How much happens in your 1st 50 pages/3 chapters?

Lets see, my current work is in Fantasy Fiction,

B1-1st Chapter, Hero encounters a fairy, plot is revealed to the readers...
2nd Chapter, Hero confronts one of the protagonist and save his future love interest.
3rd Chapter, the heros life is shown through the eyes of friends, set up for another
confrontation in chapter 4.

B2-1st Chapter, a violent rape occurs, and the victim escapes, readers learns she is
searching for the MC.
2nd Chapter, MC finds rape victim and takes her in, readers also learn what has
happened since ending of B1.
3rd Chapter, MC is talked into using his magic to heal the victim of her injuries and in
doing so he experiences her rape as he absorbes her injuries.

Each chapter in my books have a conflict arising, (physical, emotional, or spiritual), even as one is solved, thus I keep the readers turning pages, as the plot and subplots keep the story flowing forward to the climatic finish. Book 2 starts out darker than Book 1, thus why the rape scene was added, even though it might turn some people off.

Main character's on the run from shady interstellar psychiatrists who apparently run the police by the end of chapter one.
I still think it's a bit slow, though. Maybe if I cut off the first half of the chapter and merge the rest with chapter two...
No. Not yet. Must reach The End first.

Well, if I just go by pages, not chapters, my first 50 covers:

1. MC witnesses horrible thing.
2. MC tries to rationalize horrible thing and figure out what it was exactly that she saw.
3. Old friend enters picture and explains that what was seen was *not* a horrible thing at all (using a drug to aid in this memory wash) and offers MC dream job.
4. MC tours campus of new job and decides to leave her current, yucky job, for the new, shiny job.

I read in some book (can't remember which one now) that typically by chap 3 you should have done something like:

1. Established character viewpoint.
2. Formulated a long-term major story goal.
3. Shown the antagonist.
4. Started to show conflict and introduced 2 or 3 supporting characters, each with a small goal of their own.
5. Knocked hero/MC down and have them alter plans based on whatever it was that knocked them down.

Now, whether or not that is really what "must" happen, I don’t know, but it sounded reasonable to me.

Heh! In one WIP I have an alien fleet devastate an enemy mining planet and murder 30 thousand colonists which sparks an interstellar war. In another WIP (actually, that one's completed) a small town in Kentucky is destroyed by mouse-sized ants and a college student (from the town) discovers the carcass of a giant beetle in the hills above Berkeley, CA. In another WIP terrorists seize a gated community and round up its citizens for hostages while the main characters try to escape their clutches and figure out what's happening.

I normally don't get to the actual action or focus until about 20 pages into the book after I develop the characters enough and make the setting. The antagonist thing doesn't truly matter to me since they're usually all over the place in my stories, and if you think your book is slow, one of my story's introductions is 90 pages long (but a very action packed, character developing, everything-you-need-to-know introduction).

In current WIP, the first 3 chapters have:

2 MCs making love. Reveal that one is a vampire (the other MC already knew this ). Vamp MC runs into vamp antagonist, who is about to kill someone. Talks her down from the murder.

Vamp MC speaks to vamp Prince about antagonist being in town. Antagonist has sex then kills the guy.

Vamp Prince finds antagonist and tries to scare her into going home with him. He's still in love with her. She slaps him and runs, killing 2 old people on her way home.

--- This all establishes the rules of the vampire community (firstly, no killing your food) and introduces what the vamp MC wants - to be rid of antagonist (they used to be involved). It introduces the romantic ties of the 2 MCs that show why vamp MC wants to be more human than most vampires. It also shows the opposite nature of the antagonist. It's erotica, and the way she kills after mating makes her a nice opposite to the vamp MC. Other MC is the human element, and becomes more important in later chapters.

I think that's enough for 3 (shortish) chapters.

For my NaNo, this is how it rolled out:

1--Protag gets attacked by zombies while stuck in traffic, escapes, but loses his girlfriend

2--Flashback, in which a magician--and the conjurer of said zombie--gets tried in court and stripped of his license to practice sorcery

3--Present time, morning after, protag comes out of shell-shock and we get to meet the people he interacts with on a daily basis, all of whom are very sorry about his girlfriend

I'd read that. My NaNo also had zombies, but no sorcery.

redacted

This project is Fantasy. I wrote this one because I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's the first book in a trilogy. I was thinking about the fact that virtually everything on the fantasy shelves is series stuff. I wasn't thinking about the fact that nobody knows who I am.

But, in the story you have two interconnected story arcs. The first one is for the single book, the second is for the overall story arc.

In the first fifty pages...

All the major characters have been introduced, the last one now shows up on page fifty. We have a major battle. The geography of the world has been described, and laid out. The magic system has been laid out.

