How to start your novel like a rocket-powered sled blasting across the alkaline flats with your reader onboard
Have you ever picked up a random book at the library to read the first page and ended up reading page after page until you realized you needed to take this book home?
That can be your novel. Let's break down how exactly to write an opening chapter that straps readers into a rollercoaster and doesn't let them leave (in a non-creepy, non-serial killer way).
First, an important caveat.
DO NOT apply these tactics when you first sit down to write a new story (unless you already know without a doubt that this is crucial to your process).
A rocket-powered opening is crafted through revision and rewriting. If you start with the mindset of getting it perfect from the start, you'll write a sentence, decide it's not good enough, delete it, try again, write a page, and delete that too.
In short, you'll never write the book.
You can't get the opening perfect BEFORE writing the rest of the novel, anyway, because you need to know the story inside and out before you can pick an opening that will clearly convey the type of story and blast readers into your fictional world.
Accept that when you start, the opening will not be the one you end up sharing or publishing.
Start writing at whatever point in the story you feel you need to and with whatever info you need to in order to get the story on the page. Make it good later.
Now, let's move on to HOW to make that opening epic.
What makes a good opening chapter
Your opening pages have to accomplish many things, like if an octopus worked a drive-thru.
- It has to hook the reader right away so they keep reading.
- It has to introduce at least one main character in a way that defines who they are.
- It has to include a conflict.
- It has to establish your fictional world.
- It has to set the tone of your novel.
Whew, that's a lot to do in one chapter, so let's break down the best techniques to make it happen.
To hook your reader from your first line: Make them wonder but don't give them the answer.
Your opening sentences should raise a question that your reader wants to know the answer to. As soon as we wonder about something, we stick around to find out more. It's why clickbait works because the moment we think, what the hell is going on? we're hooked.
Note: your opening lines will rarely include a literal question. Instead, you present an action or description that makes the reader curious about the character, world, or situation.
It's something that makes the reader wonder, Why is this happening? Who is this interesting person? What happens next?
Examples:
The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed (The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger by Stephan King).
This is a powerful opening line because it raises so many questions. Who is the man in black? Why is he fleeing? Who is the gunslinger? Why is he giving chase?
The best opening questions focus on a character because characters give us the emotional pull of a story. They're what we connect with the most.
After the action-heavy opening line, the first chapter of The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger slows down to provide the reader MORE things to wonder about.
King describes the setting, which raises more questions, and the gunslinger, which gives us his defining introductory moment (discussed more below). Because each of these elements raises more questions while also giving us hints about the answers, we keep reading on to find out more.
Once you raise questions, don't answer them outright. Instead, provide clues that slowly build an answer while also raising more questions. For example: in The Dark Tower, the opening pages describe the gunslinger's actions as he follows the man in black, including his ability to ignore thirst.
This tells us something about the gunslinger--he's had special training-- but it also raises more questions about what that training is and what it means beyond being able to delay drinking water.
Creating wonder also works with less action-heavy openings. For example:
Kell wore a very peculiar coat. It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible. (A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab)
Despite the lack of action, this opening creates curiosity. It tells us this story has magic and best of all, it makes us wonder about the character who dons a coat this is impossible even by his world's standards. Who is he? How does he do this magic?
It's also a defining introductory moment for the character (discussed below). If a line or paragraph can achieve multiple things at a time, it does a better job of strapping readers to that rocket-sled.
Alternatively, hook readers by creating a sense of unease with your opening line.
The first line doesn't have to include an explicit conflict or big question if it creates a sense of conflict or a feeling that something is wrong in the story's world. This makes the reader wonder what the problem might be and so they keep reading.
For example:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. (Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell).
This line doesn't raise a question right away, but it does create a creepy feeling, a sense that something is off, just from the mention of clocks striking thirteen.
The next lines introduce the main character Winston Smith and build on the sense of discomfort with descriptions of vile wind. Orwell then raises questions in the reader's mind with a giant portrait of a man's face staring at Winston from the lobby of his apartment building and a mention of the daily Hate. This makes us wonder what is going on and we keep reading to find out more.
Similarly, Neuromancer by William Gibson opens with,
The sky above the port was the color of a television, turned to a dead channel.
Using the same technique as Orwell, Gibson creates a sense of wrongness with the world you've stepped into. He then shows us the main character moving through his everyday world and drops details that pique our curiosity.
To introduce conflict: Start with your main character dealing with a problem.
Open your book with your main character in the middle of a conflict. Don't start with the beginning of their problem.
Think of how Andor begins with Cassian searching for his sister in a seedy, corporate brothel, rather than with him waking up that day or even with him losing his sister in the first place.
