The old secret was that you a make a hole on both ends and blow really hard and the egg pops out. I tried that and it didn’t work. I blew really hard. I could feel the veins on my forehead and I feared that my contacts might shoot out. That’s probably why I was drawn by the promise of a new secret.
However, this post isn’t really about eggs. It’s about a non-egg-related secret I will reveal at the end.
By the way, the email that promised this revelation then sent me to the web site, which popped up a window asking me to subscribe in exchange for a cookbook. I don’t want a cookbook, it would only clutter up the shelf above the microwave, so I close the window.
More pictures: eggs in a carton, eggshells on a cutting board.
Then a repeat of the old secret…and finally the revelation that there are actually TWO key steps:
Peel only cooled eggs.
I knew that.
And crack the shell all over by rolling the egg between your hands.
Oh.
Then there are 8 further tips, which I read because I am disappointed by the big two. I’m not going to tell you the other eight, it’s not worth it. Then comes a “recipe” for boiled eggs, which is really just a restatement of the previous tips but it reminds you to boil the eggs first. Just in case I still didn't get it, there’s a video.
Below that there’s a repeat of the picture of the eggs on the bed of garbanzo beans and a recipe…which is called “boiled eggs with curried chickpeas.”
I wish I’d recognized that. I know how to spell chickpeas.
At the very bottom there’s a link to an article about the easiest way to make sure your fish is super fresh. Thank god I don’t eat fish.
If you're still with me, possibly you're wondering what this has to do with writing. Well, it demonstrates how easy it is to get somebody's attention and to keep it.
The word "secret," I am embarrassed to admit, still draws me in, just as it did millions of people who bought the book "The Secret." (Even more powerful is "the secret THEY don't want you to know!" which is a hook the lady who wrote The Secret used to good effect.)
Once I'd committed to learning the secret (in this case only the secret of hard-boiled eggs, which I guess nobody is trying to prevent me from learning, other than chickens), I stayed on, past the photos, past the silly "recipe", past the video of the silly recipe.
Again, it doesn't take that much, so are you using that to hook and keep readers?
More specifically, what will a reader want to know after they have read your first sentence?
What about after the first page?
After the end of the first chapter?
Checking for that as you go through your first draft is a very useful tool. It gets you to do something that's hard when you've created something: look at it from the viewpoint of the person who will consume what you've created instead of just from your own viewpoint.
Most books and movies that are not satisfying fail for one of these reasons:
* they don't make you curious early enough
* they do make you curious but then go off on a tangent for too long so you lose interest (or forget the question)
* they make you curious, they keep your attention, but the answer is a letdown. This was my experience with the egg secrets, so I don't think we'll be seeing the movie version anytime soon unless Clint Eastwood comes back as The Egg They Couldn't Boil.
The ideal time to test your story for these potential weaknesses is right at the start, if you're constructing the story in detail before you start writing. Then again after the first draft, and again after each major subsequent draft.
I'm off to boil some eggs. I can't let those secrets go to waste.
(Want to find out what the great writers like Twain, Dickens, and Austen knew about constructing a story that keeps people's interest? Get my newest book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)
