Discovery Writers: Build Your Novel: Step 4, Crucial First Chapters (most important and also voted most likely to be rewritten)

 

FROM BUILDING YOUR NOVEL

Step 4: Starting Construction - The Crucial First Chapters (Tips for Discovery Writers)

Yes, the first chapters are probably the most important chapters of your novel, BUT they’re also the most likely to be rewritten—so there’s that.

The first chapters of your novel are both the most important and the most likely to be deeply rewritten later in revision. Most important because, especially in the time we live in, if you don’t get the reader very quickly, if you don’t pull them in and keep them turning pages, they will put your book down faster than a hot plate.

So, keep this in mind. You need to pull the reader into your story in the first chapters. How can you do that if you don’t know what your story is? Good question. Just get something down in draft one and realize you’ll come back to it. IMPORTANT: Do come back to it in revision once you know your story and, hopefully, the end of your story.

And here’s something else to keep in mind. INCITING INCIDENT. On a practical note: get to it as fast as possible. More on that in a bit.

First chapters are tricky. They need to hook readers, establish voice, introduce characters, hint at conflicts, and set expectations for the entire book. Oh, and they need to do all this while being compelling enough that someone keeps reading. But again, it doesn’t need to happen in the first draft. You can figure it out when you revise.

The first chapter you initially write might not even end up being your first chapter. But you do need to start somewhere, and starting strong will build your confidence and momentum. Also, it will help you find your way forward to an important early moment, the inciting incident in your story that propels the story forward.

So how do you begin when you’re a discovery writer who doesn’t know where the story is ultimately headed?

Start with action or disruption. I mean, start at a point where something is changing for your main character. The day that’s different. The moment their ordinary world cracks. Make the place you start important in some way, even if it’s not an earth-shattering way.

What you’re doing is creating narrative momentum. You’re making a promise to the reader: “Keep reading. I’m leading you to something interesting.” You’re also making that same promise to yourself. It will help you keep writing.

When introducing characters, resist the urge to tell us everything about them at once. We don’t need their full backstory in Chapter One. Show us who they are through their actions, thoughts, and dialogue in that opening situation. Let us discover them the same way you’re discovering them—gradually, through what they do and don’t do, say and don’t say. You are a discovery writer. Share your discovery with your readers.

One technique I love is starting with a character wanting something—even something small. A character in pursuit of a goal, even a mundane one, immediately creates questions in the reader’s mind. Will they get it? What stands in their way? Why does it matter to them? This helps the reader begin to care for the character and root for them, AND it creates story. I say even a mundane goal will work, but not for the entire novel. You need important goals as you move forward and for the heart of your novel.

Setting the tone happens naturally if you’re true to your voice and foundation. Is this a tense thriller? A contemplative literary novel? A whimsical fantasy? Your word choices, sentence structure, and what you choose to focus on will establish this. Trust your instincts here.

How Do You Start With Purpose While Leaving Room To Discover Story?

Now, the big question for discovery writers: how do you start with purpose while still leaving room to discover the story? The trick is to focus on immediate scenes rather than the big picture. Don’t worry about setting up plot points that will pay off 200 pages later (you can reverse engineer this later). Focus on making the current scene compelling on its own terms. You write a novel one page, one chapter at a time. The more you write, the more confident you’ll become in your choices.

Now, you do have a way to push action forward early in your novel. You make something happen to your character or your character does something that is compelling and that pushes the story forward. This is called an inciting incident. It’s what propels the story forward. In my novel, The Librarian of the Haunted Library, my protagonist leaves home and goes to New Orleans and is nearly killed but escapes and moves on. All that happens but the actual inciting incident is when he gets lost in a haunted forest and finds his way to Eden where he becomes the librarian of this magical town. (This is all done with a comic eye for exaggeration as my story is a combination of comic fantasy and horror comedy). That’s where the story really moves forward into what the whole novel will be about. You need one of these!

But as I wrote before, always remember that you’ll have a chance to revise.

Ask yourself: What’s interesting about this moment? What’s at stake for my character right now? What question does this scene raise that will make readers want to know more? This is how you build a chapter. You keep asking yourself questions that will help you develop story and character.

Common First Chapter Mistakes

Starting too early: Beginning with ordinary life before anything interesting happens for too many pages. Unless showing that ordinary life is crucial for contrast, skip ahead to something happening and get to the inciting incident as soon as you can.

Avoid Info dumping: front-loading all the world-building, character backstory, and context before the story starts moving. Resist this! Weave necessary information into active scenes instead. Don’t try to stuff your first chapters with information. You’ll bore the reader.

Really think about this: Your goal is to keep the reader turning the page. Sometimes you’ll realize you’re writing something that isn’t working or is boring or is trying to force too much information into the chapter. You’ll be telling instead of showing, but you’ll convince yourself it’s okay because it will lead the reader to some cool stuff in 50 pages.

The reader will never get to page 50. You have to focus on making every scene move the story forward or move our understanding of the character forward. Focus on developing story and, depending on what genre you write in, character first and then setting.

Opening with a dream or a character waking up is almost always a bad idea. Beware of this kind of cliché beginning (of course, you can break any “rule” like this if you do it in some interesting new way but…mostly that doesn’t happen).

If you’re stuck on how to begin, you might try one of these practical approaches:

Write three different openings for your novel, starting at different points in the story. See which one feels most energetic and intriguing.

Start in the middle of a conversation or action, then fill in context as you go.

Open with a question, statement, or observation in your character’s voice that reveals something essential about them. Then move on to something happening that relates to the observation. Then revise immediately so it is in narrative form.

Remember, your first draft’s opening chapters are not set in stone. Many discovery writers find their true beginning after writing the entire first draft. You might realize your story actually starts in what you originally wrote as chapter three. That’s fine. That’s part of the process.

What matters now is getting words on the page with enough energy and direction that you want to keep going. Your first chapters should be exciting for you to write. If you’re bored writing them, readers will be bored reading them. Let me just write that again: If you’re bored with your writing, readers will be bored.

Trust your instincts. If a particular opening feels alive to you—if it raises questions you’re genuinely curious to explore—chances are it will do the same for readers.

Now go write those first chapters. They can be messy and imperfect. What they can’t be is boring. As you’re writing those first chapters and getting excited about your story, you’ll likely have all kinds of ideas about where your story can go. Be bold. Push forward.