Chapter One & Jump Starting Your Book

1. Don’t get carried away.  A first chapter should whet the appetite and make the reader want to keep reading. Don’t raise a ton of questions and answer them all in chapter one.

2. Make it easy on your readers. Don’t demand to much thinking in the first chapter.  You want to keep their interest, but you don’t want to overwhelm them, either.  

3. Make something happen.  This is an important thing to work on, since we all want to hook our readers and give them something to make them turn the page.

4. Avoid backstory.  I’m not saying never, because in writing there is no such thing as never, but in most cases, it is better to just sprinkle little bits of information that hint to the past.

5. Think cocktail party when introducing characters.  Would you be able to remember the names of a bunch of people you just met at a party?  Probably not, so don’t expect your readers to remember all your characters, if you dump them all into the first chapter.

6. Avoid long bouts of description.  You want to set the tone in your first chapter and too much description can cause your reader to skip pages and maybe put down your book.

7. Raise some questions.  Make your reader wonder what is going on; don’t give them all the answers.  You can keep them reading by creating questions.  They’ll want to find the answers.  What happens next?  Who was that man watching the main character? Where did that box come from? How did it get there?

8. Have your protagonist do something memorable.  Have your character make an entrance.  Maybe give them a significant character trait. 

9. Make only ONE major thing happening.  This will help focus your reader and help you keep your manuscript tight.

10. End the chapter with a page turner.  Use one of the techniques discussed on April 19th.

I would love you to share your ideas on writing a great first chapter.  Any new thoughts?

Kathy