by Anne R. Allen
I’ve had questions from several writers recently about how to approach a first chapter. New writers hear so many rules about what they must do in the first line, first paragraph, and first chapter that they can feel paralyzed, afraid to write a word.
Let’s hope that NaNoWriMo is helping some of you fight that paralysis!
Yes, there are a lot of rules about writing a first chapter, but the truth is there are as many ways to start your novel as there are writers.
However, some openers are better than others for enticing a new reader, and beginning writers tend to fall into tired patterns that don’t always work. I know I did. We need to remember that the modern reader expects a story to start on page one.
So don’t take these as hard and fast rules. Professional writers break them all the time. They’re just tips. But they might help you in dealing with those first chapter blues.
1) DO Write your First Chapter Last
Yes, you read that right. Stop agonizing, sketch out the first chapter and get on with writing your story. This is really important for NaNoWriMos. You could spend the whole month worrying that thing to death. Don’t.
That’s because when you’re writing your first draft, you’re writing for you. Later, you’ll edit for your reader. That’s when “the rules” can be important.
But right now, you’re telling yourself the story and getting to know your characters. So you may have a bunch of false starts and indigestible chunks of backstory. That’s normal.
You’re probably going to end up with an opening chapter that’s very different from the one you started with. Your entire first chapter may end up being one of those darlings you have to kill. (Or move to another spot in the book.)
When you edit, you can decide where the story really starts (Some writing teachers say the average student novel starts at chapter three.)
As for backstory—yes, you need it, but you can sneak bits of it into several chapters so it doesn’t choke the flow of the narrative.
2) DON’T Open with Death or Trick Your Reader with False Starts
I know the standard opening of every TV cop show involves random strangers discovering a body or getting killed. This is something that works great in drama but not in a novel. (It also provides work for a lot of new and struggling actors. 🙂 )
But whoever readers meet first in a book is the character they’ll bond with. If that person gets killed on page five, people feel cheated.
Plus starting with a death is kind of a no-no for readers and agents. Former agent Nathan Bransford says opening with a death is “a turnoff for an agent because 1) it’s just so common and 2) it can feel like a cheap way to provoke a reader. It just doesn’t quite feel earned.”
Dreams are another kind of clichéd false start. If you open with a conflict-charged scene where the princess fights a dragon in a fierce blood-and-guts battle and, just as the beast moves in for the kill…a 12 year old girl wakes up in her Disney princess bedroom, you’ve left your readers feeling cheated. They’re not going to want to read on to find out whether she got cast in the school play.
Other false starts happen often in fantasy and scifi. The author needs to do some world building, so the first chapter is about an exciting event in the life of a young king in a galaxy far, far away…who turns out to be the ancestor of the real protagonist, who we meet 300 years later in chapter two. We never meet the young king again. His story just stopped, except for a mention or two of his legendary exploits. Readers wonder what happened to the story they started with.
False starts are a big reason a reader won’t finish a book, so avoid them if you can.
3) DO Introduce the Protagonist in the First Chapter
You generally want to open a novel with a scene involving the main character.
And yes, your novel must have ONE main character. (Unless it’s a saga, in which case there will be a series of main characters, each with a defined story arc springing from the one before.)
Readers don’t need to know a huge amount about the protagonist right away, but they need to know enough to care. You can be very sketchy about looks (all Jane Austen told us about Elizabeth Bennett is that she had “fine eyes”.)
Readers usually need to know gender, age and maybe social status/ work/ position in society, but most of all, they need to know about the emotions the character is feeling in the scene—preferably emotions the reader can identify with.
Here’s how I open Ghostwriters in the Sky:
“The subway car was so crowded I couldn’t tell which one of the sweaty men pressing against me was attached to the hand now creeping up my thigh. I should have known better than to wear a dress on a day I had to take the subway, but in the middle of a New York heat wave, I couldn’t face another day in a pantsuit.”
