
Stage 1; Is the synopsis good and does it have the right tags? Any tags with Gender Bender or BL is typically an instant reject (because I'm shallow like that), and I go mainly for Male Lead. If it crosses my threshold of; "well, this could be interesting," I add it to the reading list.
Stage 2: Typically within the first chapter I evaluate whether the language is any good. I'm not a grammar nazi, but decent English makes a good story, great.
Stage 3: I typically give a story around 10 chapters "grace period" for the plot to catch - sometimes more, sometimes less. I feel like I can have a good enough grasp of whether a story is something I want to spend more time on after 10 chapters.

In a funnel model, I'd say 80% stories get rejected on stage 1. 40% get rejected on stage 2, and only 20% get rejected on stage 3.

 

[UnknownNovelist]

It's never a question of if the hook catches. But if the fisherman can reel it in. Considering the worst case scenario, the hook should be in the title and the picture. It should be just enough to get them to read the synopsis. There the hook is reinforced and expanded on. Here is where many fish will swim away. Without so much as reading the first chapter.

To get them to read the first chapter means that the hook has landed, and from there it's the fisherman's job to keep that fish from escaping.

The battle starts before the book is even opened.

Yea, that pretty much was what I was trying to explain, but in much more eloquent and easier-to-understand way. Synopsis and tags is the hook. The next 10+ chapters is the part where the author must reel it in.

 

[Maple-Leaf]

If I have high hopes (the genre fits my tastes, nothing to do with quality) I'll stay for quite a while, but if I'm not quite sure and I'm just testing the waters, I'll stay until something puts me off. I'm easy like that I guess.

 

[DubstheDuke]

Honestly if I read a story it's because I expect it to be good. Whether that is based off popular reception, a good synopsis, or whatever. If I were to quit a story it wouldn't be because it didn't hook me, but rather because it had tropes and events which I just didn't agree with.

 

[Piisfun]

Assuming it passes my preset content filters, I usually read all of the synopses.

Like @Typing... said, though, the first battle is with the title and cover, and the second is the synopsis.

If I see no cover image, a misspelled title, and a useless synopsis, it doesn't matter how good the story is, I won't be reading it.

Once that passes, I would say that you have between one and ten chapters to convince the reader to stay on the line, and let themselves be reeled in. A lot of us will just keep going after that point, even if interest starts to wane, until something annoys us, but annoy them in chapter two, and many of them will just leave.

One thing that I would note is that because the reviews are actually somewhat hidden on ScribbleHub (as in the reader actually has to deliberately click to open them), they role they play is minimal, at best.

 

[Valmond]

Typically five chapters. If I am not drawn in by then, well, it is highly unlikely I will be reading anymore. One more thing, if it is written in first person. That is a red flag, and I simply just exit out. There is one exception however. First is acceptable if it is a sub element. However, the story itself I prefer in third person. If the sub element of first person is simply there to really intensify the gravity of it. Then that is fine. On the other hand, if the story is written in first person predominantly. Then just no. More or less I look for something more along the lines of professionalism. Does not have to be perfectly written, just written in a way that is understandable as well as fluent enough.

Other than that, if it passes that basic line. Then it goes onto the first five chapters. If it passes that, then I am good to go. Unfortunately, my tastes are very precise. So, likely I will just move onto another.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I tend to listen to manuscripts with a tts program while doing other things with my hands, so I measure how much I read more by minutes than word count these days. Usually, I'll give a manuscript thirty minutes before I reject it, but if it really sucks, I may only give it ten minutes.

 

[Sahara]

Never was a fan of the Twilight-style character movie introductions. If your first chapter is introducing every character, what they like and dislike, their ambitions, etc., it just feels like I'm getting too much information. I want to learn that with the characters.

Basically, SHOW your characters and you likely have me hooked. Besides Lit RPGs, Gender benders, and sexual content, I can read pretty much everything if you SHOW me why not tell me why.

So do this: I pulled out my sword and attempted to slump my posture. I was ready to fight.
Not this: "Hi, I'm Annie. I'm a human swordfighter of thirty years and I train dragons to fight in human ways against Knight-dominated Kingdoms. You're probably wondering what I'm fighting, or who. I'm actually fighting the best Knight there is, Nevare. And I'm ready."

 

[GDLiZy]

First few paragraphs if the grammar is good.

