I just wanted to point out something I ran across revising the first draft of my current work. I've always struggled with the first chapter and opening lines and usually rework them a dozen times during the writing of the first draft. I also see a lot of questions here about where to start a novel, usually trying to figure out the inciting incident and so on.
I remember a writing teacher about 12 millennia ago going through a first chapter of a fellow student. The student had worked on her chapter for several months and honed it to the best possible work she could do. My teacher, in a group review where we all thought the writing was wonderful, made the comment "That's very nice, but it's not your story, is it?"
It was brutal and we all felt the sting, but she was right. The chapter was all back story that didn't really tell any of the story. I have always worked to make sure I didn't make that mistake.
But reading my first chapter I suddenly realized something. The book is a mystery, the opening scene is in the main character's bar and introduces a cast of supporting players, sets the scene and closes with what I thought was a brilliant line. A character from the past comes in, points to the newspaper headline of a dead guy found in a fire, a story the characters had been discussing, and says "He was my employee."
That sets the book off and running, and begins the main story line. Yep. The death, the headline, the preamble, none were really the inciting incident. It was that character's line, the last one in the chapter. So my revised chapter starts with:
“Paco was my employee.”
I'd rewritten the first chapter several times from scratch, changing characters, working in the details and making the dialogue perfect. And in three seconds it was all tossed out. And it needed to be. The take away from this is that famous writing advice from Q - "Murder your darlings."
Hope it helps someone else's focus.
Jeff
I remember a writing teacher about 12 millennia ago going through a first chapter of a fellow student. The student had worked on her chapter for several months and honed it to the best possible work she could do. My teacher, in a group review where we all thought the writing was wonderful, made the comment "That's very nice, but it's not your story, is it?"
It was brutal and we all felt the sting, but she was right. The chapter was all back story that didn't really tell any of the story. I have always worked to make sure I didn't make that mistake.
But reading my first chapter I suddenly realized something. The book is a mystery, the opening scene is in the main character's bar and introduces a cast of supporting players, sets the scene and closes with what I thought was a brilliant line. A character from the past comes in, points to the newspaper headline of a dead guy found in a fire, a story the characters had been discussing, and says "He was my employee."
That sets the book off and running, and begins the main story line. Yep. The death, the headline, the preamble, none were really the inciting incident. It was that character's line, the last one in the chapter. So my revised chapter starts with:
“Paco was my employee.”
I'd rewritten the first chapter several times from scratch, changing characters, working in the details and making the dialogue perfect. And in three seconds it was all tossed out. And it needed to be. The take away from this is that famous writing advice from Q - "Murder your darlings."
Hope it helps someone else's focus.
Jeff
Last edited: