The "Firsts" Do's and Don'ts

     a theater up in Grayling, MI

        I'm not the world's best expert on do's and don'ts. But like anyone who reads and writes a lot, you start to get to know what works and what doesn't. Like I mentioned yesterday, there is so much riding on those "firsts". The first sentence, page, chapter etc..it can be overwhelming to try to do everything that will be required from those pages. It doesn't help that we have so many awesome firsts to follow behind:

        Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Leo Tolstoy

        Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. - Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

        Call me Ishmael. - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

and of course...

        It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens

        I love picking up a book to read the first few pages and the next conscience thought is "oh woah, I'm on page fifteen?!" That's when you know an author has done something right. A few things right. I'm trying really hard to get that flow in my first chapter so mentally I've gone through the basic do's and dont's so I thought I'd post them here:

      Do's: What does a first page, first chapter need?

-Do let your reader know what the rest of the book is about. Set the tone, style, is it a horror? a romance? what is going to be the main conflict? I once wrote a story about a ghost and there was no mention of anything ghostly for the first half of the book. Not great.

-Do introduce your main players the first chapter. Not all of them, of course, but give us an idea who the starting line up is.

-Do establish a point of view (pov) right off the bat and the general rule is to then stay with this style throughout the rest of your book. Decide if you're going to tell the story through different points of view, first person limited, third person, are you altering between first and third person (usually not recommended).The Harry Potter series was told in third person limited for much of the seven novels but switches to omniscient from time to time and if you're going to do something like this, keep it in line with chapter boundaries, do not change pov in the middle of a scene.

-Do establish readers trust. They want to know that the storyline will take them somewhere, that the foreshadowing and conflict build up will lead them somewhere. They want to feel satisfied, curious, haunted, sad, SOMETHING so show them what you can do. I hate putting down a book that looked so promising only to peter out after a few chapters.

-Do pull the reader into the world suddenly with a quick action starting scene or slowly entice them down the slippery slope to the world you've created. Either way, it's best to stay behind the scenes as much as possible and keep every evidence that there is an author present unseen.

    Don'ts: Things to be Wary of:

-Don't load for first chapter with back story it strangles a good storyline. I'd say 60% if not more of what I write in these beginning drafts will either never be used and will only enhance my knowledge of the character to better portray him or her or I will find a better, more concise way of adding those details little at a time.


-Don't don't start a novel with the hero/herione waking up, recounting his dream and then getting up and looking in the mirror to show what he looks like. Argh! No! bad!I also hate reading a book where the first character I get to know gets killed off right away.

-Don't start with a lengthy dialogue sequence. One, unless you're Hemingway, it's usually boring because we have no idea who these characters are. Two, many times writer's who do this don't include a setting or environment descriptors so for all we know these characters are just hanging in the air somewhere. Of course you can start with dialogue and it can work really well. But there is a right way to do it.

-Don't start too early. When does your story actually start? Is it when the murder is taking place? Or is it the next morning when your main characters are coming upon the scene? Or is that after noon when your main character is in the autopsy room and gets a mysterious phone call about the murder the night before? The best starts I've ever read are those that plop you down right in the middle of an ordinary day, right in the middle of what's going on.


Can you think of any other do's or don'ts?