The Rules of Writing Reacher

Have you seen the new Reacher series on Amazon Prime?

It’s based on the series of books by Lee Child, and includes one of the most well known figures in literary history.

Jack Reacher.

No Middle Name.

Lee Child created a knight who roams the country, righting wrong and never losing.

He did this on purpose because he was sick of so many heros who had problems or personality issues.

He wanted a guy who just didn’t lose, no matter the odds.

Audiences loved the books, and when a movie was announced, they were excited to see who would play the six foot five inch monster with hands the size of canned hams.

We got Tom Cruise.

Six five, he is not.

What he brought to the role besides name recognition was Reacher’s attitude, and probably Hollywood’s openness to adaptation.

Amazon stepped up, Alan Ritchson stepped in and we had our Reacher, both in size and attitude.

From a writing perspective, this series works on a few levels, but there is one thing I want you to steal to incorporate in every one of your stories from now on.

It is called an open hook and if you watch every episode on Amazon Prime, you can watch it play out.

Audiences love open hooks, because it begs for a question to be answered.