What should your first chapter accomplish? And what are common ways writers get their first chapter wrong?
In this episode, learn 5 common first chapter mistakes, and what to do instead.
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Episode at a glance:
[01:21] Your first chapter has some essential things to accomplish. And you need to do a lot with a little. Learn the most important things to establish.
[03:47] Mistake 1: Excessive backfill.
Backfill is everything that happened before we meet your characters on page one. It’s the backstory. You should know and write your backstory. But not all that backstory needs to be in your novel, let alone loaded into your first chapter.
[06:03] Mistake 2: The flash fire.
Sometimes writers will begin in the middle of some intense action. And that will go on for the entire first chapter. Learn surprising ways to bring more action into your first chapter, and how to build the intensity.
[10:38] Mistake 3: No strong, definable point-of-view.
Your first chapter should establish a strong, identifiable point of view. I’m not talking about whether you write in first or third person. Point of view is how your main character hooks into the world of the story. But whether you’re writing from one character’s perspective, or multiple, whether you’re writing in first person, or third, there’s a perceiving subject experiencing and reporting the action. You need to invent that perceiving subject.
[14:51] Mistake 4. Insignificant details. Everything you include – every object, every description, every character, no matter how seemingly minor – needs to be made use of. Nothing in your story is there to give a pedigree of reality or be there simply because they would be there in the room. Everything needs to be made use of in service of your story, and your main point of view character.
[16:27] Mistake 5: Plot told as a summary.
This is one of the most common missteps writers make in their first chapter. Learn the difference between summary and scene, and why parsing out plot details slowly keeps your reader curious and engaged.
Link mentioned in this episode:
Episode 72: Beyond The First Draft: 3 Ways To Craft A Compelling POV.
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