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How do you lose those Chapter One blues?

timebider

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Hands up, everyone else who's written what you believe in your very biased heart to be a pretty darn good (or at least, very respectable) addition to your genre, but you just...can't...quite...nail that grabs-you-at-the-first-sentence opening hook.

I've now done four different first chapters for an upper MG novel that's otherwise pretty polished and complete, but I'm only getting farther away from my target with each iteration. It really feels like trying to swim to a life raft that I can see bobbing in the water just over there, but the waves just keep blowing me farther away.

Just looking for commiseration from fellow sufferers, but bonus points to anyone with ideas for conquering this particular problem!
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Okay, this isn't a first draft, so "just write to get stuff on paper" isn't appropriate.

However, if the rest of the book is complete, and you're just having trouble with the first chapter, and you have a pretty good idea in general what's supposed to happen around there, then try this:

Go to a 'first draft' mindset for the first chapter only. Write freeform, starting before where you think the first chapter should start, to well after where you think it should start, even to the extent of overlapping chapter 2. Then step back and have a look at it and decide specifically where you think it should start, keeping in mind the need for an immediate hook.
 

starrystorm

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:Clap: (hands up) I've been trying to rewrite my first few sentences since the beginning. My story sort of has a slow beginning. You're not alone.
 

Cascada

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I haven't gotten past the first chapter blues. I've rewritten it multiple times. I like what I have now...I just feel it needs some tinkering here and there, but I don't expect to feel it's ever really "perfect"...or close to perfect.

I leave it alone for a while, go back to it, leave it alone and focus on the rest of the book. I'll finish the book first, then go back to it for a final go-over.
 

Quinn_Inuit

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Oh, yeah, I know how this goes. Writing that first page is like walking a tightrope while demonstrating rocket propellant chemistry.* I've never written a book that didn't have the first page rewritten several times.

What I do to work out a beginning is think about who my audience is, what character I want them to identify with, and what they absolutely have to know about the book to decide if they'll like it. My goal is to make sure people who like it will keep reading and people who will hate it put it down. As far as I'm concerned, the whole point of that first page is to tell my target audience, "You know that thing you love? This is it."


*“Now it is clear that anyone working with rocket fuels is outstandingly mad. I don’t mean garden-variety crazy or a merely raving lunatic. I mean a record-shattering exponent of far-out insanity.”
― John Drury Clark, Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
 

AJakeR

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People put so much pressure on that first line, and - in most cases - so they should.

You say you've done a few iterations, but are liking them less and less. I'd say you might be too close to it at this point to be able to cut to the heart of it. Take what you think is the best draft, and have a few people cast their eyeballs over it. They'll either ease your mind somewhat on the inefficacy on the opening chapter, or point you in the right direction to getting something down that you like.

Opening lines have to be and do a lot of things, but they don't strictly have to be hooks, and they certainly don't have to be in media res - which a lot of people claim is a must must must.

As for commiseration: Yeah, that sucks.
I rewrote the opening to my third book a few times before falling on the right one. It involved not only just the opening line, but the entire opening scene. I just looked at it from a new angle, came it from a different perspective and I got it down. Of course, that whole book was appalling so it doesn't really matter now.

:)
 

INTPwriter

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For me, when I have trouble with writing the first chapter, I write the second, third, fifth, last, etc and then just come back to the first.
 

MaeZe

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I rewrote my first chapter multiple times (lost track of the number). And I edited each multiple times. It wasn't until I was 3/4 through the book that I gained enough satisfaction to do more editing than completely changing the opening.

Now I'm working on the ending and I've completely rewritten it several times and I'm still editing it every time I see it.

It doesn't concern me. Every time I rewrite it I love it until I read it again later. Then I rewrite it and love it again until I read it later.
 

Scythian

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It's very likely that the proper first sentence or even first paragraph of Chapter 1 is somewhere in the middle. It just has to be located, reworked into the opening, and voila.
 

mccardey

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It's very likely that the proper first sentence or even first paragraph of Chapter 1 is somewhere in the middle. It just has to be located, reworked into the opening, and voila.
It might be just me, but I read voila as vodka. (It still made sense.)
 