I haven’t used any description of the protagonist, but we can tell she’s 1) female 2) a worldly city dweller who takes things in stride 3) not rich enough to take a taxi 4) employed in some way that requires wearing a suit 5) way too polite for her own good.
We can also identify with her distress at being groped. She’s in an uncomfortable situation and we hope for her to escape without harm. This sparks empathy, so we care what happens to her.
4) DON’T Start with Dialogue, Especially Reader-Feeder
Former agent Nathan Bransford says, “I’m not much of a fan of starting a novel off with unanchored dialogue. It’s hard to start investing before we know where we are, who the characters are, and how we should be contextualizing the conversation.”
There’s also the problem that newbies tend to use dialogue for “As-you-know, Bob” passages like this:
“It’s getting dark, Alice,” said Bob with a shiver. “You may be my big sister, but I don’t think you know where you’re going. We could get lost in this dark, scary forest if we don’t get back to our cozy suburban home before nightfall.”
“We can’t stop now, Bob,” Alice said boldly. “As you know, we are looking for the lair of the evil Dragon of Amazonia and we must slay him before morning or he will destroy the entire Kingdom of Mall.”
Conversations like this are sometimes necessary in plays and TV scripts. Preferably not using the kind of bad writing I’ve inflicted on you here, 🙂 but it’s not the way to hook a book reader. That’s why we call it “reader-feeder” dialogue.
In a novel, we can show our readers all the dark scary forests we want. We don’t need the characters to describe them.
5) DO Put More than One Character in your First Chapter
We’re all tempted at some point to open with our protagonist in a car, on a plane, or trekking through the ruined countryside after a battle…and musing about stuff. She’s thinking about the dragon she just killed, or recapping the catastrophe she’s escaping from, or who she’s going to meet at Starbucks.
But nothing happens on the page. There is no interaction with other characters, so nothing happens.
Some people call this the “Robinson Crusoe” opener. Newbies are tempted to write them because they seem to flow naturally and you can get a whole lot of backstory in there.
But readers hate them.
The classic example of this is the “alarm clock” opener where you see the protagonist waking up and getting dressed in the morning.
This is the chapter you cut when you’re editing. It’s throat clearing. Writing it can help the author get to know the protagonist, but the reader wants a story.
Stories usually require two or more people. If not, your main character has to be dealing with serious obstacles and maybe talking to a deflated volleyball like Tom Hanks on that desert island.
6) DON’T Put in too Many, Either: Avoid Crowds and Battles
Lots of new writers are led astray by the rule that you should start a book “in media res” (literally, “in the middle of the thing”.)
And they know they need conflict.
So they start the story in the middle of the battle between the Trolls and the Orcs and we see four different hand-to hand combats going on and gallons of spurting blood and we have no idea who to root for because all these people are so frenzied, and awful things are happening to every one of them and…who is this story about, anyway?
As I said above, every story needs ONE protagonist. Yes, books can be about groups, but one of them has to be the hero.
So introduce us to the protagonist in a manageable scene. Otherwise it’s like walking into a mall, dance club, or a huge cocktail party. There are so many people, the reader can’t zero in on one to care about.
If you want to open with a war, it’s better to start with something like the heroine preparing for battle by stealing her brother’s armor after her father forbids her to fight.
That’s conflict, but you have a reasonable number of people to get acquainted with.
7) DO Let Us Know Where We Are
While you don’t want to give a ton of physical description, readers do need to know what planet/historical time period they’re in.
In spite of everything you’ve heard about showing-not-telling, it’s perfectly all right to give the reader some basic information in a straightforward way, as Jeffrey Eugenidies does in Middlesex:
“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”
In SciFi and Fantasy especially, you need to do some world-building, but it’s best to limit the descriptions to the absolute necessities in the first chapter. Most new writers tend to tell way too much about their fantasy world up front. Tell just enough to allow the reader to picture the scene that’s taking place without slowing the action.