In The Essential Character Creation Blueprint, we say to start the book with your main character's "normal world"--that is their life before their adventure begins. But their everyday life should still contain problems. Something is broken in the character or in their world that will lead them to their grander adventure.
To use Andor as an example again: Searching for his sister isn't even the central conflict of the series. That particular problem is a part of Cassian's normal life and will force him into the show's main conflict with the Empire.
Whatever conflict is normal for your character will lead them to the new conflict that will drive the rest of the book. In short, start with your character dealing with their normal, everyday problems.
For example, look at the opening of The Hunger Games. When the book starts, Katniss's father is already dead and she's already breaking the law to provide for her family. The Capital rules her district with an iron fist and The Hunger Games have been going on for over 70 years.
We don't start with the beginning of Katniss's problems--the Capital taking over or her father dying in the mines. We enter the story into a broken, conflict-filled world with a character who is struggling to keep herself and her family alive despite being a kid herself.
This normal-to-Katniss conflict will throw her into a new one--the Hunger Games--when she decides to sacrifice herself to save her sister.
Begin your book with your main character existing in their normal life, which is broken in some way.
To repeat the caveat from the beginning of this post: When writing your first draft, start wherever you want, even at the beginning of your fictional universe. Do whatever you need to get the story clear in your own mind and on the page.
When editing your opening chapter, you'll either cut or move some of what you wrote to later in the book.
To introduce a character and make us care about them: Use a defining introductory moment.
We talk about this in The Essential Character Creation Blueprint. When a character first swaggers onto the page, they need to do something that makes them memorable while showing us who they are. This moment has to convince the reader that they want to spend time with the character, either because the character is likable or because they're interesting.
The key is that you show who the character is through actions and thoughts. Don't tell us their traits, have them do something that exemplifies them.
Let's look at some examples.
The Hunger Games: On the opening page, Katniss remembers that she tried to drown a cat to avoid having another mouth to feed. She spared the animal when her little sister cried.
This doesn't make Katniss particularly likable, but it shows us who she is and it makes her interesting because she has a contradiction in her personality. She's callous and practical enough that she'd drown a cat to avoid feeding it, yet she's kind enough to stop for the sake of her little sister.
The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger: The opening pages describe the gunslinger's appearance and trek across a massive desert as he follows the man in black. We learn that he's patient and determined by the long time he's been tracking his query. We know he's methodical and has likely hunted people before by the way he examines the man in black's abandoned campsite.
To introduce your world: Sprinkle in details and have your characters react to their setting.
I cannot stress this enough: Do not infodump in your opening chapters (you can infodump sometimes. We cover that here). You have to give your readers a reason to care first.
Sprinkle in enough details to help your reader imagine your world and make sure that every detail also raises a question. In other words, don't give everything away at once. Tease us instead.
Take, for example, the opening of A Darker Shade of Magic. We learn that when Kell travels to different Londons, he turns his magical coat over and over until he finds a style that fits that location.
This tells us that the world has multiple Londons, that each is different enough to require a change of clothes to fit in, and that we're probably dealing with some kind of portal magic here.
But it also raises questions: What are these different Londons like? Why does Kell move between them? How?
For another example, let's look at Nineteen Eighty-Four again. As Winston enters his apartment building, we see an oversized poster of a man's face with the words, "Big Brother is watching you." Once inside Winston's apartment, we learn about a telescreen that broadcasts and watches simultaneously and can never be turned off.
Obviously, this reveals a lot about the world but it also creates more curiosity: who is Big Brother, why is Winston being watched through the telescreen, and why?
In both examples, we get details about the world from the main character moving through it and interacting with it. Each detail and each description is because the character experienced it and reacted to it--even if that reaction is purely internal as many of Winston Smith's are thanks to the ever-watching Big Brother.
To set the tone: Choose your details and descriptions to fit.
From the first page, the reader should be able to tell if your story is funny, grim, romantic, action-heavy, etc.
The tone is created through the details you choose to share and how you share them. A spaceship described as being in the shape of a cat licking itself tells us this is a funny book. The same ship described as the shape of a grenade with a cannon big enough to flatten a city tells us this book will be action-heavy and violent.
For example, Nineteen Eighty-Four creates an unsettling feeling from the start with details like a clock striking thirteen, a vile wind, yellow eyes on a poster that seems to follow you, and a building that smells of rags with an elevator never works.
Your opening pages have to achieve a lot to hook a reader, and it'll likely take you many edits to get it right. So when you start writing, just write. The perfect opening will come during revisions.