What makes a first chapter

Welcome to my series of helpful writing tips to get you to 50k in 30 days(or less)! Starting your story is often the hardest step. If you haven't got a clue what to write yet, don't panic it's never too late to start, check out my prep post about how to plan your 30 day novel over here. If you're ready to dive into chapter one, then you're in the right place. If you're starting your story elsewhere, may god have mercy on your soul.

Meeting Expectations

Or, how to nail your first chapter by establishing the premise.

A lot goes into a first chapter. There's characters and worlds to introduce, plots to establish, and of course, catchy first lines to think up. But there's another aspect of first chapters that I think often goes overlooked: establishing the premise of your book, in case you hadn't guessed from the overly verbose title of this post.

The premise of your story is the main selling point. It's what makes your story interesting and different from other stories. When a reader picks up a book they have a certain expectation about what that book contains. This can come from the cover art, the marketing material, the blurb, or even because you gave them a sales pitch. You've already told them what to expect, and now is the time to show them, and fulfill those expectations.

There's a reason sci-fi movies love opening with a shot of a spaceship flying over an alien planet.

Expectations met.

Movies are a great medium to see this effect in action. The purpose of your opening is not just to begin the story, but to hook the reader. Chances are if they're reading you've already piqued their interest, and this is your chance to hook them in for the long haul. And you do that by giving them what you promised. Jurassic Park opens with dinosaurs gone wrong. Pirates of the Caribbean opens with the aftermath of a pirate raid. Lord of the Rings opens with an enormous fantasy battle. With elves.

For instant fantasy, just add elves.

Once you've figured out your premise it will help shape everything in the first chapter, from establishing the story through the inciting incident, to writing a powerful opening line. While I don't advocate spending too much time on your opening line for a first draft--it's more of an editing task than a writing one--having a strong premise will help.

Here's an example from the first-draft opening-line of my 2017 NaNo, the conclusion to my satrical sci-fi series.

That's one of the main themes of the series--and focus of the third book--summed up in one sentence, as well as showing a bit of character from one of the main characters and introducing the mood of the scene. This one will still be the subject of a lot of editing (eventually), but I like it because of its simplicity.

The first chapter is also where you introduce the premise of your main characters, and establish their character arcs. What are their flaws that will have to be overcome in order to achieve their goals? Often, in a first draft, you may not have an answer for this. Or, you may have the flaw, but are unsure about how it will be resolved in the plot to come. If that's the case, then just keep in mind this mantra for your November to come:

It's a first draft. Don't worry about it.

That concludes this introduction to introducing your book. The premise is what your book is about at the most basic level. Once you have that figured out it will make everything that follows much easier!

I'll be back again tomorrow with another post about how to make sure your character is the right protagonist for the job!

Thank you, and write something every day.