8) DON’T Equate Conflict with Violence: Create Real Tension that Propels the Story
A lot of new writers confuse conflict with violence. That’s one of the main reasons for those opening battle scenes, deaths, and murders.
But any kind of conflict can create tension. It can be as simple as two children in the back seat of a car on a road trip arguing over who saw the Idaho license plate first. And that can lead to conflict between Mom and Dad whether to try to make it to Cleveland or stop in a motel now. Which leads to finding the dead body in the pick-up with the Idaho plates…etc.
What readers need is conflict that sparks more tension, which in turn creates more conflict, which finally propels the story to the end.
In the Hunger Games, the conflict in the opening scene is fear about who will be chosen for the games. But the larger conflict is with the Games themselves. When the conflict of the opening scene is resolved, we still keep turning pages because of the underlying tension from a bigger story question—how will Katniss survive?
9) DO Let us Know What the Protagonist Wants
We need to know what your main character wants in the present scene, which might be for the troll who just killed his companions to stop swiping at him with that pointy sword.
But we also need to know pretty early in the story what your hero really, really wants (apologies to the Spice Girls.)
The reader needs to know the protagonist’s ultimate goal, like finding true love. Or taking a magical jewelry item to Mount Disaster to destroy it forever. Or finding out who murdered Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick.
This overarching goal doesn’t always show up in the first chapter, but readers do need to see some goal in the first chapter that will lead to that ultimate goal to be reached in the climax.
10) DON’T Take Your Reader on a Nature Walk
I call this the MFA opener. People who have been taught in creative writing classes to bring all five senses into every single scene can fall into a habit of overwriting. Writing guru Larry Brooks, writing on Jane Friedman’s blog called this the “most common entry-level mistake in the writing game.”
What happens is the author puts so much energy into lovely words and lush images that the first page becomes a lyrical prose poem. We see every dewy leaf on the tree outside the window, hear every twittering bird song, smell the newly cut grass on the suburban lawn, taste the sweetness of the maple syrup and pancakes being served downstairs, feel the silky texture of the bedsheets.
But there’s no story.
There is a place for lush prose, but keep it to a minimum until you introduce a character or two and provide some source of tension.
You want to introduce tone and theme in your first chapter, but do it with a few bold strokes. William Gibson did that brilliantly with the opening line of Neuromancer, the novel that defined cyberpunk:
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
He gives setting, mood, tone, and theme in 15 words. It can be done.
~
So yes, a first chapter is hard to write because there’s so much you need to include, but you also don’t want to include too much. But it will be much easier to write once you’ve got the rough draft of the whole story, so don’t agonize and write it last. You’ll thank me.
And for tips on writing that very first line, check out Ruth’s post on How to Write a Great First Sentence.
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) November 3, 2019
What about you, scriveners? Do you agonize over first chapters? Have you tried writing the first chapter last? What tips can you give for writing a first chapter?
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Unless that nature walk is the nature trail to hell.
Just kidding!
I did open two stories with one line of internal dialogue, defining the main character in that line.
Alex–I don’t think internal dialogue counts. 🙂 What readers don’t like is the “Hey Mike, look out!” kind of opening where you don’t know who’s speaking and you don’t care about Mike, because you haven’t met him yet.
A nature trail to hell might make a very good plot device!
I agree- sometimes dialouge can suck you right in.
Anne—Thanks for a very helpful post! First chapters are tough, but when you (finally) get them right, you will feel like you actually know what you’re doing. Trust me on this. 😉
Meanwhile, pay attention to everything Anne says. Especially about writing the first chapter last. By then, you will understand your own book and have figured out what you’ve been trying to say.
Ruth–Many thanks. It took me about 4 novel attempts to realize that spending months revising a first chapter to death doesn’t make a good novel. It makes an unfinished one. 🙂
Fabulous. Great advice, as usual, and I loved re-reading the beginning of *Ghostwriters in the Sky* — truth is, I love the whole book. Thanks heaps.
CS–Thanks so much!
