A few different ways you can create a hook for your short story.

1. How to grab a reader’s attention

2. It was exactly 9:37pm when the power went out. No one spoke.

3. In the soft yellow light of my last night at the ranch, I made my way along the fence
to get close to Lucy, my grandma’s horse. I had one more secret to whisper in her ear.

4.  Describe the sights, smells, tastes,
sounds and feelings of a place.
 A forest fire was making its way
along the tinderbox ridges above
them, flaring and shimmering
against the overcast like the
northern lights. Cold as it was he
stood there a long time. The color of
it moved something in him long
forgotten (McCarthy, The Road).
 Attracted by the smell of coffee, he
went into a kitchen where a woman
with a child in her arms was leaning
over the stove (Garcia Marquez, A
Hundred Years of Solitude).

5. Perry was different. When he carved or
painted, he said it was like playing music. He
heard it in his mind and brought it to life.
Credit Province of British Columbia. Shared under Creative Commons.

6. When Connor took me
out to the fishpond to go
rowing, the last thing
that I expected to see
was a shark. I especially
didn’t expect to see one
fifty centimetres away
from my paddle.

7. I was a kid who was always in trouble. Were you? What was the worst thing you ever
did? Let me tell you about how I ended up at the police station on my seventh
birthday. This might take a while.