Titus

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You might want to use an in media res opening if the start is too slow. It sounds like you may be trying to cheat and dump exposition alone in chapter 1.
 
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Pull yourself out of the body of water you are swinning in and start flying. No, not literally.

Instand of trying to swim to the life raft, place yourself in the Alps with the destination of that wonderful ski lodge with the delicious cheesecake and pound cake at the base of the mountain. In short, don't fight the elements while trying to get where you need to be. Use them to your advantage. If cakes and the mountains aren't your thing, place yourself at the beach with a new destination. Do this by opening your mind to new ways. Something else, book a $99 flight to nowhere, and while your at 20,000 feet give or take, look out the window and jot down some ideas. Just a thought.
 

April Swanson

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A break might be good, so you can give your brain a breather and then come back with fresh eyes. Also, do you ever read your stuff aloud? Sometimes pretending you're reading to an audience can help you find the right words.

Good luck. Opening lines and chapters are so hard!
 

WeaselFire

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...but bonus points to anyone with ideas for conquering this particular problem!

Same advice as ever - Just write. When you're done with the book, I guarantee the first 10,000 words could just be chopped and the book be better. But you won't know until you get to the end.

Jeff
 

Charke

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I think we re-write that first chapter a lot because it gets sent to the publishers. Then they don't reply. You wonder why. The only thing you can control is that first chapter, so.....

Sometimes you've got to be mean, to just stop caring and say enough. You're trying to write the perfect first chapter and all you are doing is fighting yourself the whole way. I do certain kinds of writing when I'm really angry, also when I'm really tired. In these altered states the fight with myself is different. I don't go looking for these states though, I don't want to be one of those insane writers who eventually turns to drugs for inspiration. But sometimes when I'm real tired, different stuff will come out. (But damn does it need editing!)

I reached the point, after hundreds of submissions, where I changed the order of my book from Chapter 1 to Chapter 14, to 5,1,6,2,7,3 etc. That didn't change the complete lack of responces and eventually I just went back to the original. After 500 submissions, I self published the thing on Amazon.

- Mark Charke
 

Dianee

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Thanks for posting this. I have a finished MG manuscript that I am pleased with... other than the first chapter! I will be rewriting it soon as well (and have already rewritten it at least ten times). I'm also struggling with this :)
 

pseudowriter

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Thanks for posting this. I have a finished MG manuscript that I am pleased with... other than the first chapter! I will be rewriting it soon as well (and have already rewritten it at least ten times). I'm also struggling with this :)

I'm having the same issue with my completed MS. Also around that 10 times mark. ;) There's at least a few of us in the same spot, so you're very much not alone.

tl;dr - Beginnings are a bitch.
 

MaeZe

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Endings can be a bitch too.

I just kept writing, the story became more and more defined, my skills have gotten better and better.

I edited the beginning over and over and over. I still took some clauses out, (going on 6 years now) and it's still an improvement.

I've only edited the ending a half dozen times. It's getting there, it really is almost there.

My goal is to do the final edit on a couple chapters or more every day and I'm keeping that goal so far.

Just keep going, your experience is common and it sounds like you are on the right track.
 

charles19

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I've had that problem as well. I usually go back to the reason as to why I thought this was a good theme for a book in the first place, and why I got excited about it. If I can inject that excitement into the first chapter then it acts as a springboard for the rest. This is where the momentum starts. What I am saying is that I get in touch with my original inspiration and combine it with a knowledge of where the book actually headed, to write something compelling.

-Charles
 

aboveaverage

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I just follow my outline. I know what needs to be established and what I need to accomplish in that first chapter, and as for how it actually lands on the page, I just allow myself to accept that the first draft won't necessarily be perfect. Sometimes the voice flows from the start, sometimes it's like pulling teeth, but if I've outlined right, it'll come.