On 3, while you might have more than one main character, you should have one primarily main character the story focuses on (unless it’s a romance, in which you will have two). It is very hard to do a one-page synopsis or a query with multiple characters who carry equal weight. My second novel was like that, and I had to revise it to fix that.
On 5&6, Ideally, you can’t have more than 2-3 characters interacting at one time. Otherwise, they tend to start self-editing. That doesn’t mean a scene should only have 2 characters. You may have “extras” who don’t have any dialogue or one line. Your character might also move through the scene, talking first to one person and then to another.
Also Story Grid notes that you will also have characters that get mentioned in the scene. As human beings, we’re always mentioning people who are not there. It makes the scene and characters feel more natural. I was surprised to find with a scene with only 2 characters interacting, I mentioned 8 more characters.
Linda–thanks for your insight. I said “main character” there so I wouldn’t keep repeating the word “protagonist” but as you point out, they are different. You can have several “featured players” but there is only one protagonist. Even in a romance, it’s usually told from the POV of one character who is the protagonist.
As far as more than 2-3 people in a scene, you can have a whole bunch, but the problem is when they’re all talking. “Dialogue’ means two people having words, and we all know how much harder it is to write a “trialogue’ or a “quadralogue” or whatever those might be called when a lot of people are talking. It does get tough to write tags that can be followed, and readers can give up in confusion. So the suggestion that scenes should keep to 2 or 3 speakers is a good one. .
Great Do’s & Don’ts, Anne. There’s another controversial point, and that’s opening with the weather. “Never open with the weather” is one of Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules. He did pretty well for himself so it’s probably worth paying attention to his advice. Having said that, I just got back from an experiment.
I went to our leading bookstore and did a random sampling of new fiction releases – across genres & mainstream lit and mostly by A-List writers. I’d say a third had some weather reference in the first paragraphs. Also, at least a third – more like half – had dialogue within the first lines. Some of the opening talk was about the weather, so there goes those rules out the window.
I think it’s exactly like you say and not take ‘the rules” too hard and fast. I heard somewhere that the best advice is to know the rules so that when you break them, you’re doing it intentionally. That’s probably what real craft is… Chapter One: “It was a dark and stormy night,” said Snoopy. 🙂
Garry–I decided not to bring up Elmore Leonard’s controversial dictum. “Don’t open with weather” was good advice to people using the old “dark and stormy night” cliched Victorian opening. But as you can see in the William Gibson quote, weather can be brought in masterfully. The trick is keeping it short.
That’s an interesting experiment you did. I’m not surprised. A-list authors can get away with anything.
Very solid advice. I know my first chapter is a hot mess, to the point where I left sentence fragments and half-developed thoughts. The whole thing is going to need a major overhaul (unless I put it out of its misery with the delete button). I know I want to establish her ties to her family and community conflicting with what she d hopes for her future
Dominique–Here’s a secret. Even if you honed that first chapter to literary perfection, you’d still have to do a major overhaul after you finished the manuscript. That’s why your sentence fragments and half-developed thoughts are exactly the right way to jot down that first chapter and leave it until you have the rest of the book written.
Then plan to spend a good portion of your editing time on that chapter. Yes, it will take time, but consider that a normal part of the process.
This is just excellent. Thank you, Anne. It makes me want to write a first chapter, which I believe is something no writer said, ever.
Tara–I look forward to reading that first chapter!
Helpful advice worth taking, thanks Anne. Another bee in my contest-judging bonnet is a story that only identifies “the man” or “the woman” and goes on like this for pages. Give the poor people a name at least.
Valerie–Oooh, that’s one of mine too. It’s a use of the omniscient voice that I find really annoying. It’s the author trying to be a camera–writing a novel as if it’s a film. Especially one of those film school ones where you have no idea what’s going on for the first twenty minutes. You’re right. That needs to be on the list.
