Did your first chapter change?

Did you change your opening chapter after the first draft was complete?

  • No. My first chapter is great.

    Votes: 6 10.0%
  • Yes. I found a better one when I'd finished telling the story.

    Votes: 32 53.3%
  • I've rewritten the first chapter X times. Now if I could only write the rest of the book.

    Votes: 10 16.7%
  • Other

    Votes: 12 20.0%

  • Total voters
    60
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Saint Fool

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I've been reading Albert Zuckerman's Writing the Block Buster Novel. (Great book, by the way.) He uses Ken Follett's The Man From St. Petersburg throughout the book including examples of the four outlines Follett used in developing the plot. In each outline, the opening chapter changes.

I've come to the end of the first draft of my WIP and realize that the first chapter is actually the second or third because the reader needs to get a sense of my MC before disaster strikes.

So ... how many of you ended up changing the first chapter once you'd finished the first draft?
 
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Palmfrond

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It's interesting that you want to add material *in front* of the the place where the story begins. Usually that's the part that gets cut in later versions, so that the book starts where the story actually starts.
 

citymouse

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Yes! I sent my book to a fellow author and his first email back was, "You begin too fast. Slow down and rewrite the first chapter or add a prologue or better still begin a new 1st chapter. I did as advised. His observation made al the difference.
C
 

Karen Duvall

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I think it's pretty natural to change a first chapter after the first draft is written because now that the story's done, the author knows so much more about the characters and the plot. I switched the 1st and 2nd chapters around on one book, added more backstory to the first chapter of another book, and just changed the first page of the first chapter in another book. Everyone has different reasons for changing their first chapter, but I think the point of the change is that you know more about the story after you've finished than you did when you started.
 

ChaosTitan

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For Three Days to Dead, my first chapter didn't change (save some minor editing). Seven books ago, with my very first novel, I can't tell you how many times I changed the first chapter.
 

tehuti88

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I don't do drafts, so my first chapters don't change...at first.

Should I redo a work years later when my style has changed, THEN the first chapter might change, but not in the basic details. I start a story where I think it should start; so I'd probably keep the same basic beginning but I might definitely make it better.

The exception is when I add a prologue. I did that with one of my novels where the story pretty much started out with a couple of people goofing off in a house. The prologue is a "flashback" prologue directly related to the story and clarifying things that took place years before so that the current-day plot would happen. (No, it's not an infodump. It's action just like the rest of the story.) So in that case the very beginning of the story changed, to add a new beginning, but the first chapter was still intact (albeit redone).
 

GirlWithPoisonPen

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My first chapter has changed here and there as I learned more about the characters as the story progressed.

I think the important thing is that you be willing to make changes if they are needed.
 

Saint Fool

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It's interesting that you want to add material *in front* of the the place where the story begins. Usually that's the part that gets cut in later versions, so that the book starts where the story actually starts.

Oddly enough, the new opening is where the story actually starts. I just didn't see it until the story was done.
 

Willowmound

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My first chapter is still my first chapter. I've rewritten it twice, but the same stuff happens. So I chose "other". It was hardly great. But it's coming along.
 
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I answered for the WIP that's nearest to being up to manuscript standard. "Found a better one..." etc.

I didn't think the first chapter set the scene very well; it read like 'normal' YA as opposed to something more creepy, closer to urban fantasy.

So I introduced two of the other main characters first off, showed them having a conversation which hints at what they are, before going back to another female MC living her life, just before she meets the...well, the creepy peeps. :) So the entire chapter wasn't changed; I added a couple of pages right at the very beginning.
 

Blondchen

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What happens in my first chapter is the same, but I did rewrite it. I'm pretty horrible with openings. That's what beta readers are for. :)
 

Claudia Gray

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The first chapters of my first and third books changed dramatically. The first chapter of my second book didn't change a bit; I suspect the fourth is going to go the same way. As for the potential fifth book I've been tinkering with, that first chapter has already undergone some transformation and will be changing some before I shop it around.

In short, I think this happens a lot, though not invariably.
 

Cyia

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Yes. I have two MC's and changed the 1st chapter to focus on a different one than originally intended because she had a stronger hook in her story.
 

vixey

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I wrote my first chapter about midway through writing the book.
 

Tanya Egan Gibson

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I rewrote it many times, and after the sale my editor at Dutton suggested I write a new opening. I ended up starting the book completely differently, adding two new chapters which, among other things, set the scene of my novel far more effectively, I think, than anything I'd written prior to that. (Good editors are good. Very good. Priceless.)
 

MDei

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I changed the first chapter of my first novel because the rest of the book was so out there, but the beginning was just so boring. Nothing happened and so I added a piece and took out a substantial amount of the chapter so I get to te action quicker. As for my other novel, it's staying like it is.
 

Sean D. Schaffer

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My original first chapter eventually became what is now my third chapter, although I've updated it a lot since writing it for the very first time. It works much better the way I have it written now, the writing is tighter and the story itself is much more believable.

Ironically, I've trunked the majority of the important parts of the remainder of the story, in favor of re-writing the entire darned thing from scratch. Also, I'm not trying so hard to produce outstanding writing, because I know that if I do so, I end up with inferior workmanship. :(

But back to the first chapter. The original started in a battle scene, with a flagship blowing up. Now, there's a lot more build-up to this event, and the way I told the chapter this time, the explosion has a much more vivid impact. I think what I've accomplished in this new version is far superior to the first version. :)
 

Travis J. Smith

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I've added multiple chapters in front of the original first chapter, so that's definitely a yes for me.
 
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