The major conflict of the trilogy is starting, but isn't real clear. It's clear that Very Bad Things are happening, but not why.

Of course, I am really excited about this one. Take it for what it's worth.

Dave

I'm not on 50th page yet. Alot been happening already though. Escapes, been wounded, some realization, new allies and much more to come.

My last one started out pretty slow, too. In the first fifty pages I had um...MC breaks into building, gets caught, manages to escape (has to fight his way out), there's a big explosion. That basically covers the first chapter. Up through page fifty would have some random dialogue (not really random, but you get what I mean) with two of the other important characters, finding out a girl is dead, and my MC deciding to go off and warn another girl she might be next. I think 50 is right before he actually meets her and talks to her.

If we're talking first 3 chapters (which is about 96 pages for me), there's a bit more involved. MC convinces said girl (against his friend's wishes) to go with him, one of his partners reveals some important info about his past, they try to change girl's appearance to make her harder to find, and my MC has a fight with a friend to convince him to go threaten a guy to get a code they need. That's about it, though.

My current one doesn't have fifty pages yet, but I suppose right now it's a bit slow, too. Narrator goes to work, almost gets shot, has to bandage up one of the other MCs who was injured in a fight, um...what else has happened? Oh yeah, introduce the other main MC, narrator commiserates over drinks with a friend, and I'm pretty sure he's going to be kidnapped within the first fifty pages.

Personally, and I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this (particularly considering that a lot of people actually flip through books before buying them), but I've always felt like a book should build, and that's what I tend to do in mine. I guess it goes back to junior high and learning the whole rising action, climax, falling action curve, and I tend to pace to fit that. Things move faster and faster and build up to the climax.

Anyway, my opinion is probably pretty meaningless lol, especially considering my current epic fail with submissions on my last MS (wee form rejections!)*.

*to my credit, I haven't heard back on that many yet...

Chpt 1: MC is drugged and kidnapped.
Chpt 2: Police looking for MC in connection to assault; MC's parents realise something is not right.
Chpt 3: MC wakes up bound and gagged.

Well.... for my WIPs....

Council Brats
Chap 1 - Michael spends his time running away from getting beat up at home
Chap 2 - Michael spends his time avoiding being beat up at school
Chap 3 - Michael gets into a fight that sends him careening into the judicial system and kills all his plans and hopes, or seems to. Yay conflict!

Love is the Devil
Chap 1 - Edward gets an ASBO and is sent to the country to his uncle who is supposed to "make a man of him"
Chap 2 - The village Edward arrives at is very strange, and the people are very strange.
Chap 3 - Edward witnesses the villages killing a citizen of the village because they guy won't submit to the public good! Yay conflict!

As If
Chap 1 - Jim is leaving his community because they won't accept that he's a bleeding poof
Chap 2 - Terence gets beat up by his father, because he's a bleeding poof too!
Chap 3 - Instead of living with each other, happy for all days, Terence decides that it's better to forget about all this poofing - and belong to this group of people that actually seem to care for him. Even if they won't accept any poofing. Yay conflict!

That's what goes on in my WIPs first three chapters.

Forging Trust, my first book:
Chapter 1: Introduces the main character, Varthikes, and he encounters the Humans as they land on his world.
Chapter 2: Introduces Varthikes' siblings and his relationship with them. Also introduces the Human commander's paranoia regarding Varthikes' appearance (a dragon).
Chapter 3: Varthikes reports the matter to his community's leaders.

The real action begins in Chapter 4, but the first 3 is necessary set-up, introducing the world and building the characters before all hell breaks loose.

Hm, let's see:

Chapter 1: We establish time and place, and that our MC is a prostitute. She notices a man watching her, gets in an argument with a man who thinks he owns her.
Chapter 2: We meet her distant cousin at the theater.
Chapter 3: We learn a little more about the cousin and the cousin's daughter. Both are important to the way the ending plays out.

The good stuff starts when she gets back in touch with the man she saw watching her in chapter 1. But before whisking her away, I wanted to establish her life before her meeting with that man.

Fifty pages is the first two chapters of my book. In chapter one:

1. Parents finds out their son has terminal cancer
2. They agree to an experimental gene therapy treatment
3. Son gets treatment and is cured
4. Son dies in accident, parents see body

In chapter two:

1. Eleven months have passed, parents are separated
2. Dad gets midnight call: "Daddy?"
3. Dad races into the Nevada desert, finds son alive and scared
4. Two bad guys show up to kill dad and capture son
5. Bad guys end up dead in a very strange way

And then the real action starts.


Also, WOOHOO! Only three chapters left to write and I'm DONE.

Everybody's book seems so interesting! Can't wait until you're all finished and published.

