Writing The First Chapter
What to Include at the Beginning of Your Novel
You’ve decided you’re ready to begin your story. Fantastic! Where do you begin?
What must you include in that critical first chapter? The first and the last chapters are the most important because they are where you gain and keep a reader for that novel and for future ones as well. In the first chapter the reader will decide whether to keep reading, whether they are interested enough to invest time in the story or whether to put it down, disappointed they wasted their money. The last chapter is where they decide to buy your next story.
This puts good, healthy pressure on us to write a great first chapter (we’ll talk about the last another time). The first chapter can be the most fun as well, but a lot has to happen, so let’s look at the various components that should be included.
The First Five Pages . . . and the First Sentence
Noah Lukeman wrote a great book titled The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile about how important the opening of a novel is and what should be included. A big…
