What do you do when the first chapters are less than awesome?

Here's the deal...I've always felt like my story is basically really good once you hit Chapter 6 (keep in mind I write long chapters and there are only 13 in the book). That isn't to say that the first chapters are bad, it's just that it doesn't get can't-put-it-down awesome until later on (which is crazy considering if you read the plot summary that's the part you'd expect to end up kinda boring).

Well, I've got a friend rereading it for me, and his comment this time was that up to three is good, up to five is awesome, and six on was "absolutely phenomenal." I'm not trying to be conceited here, btw, so please don't take this as bragging (I'm actually freaking out over it).

Thing is...I know that from what we're always told the first chapters are the ones that have to be absolutely phenomenal or no one will read on. I've got a good book here with a clever and interesting (and I think original, but everyone says that lol) story. I've got a fun character who I'd love to share with the world, and I'm absolutely terrified that no one will ever read past the first chapter or two to realize it. Is that stupid? Am I just being paranoid?

It's not really that the first chapters are bad and have major flaws. I'm sure there is stuff that could be improved (but I don't know what or how), it's just that as the story goes on it gets darker and more suspenseful and builds up more and more toward the end. Ugh. I'm freaking myself out here. Probably mostly because my first queries are going out tomorrow. Do I even have a chance?

Well, in a way I kind of wrote it that way intentionally. It's not really about the writing. Rather than being a book where from the first page it's just tension and suspense constantly, it starts out pretty light. It's funny, my MC doesn't take the situation too seriously at first, and even when things are going kind of bad he still is convinced they'll find a way out. There's not quite the same sense of urgency. Yeah things happen and there's action and stuff, just the feeling is different. It's more about getting to know the characters and the situation and everything. It's after a couple of the main characters start dying that everything really all goes to hell...but those going to hell things wouldn't work without the opening. Half of what makes it moving (IMO anyway) is the contrast between the lighter stuff and the darker shift. :/

I'm think I'm gonna go cry now lol. Leave it to me to shoot myself in the foot with something like this. I certainly wasn't sitting there thinking, "No agent will read past Chapter 3 unless it's filled with action and suspense and badassery" when I wrote it.

The first person who dies is a random girl he doesn't know, and he is affected by it because he feels guilty about it, which leads to the rest that happens. When I say it doesn't get dark, I mean it's when his two partners/best friend are killed the tone of the story changes. Before it's a bit light and he tends to joke (joking is his way of dealing with stress). When they die he loses that and the whole tone changes. The fact that the beginning is sort of light and the death comes out of nowhere basically and leaves this MC that you've always seen as a smiling, joking sort of guy (he always sorta reminds me of Hawkeye in that way) then suddenly turns into someone who is freaking out, who doesn't know what to do, who is being torn apart by guilt of what he's done and he can't hide those emotions...all of that makes the next scenes where everything goes dark that much more shocking for the contrast. Everything was intentional...everything has been planned, down to the very last tone of the scenes.

My reader says I'm being stupid and worrying over nothing, but he also doesn't read the same things I do that always say your beginning has to be the most astounding thing. I've tried to figure out a new beginning before, and there's no way to change it without changing the entire fundamental of the story. And truth is I like the story I've told. I've spent the past six months editing and rewriting to make it good, and I think I've done a decent job. I just hate to think that it'll never even get past the first fifty pages because they don't have the big action/dramatic/climaxy stuff that comes later on. Well, action is a bit misleading. There really isn't a lot of action in general, not in the traditional sense anyway. I might just be panicking over nothing. Maybe they aren't terrible. Well, I've been told they aren't terrible. I guess I'm just afraid they aren't compelling enough. But I've always written it with an audience like me in mind. If I found a book like this I'd love it. I just don't know. I guess I'm just having a crisis of insecurity.

I know. I'm gonna. That's just what makes me nervous I suppose. I guess it just freaked me out to hear my reader say that earlier. I mean, he was giving me a compliment, but didn't realize in the process he might be saying "btw this one's doomed." He says if anyone makes it through the first two chapters they're mine, so that's a good thing, I suppose. I'm just afraid that no one will get that far. I'm imagining all those pressed for time agents who decide within a page or three and thinking "and you want me to get them through sixty pages?"

I know, I know. And I know that a lot of readers are the same way (I'm weird, I guess. I never read pages before I start, and I have hardly ever not finished a book I started, even if I wasn't in love with it). I know it probably isn't perfect, but it's quite literally as good as I can make it. It's at the top of my skill set at the moment. I guess I just hate to think that two years of work on something that I really love isn't going to be good enough.

Just don't worry about it guys, k? I know everyone feels this way. Universal writer worries/feelings, right? This is just the first thing I've ever done that was any good, that was even anywhere near close. I'm going to send it out there, and I'm sure in a 150 queries it'll be fairly certain which direction it lands on. And there's always that possibility of coming back to it in a few years and rewriting it when I've improved enough to make it better, right?

Not all at once. My first set is 13 or so I think. I'm just anticipating in case of epic failure.

What!? Me, a murderer!? Hm....that'd actually be a funny mystery to put together. Agents the nation over begin dropping dead, Columbo must figure out why... You actually made me laugh, which I needed. Thanks.

The people who have read the first chapter either thought it was awesome or had a problem with the logic (though hopefully I've fixed that). So I guess you do have a point. I'm being insecure and need to just trust myself.

I've had three. Well, three and a half. One guy read the first six chapters. About eight people read the first chapter. Only one person has seen the "final." Technically he wasn't supposed to read past Chapter 6 (I'm doing a typo-check), but went through 9 today anyway. I know it's not a lot, but I've posted sections in the SYW area (whenever I had problems with something).

I've been told my pacing is really good. That's one of the comments I get over and over. If anything, it moves faster than I want because I had to cut so much out.