At night when the house is dark and cold what do you do? This is what I do.
I have written a novel about a girl and dragons and the sword Excalibur and Merlin as a boy. At the moment I am editing it so I can try to get it published – at last Harry Potter has left Hogwarts, long live Harry Potter.
The next phase of my edit is the beginning. A novel must have a good first page because it might be all the agent or editor reads before it goes in the bin, and when published, the first page might be all a prospective buyer in a bookshop reads before they put it back on the shelf.
I have done the obvious and ditched the first chapter – almost every unpublished book benefits from ditching the first chapter. Most unpublished authors think they need to explain lots of things about the characters and world they are creating. Don’t bore or patronise you reader, they won’t stay with you that long, you need a problem or conflict on the first page or even the first paragraph. If your story starts with someone waking up it won’t get published.
Pick up 10 newly published novels by first time writers (not bestselling authors who can get away with almost anything) and analyse the first page. What happens in the first 2 paragraphs. How many characters? How are they described (you might get a surprise)? What are they doing? How much is dialogue? What questions are asked but not resolved? And the most important question of all – why do you want to turn over the page?
So this is what I am looking at in my novel. Remember – ditch chapter 1 and I almost (but not totally in this litiguous society of ours) guarantee it will improve the beginning of your novel.
Keep writing