So the Big Civil War Novel (which is finally getting its last polish) used to start with the heroine and hero, two old friends, being reunited after 15 years. It was a touching, lovely scene full of information and context-setting.

But I decided it wasn't thrilling enough, so...

Now it starts with the hero getting shot at while trying to stop a bank robbery. Actually, the robbery of three banks. In Vermont. By Confederate soldiers.

The reunion is now chapter two.

And in chapter three, the heroine finds that the hero has broken into her house to look through her papers.

Let's see...

In Chap 1, the MC finds out she's preggo, and her personality shows through pretty nicely as she decides she's not cut out to be a mother.

In Chap 2, her mother visits and finds out the MC is preggo, they talk about options (she still can't decide between adoption/abortion), you get to see her mother for the pain she is, and MC considers telling the father about the baby

Chap 3 - different MC from third person instead of first, get her name and occupation, and she gets a mysterious email...who is she?? How does she relate to the other MC???

Doesn't sound like I lot, but I think...hope...it's enough. A lot of character development. I'm with IceCream - all ya'll's stories sound so interesting...I'd read them all I think! Mine sounds boring now.

Damnit.

Last book: (Keep in mind this is post apocalyptic)

MC has been tracking his kidnapped wife for 6 months finds her body, executed and set on fire. A man wearing robes is disposing of the bodies when the MC finds them. He slaughters the man.

MC realizes he can't stay in one place any more and decides to leave. Without any clue where he's going he wanders the country side.

He finds a farm that is occupied by two children who's father's been gone for a while. He takes a liking to them and finds solace in caring for them. One day while hunting he runs into more men, wearing the strange robes and kills them.

MC realizes that it is some kind of cult/organization and that after dispatching these men, more robes will come, and ultimately put the children in danger. He is forced to leave the children, and sets out, vowing to find and put a stop to the mysterious Robed cult.

This is the end of part 1 (There are 7 parts)

There is a four page flash back to the MC and his wife the day the apocalypse happened.

Thats right at 50 pages.


Book 2:

Set in present day.

MC, an entry level programmer with a software company is facing serious money problems. He's surprised when he goes to his atm and finds several hundred thousand dollars in his account. When he tries to withdraw money, it alerts him that his account is now locked out, and to please remain at the ATM.

MC freaks out and returns home only to find cops already waiting for him. He realizes he's been framed, but has no idea why.

MC calls his best friend, who is a wanna be hacker, and they agree to meet at a coffee shop. MC's best friend shows up and says cops had been scouting his place too. Neither of them know why he got burned. MC's best friend suggests contacting a renowned hacker and seeing if they can figure out who is framing him.

En route to meet the real hacker, MC's phone rings and its an NSA agent who says that he's going to track, find and catch him. MC ditches phone. They meet hacker, who is a girl. They devise a plan to try and figure out who is framing MC but its going to require a lot of cpu horse power.

There is a chase scene of cops coming after the trio.

Thats pretty much the first 50 of this one.

IceCreamEmpress said:

Everybody's book seems so interesting! Can't wait until you're all finished and published.

So the Big Civil War Novel (which is finally getting its last polish) used to start with the heroine and hero, two old friends, being reunited after 15 years. It was a touching, lovely scene full of information and context-setting.

But I decided it wasn't thrilling enough, so...

Now it starts with the hero getting shot at while trying to stop a bank robbery. Actually, the robbery of three banks. In Vermont. By Confederate soldiers.

The reunion is now chapter two.

And in chapter three, the heroine finds that the hero has broken into her house to look through her papers.

Click to expand...

Oooh! Keep me posted on that one, my sister is a Civil War Historian. She loves anything on the subject fiction or non-fiction.

In my current WIP, the big twist happens in Chapter 5. Still around page 50 -- my chapters are probably a little on the small side -- but it's a little worrisome that I couldn't squeeze it into an earlier chapter. Nor does it feel right to label two or more of the previous chapters together as one, as chapters 1-4 all have different POV characters and locations. Ah, maybe when I finish the book I'll see a way to tighten up the beginning.

In my previous novel, my goal was to have things happen right away and I did. There is a murder during a sex scene on *page 3*. Another twist happens in chapter 3, at about page 50. I'm very proud of the beginning of that novel. Hope I hear back from the agents I sent it to soon.

Historical novel currently being pitched by my agent set during the First Scottish War of Independence:

Prologue--(four years before chapter one) MC, in France, learns that his father has died in the Tower of London, his inheritance seized by the English king and he returns to Scotland.
First Chapter--At behest of his patron, MC offers fealty to the English king to regain inheritance, is rejected, and a plot to crown Robert Bruce King of Scots is revealed.
Second Chapter--MC witnesses William Wallace's execution, Robert Bruce decides to seize the Scottish crown, and the MC leaves to join him.