 

[gaylolis]

if it didn't manage to hook me, i won't even bother clicking the title.

the better question will be, how far before i will eventually drop the story? i rarely stick with a story since i will just drop it, when it doesn't go the way i like or it simply just bores me despite the hook.

i rather just write the stuff i like than complain to the author, since they're free to do whatever they want, and i won't bother with something that i feel is a waste of time.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

To get hooked into a story, it mainly depends what type of bait you wanna try out to catch readers. Personally, i mainly read modern type of novels but i don't stray on that type of genre and look to fantasy type if it had modernish style.

I don't personally mind grammar as long as i can read it but if it handles the grammar like how MTL translates, i better not even read it at all. The main issue when writing or reading is how interesting it is and how much originality can you bring to a novel. Would you try to be cliche with the plot but slowly diverse into a new one? (EX. A normal Harem type novel but slowly make a reasonable and even explain why it needs to be a harem like the MC didn't want a harem but because of circumstances that he needs to make out with different women or he would explode or other things but he wanted to be loyal to the FL or something.) Or make an original by using ideas already made by others(MC needs to speedrun in saving different worlds and perfectly completes objectives and the higher the ranking, the more rewards he would get).

So, even if i'm not interested in one thing, it doesn't hurt to try if i like to read it or not. Plus, i don't easily abandon what i read unless i don't like it.

 

[Shadow_Tempest]

I stop reading when I come across something boring and have other interesting stuff to read

 

[Deleted member 1244]

And so I circle back to my main question: how far do you generally go into a story before it hooks you? 3, 4 chapters? 10-20 pages? 1-2 hours? I know not how you measure your reading!

Chapters, pages, time, they are not a good indicator for me.

Instead, I use plot developments, sooo..... perhaps 3 "turns" or "beats", a narrative's three changes. I generally know most of what I need to know to make a pretty good judgement on a piece of work.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

I just read and prolly would drop a work only and only if, that work repeatedly pisses me off (which is rare).

But then again, I mostly read non-sexual work because I find stories with sex kind of awkward for my taste (been raised in a conservative background, see?).

Nevertheless, if I find a story interesting, I just skip the sex and head to more interesting parts. So I rarely drop a work.

 

[lehur]

I've read a story before that started with its hook very very quickly, like, in the first two pages, or 600 words. The plot, world and main characters were all introduced in one fell swoop. And I liked it a lot, but the problem is that it was in first-person, and I'm trying my hand at third-person now, and am realizing the pacing of such stories is much much slower, and while first-person stories are much more personal, the world and characters are much more fleshed out in third, but because of that, it takes more time to establish everything.

I guess what I mean by "hook" is when you actually care about what's happening and why.

And so I circle back to my main question: how far do you generally go into a story before it hooks you? 3, 4 chapters? 10-20 pages? 1-2 hours? I know not how you measure your reading! In our media rich age, I would imagine the general populous to be fairly impatient, as I am as well. Or perhaps you don't care about hooks at all, and simply like to go where the story takes you? For first-person web novels, I probably wait 5 chapters, and for western novels, I probably read about a third of it before I move on to something new.

Depends, normally just 3 chaps enough, if good even synopsis okay, but for slow pace and many background confusing like palace story 15-20 chaps (if short or wn standart)

 

[Ral]

Unless there is something that really repulsed me, around ten thousand words or so. If I can't find anything to be interested with after that, then goodbye.

To be honest though, I stopped reading works here. My reading list is empty. Well, there are stories that I do follow that are here but I actually read them in other site/platform, say Patreon. Sometimes, the are published first somewhere else (like in RoyalRoad) before it get published here. I stick to where I initially found them since I have bookmarked it and all.

I pretty much stopped looking for stories is SH and just stayed here for the forums.

 

[Kenjona]

Depends. I think I go through stages.
Stage 1; Is the synopsis good and does it have the right tags? Any tags with Gender Bender or BL is typically an instant reject (because I'm shallow like that), and I go mainly for Male Lead. If it crosses my threshold of; "well, this could be interesting," I add it to the reading list.
Stage 2: Typically within the first chapter I evaluate whether the language is any good. I'm not a grammar nazi, but decent English makes a good story, great.
Stage 3: I typically give a story around 10 chapters "grace period" for the plot to catch - sometimes more, sometimes less. I feel like I can have a good enough grasp of whether a story is something I want to spend more time on after 10 chapters.

In a funnel model, I'd say 80% stories get rejected on stage 1. 40% get rejected on stage 2, and only 20% get rejected on stage 3.

This, was thinking exactly this. Thank you for saving me a lengthy typing session to reply to this thread.