No issues with 1st chapters, only with endings. I’ve varied the openings to all of my first chapters with either minimal dialogue, minimal descriptive or a combination of both. With my first chapters, I try to introduce about two-thirds of the characters that are being used throughout the story, with the remaining one-third sprinkled throughout the two or three chapters.
GB–Good idea. It is a good idea to intro most of the characters right off the bat, even if they’re only mentioned.
Endings are a whole ‘nother thing. Maybe I should write about those next time…hmmm.
Marvelous Anne, and thank you. The only way this post could have made me happier is if I’d gotten to read it closer to 1 PM when it came out.
Lots of great ideas in here, and since I’ve broken at least two of them in the books I’ve already written, I think I better just let it marinate awhile!
Will–That’s a bit mysterious. I hope your afternoon wasn’t fraught with difficulties. (I love the word “fraught.” I think I need to use it more often.) 🙂
As I say, good writers break these rules all the time, so they’re just tips. Or think of them as those rules that are made to be broken.
Excellent tips as always, Anne. These tips also apply to some non-fiction, like true crime. I rewrote my first chapter five times (and trashed four) before settling on an opener that felt right. But the book is stronger for the effort. When writing fiction, I always write my opener after I finish the first draft.
Sue–I’ve never written true crime, but a lot of true crime books read like novels, so I think most fiction rules probably apply. It sounds as if you approach your books sort of the way I do. You know the first chapter is going to take a long time, so it’s better to leave the process until you know where it needs to go.
I love when your “yes” lists make my novel look better! Thanks for not finding anything wrong with my first five pages. <3 😀
Katharine–Congrats! It sounds as if your first chapter is a winner!
Great article! Great advise! Just what I needed while finishing my x-th draft. Thank you, Anne.
Marina–May your x-th draft be the final one! Good luck.
I’m a regular reader, and I’ve wanted to comment several times on how much your blog appealed to me. But by the time I’ve reached the end of the many, eloquent comments already made, I’m too intimidated to detract from them. All I can say is, “That’s another damn, fine blog. Thanks.”
GB–Well, thanks for de-lurking! I appreciate your comment. I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog!
As always, great advice. I’ve never thrown out the first chapter to see what the book would read like. I think I’ll try that.
THANK YOU.
Patricia–It’s amazing what cutting the first chapter does for a book. Sometimes you need to put it back of course, but often that’s what’s been holding up your story. Good luck!
Thanks for another informative post. I have a compliment and a quibble.
First, writing the first draft for yourself is such great advice. As a guy who edits on the fly way too much, I should write that line down as a “rule” and tape it to my computer. The freedom might make my first draft go much faster and much easier.
Second, I’ve read on this blog before that a novel has only one main character or protagonist. I think that’s inaccurate.
The Stand, for instance, has three main characters, at least. Stu Redman might edge out Nick and Larry by the tiniest of margins but The Stand is a brilliant novel that is told in equal parts by each of those characters.
It, also by Stephen King, has six main characters and an argument could be made it has twelve…the kids and the kids as adults. It is a novel that couldn’t exist without each character’s equally important POV. I think it could be used as an lesson on character building.
Getting away from Stephen King, I just finished reading Owen Laukkanen’s Stevens and Windermere novels and they most definitely have two main characters who share the stage equally.
These are some fast examples off the top of my head. I wouldn’t have to look far to find others. One main character may be typical but it’s not a rule that should be set in cement.
Thanks for this blog and all the tips.
SIncerely, Kevin
Kevin–I’m glad my advice on writing for yourself works for you. I haven’t read any of the books you mention, but I read a whole lot and I’ve never read a novel that doesn’t have a protagonist. Who’s left standing at the end of the story? Who’s the one who is changed and has learned from the experience? That’s the protagonist.
I don’t have trouble with this. First lines are my obsession–my specialty. Of course, I don’t go far beyond that writing flash fiction so… 😉 Great advice here, Anne.
P.S. Fantastic opening to Ghostwriters in the Sky. Love it!
Sarah–Good first lines should make you a flash fiction winner! Great thing to specialize in. A whole lot of places seem to be looking for flash.
Many thanks for the kudos for Ghostwriters. 🙂
These were great tips for a first chapter. Thanks. Although I have to say I was amazed at the first piece of advice. I have never tried that (writing the first chapter last). It gives me something to mull over.
Elizabeth–The first time I heard that advice I rolled my eyes and went um, yeah sure. But then I tried it. Wow. It made all the difference. It isn’t like writing an outline. You have lots of room to play. But you know where you’re going.
Thanks Anne for this informative blog. Now I realize why I struggled so much (and gave up) on my first attempt at fiction a few years ago. I should not have been so obsessed with the first chapter. Had I know this earlier, I might be further along. Never too late I suppose.
Kenneth–Sorry I didn’t see this earlier. I think my WordPress elves who are supposed to notify me may have been getting into the eggnog again. 🙂 . Not obsessing over the first chapter is my number one rule!
If I have to confess that it’s nice to have ground rules to work from. The trouble with this formulaic approach to writing that has emerged from creative writing teaching is that if you don’t tick all the boxes, then you work gets ignored by those in the industry. So these days if you don’t tick these boxes, you won’t get an agent or publisher. I’m not sure whether my book has 5 or 6 protagonists in the first chapter and I don’t know which one people relate to most. What I do know is that once readers get into the book they want to know what happens and read to the end. As we get more and more does and don’ts for writers, won’t the chance of a truly great book being ignored grow and grow? Isn’t creativity at risk here?
Simon–I don’t think that telling people not to obsess about the first chapter until the book is done is exactly a “hard and fast” rule. (My tip #1) If you want to obsess, that’s fine too. But it may take you longer to write the book.
Here’s what I said in my intro. I think you may have skipped it and just read the subheaders.
“Yes, there are a lot of rules about writing a first chapter, but the truth is there are as many ways to start your novel as there are writers.
However, some openers are better than others for enticing a new reader, and beginning writers tend to fall into tired patterns that don’t always work. I know I did. We need to remember that the modern reader expects a story to start on page one.
So don’t take these as hard and fast rules. Professional writers break them all the time. They’re just tips. But they might help you in dealing with those first chapter blues.”
I don’t think that threatens anybody’s creativity. 🙂
I enjoyed the article, thanks Anne, and more, I agree with the majority of it. The Start threw me completely, it’s my only contention. “Do not open with death or a false start”. Like most writers I read a great deal and immediately I came up with a dozen bestsellers where the story starts with the death of the character and as I am writing this a couple of Nobel winners too. James Bond Died on the first page of one of Ian Fleming’s originals (lol- it still had legs) Sherlock Holmes too (for Conan Doyle).
So I suspect that if it done with style and creativity it may not matter. Lol- thankfully I have never started a novel that way myself but I can think of so many, from better writers than I, that do.
Raymond–As I said, professional writers ignore these guidelines all the time. And yes, the death opener is a cliche as old as the mystery genre, But as I said, it’s tired and readers find it annoying. Why not do something more creative than an annoying cliche? If you do feel the need, make it fresh and give the reader a reason to continue reading.
Excellent tips for a first time novelist. I appreciate that you shared examples to illustrate the points as well. Very helpful. Thank you for sharing your insight!
Nicole–You’re welcome! We have lots of info for first-time novelists. We’ve all been there!
A lot of writers start the story way too soon. But that’s ok. Go ahead and write it, and then have the courage to cut later.
Sharon–I think that’s true of 90% of novels–we need to cut the first three chapters. But that’s what editors are for. Those chapters have to be written–that’s how the author gets to know the characters.
thank you for all of these tips – felt like a mini-course in creative writing.
Jim–I’m so glad to hear you find it useful!
I’ve been thinking more and more about what would be involved in writing a novel, so this was quite useful!
As I’m about to start writing a novel, I couldn’t have found this advice at a better time! All brilliant tips, thank you