Editorial Anonymous pins it down beautifully:

The thing that should be in every first chapter is what makes the story worth reading. (Not necessarily what makes the story satisfying, in the end; not necessarily what the story is about.) What makes the journey worth taking. Lots of writers write a first-draft first chapter that is, really, them orienting themselves in the story; the writer is packing the bags she'll need as she plays tour guide on this trip. Start your story after that part--start your story not where your journey into the story starts, but where the reader's journey into the story is ready to begin--the baggage and gear are for you, not your reader. A good first chapter is not the packing for the trip part; it is the setting off. A good first chapter allows the reader to begin their journey just as Bilbo Baggins did-- without luggage or map, but with the road before him, and a wide vista beyond.

full post here:

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/2008/08/down-from-door-where-it-began.html

Emma

Nice one, Emma.

Dee

What a lovely image! Thanks for the link, Emma.

Rosy

A stupid analogy though - The Hobbit has a really slow opening chapter where Bilbo does sod all, Gandalf tels a very long story and dwarves raid the fridge.

There is a good way of putting the same thing from the world of cinema. "Start with an Earthquake and work up from there."

That makes a good point, Emma. I think it was Chrysse Morrison who once wrote "start when the kettle's boiling and not when it's being filled with water", which struck me as a useful metaphor.

The Hobbit has a really slow opening chapter where Bilbo does sod all The Hobbit has a really slow opening chapter where Bilbo does sod all

Too right, Colin. I tried to re-read the first book of LOTR recently, and gave up – didn’t have time for all the faffing about at the beginning!

Dee

But she's not talking about how the book starts, she's talking about how the character Bilbo sets off, I guess, (it's an awfully long time since my mother read me The Hobbit, and I never got past the first two pages of LOTR) in which case it seems to me a good analogy

Emma

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I'm not sure about the earthquake, because it's too purely destructive, but I do like the kettle analogy - the feeling that the lid's jiggling away, and it just might blow off...

Having said that, though, if you start with a bang, you have to follow through. I've read far, far too many books - fiction and non-fiction - where on page one Bilbo's off out of the door toting his bags, but then the damn thing goes back and details every last sock and toothbrush and locking-up detail. I suspect it comes about when editors say, 'It needs to start more quickly,' and the writer goes back and does a quick fix without wanting to disturb the rest of the chapter.

But she's not talking about how the book starts, she's talking about how the character Bilbo sets off, I guess, (it's an awfully long time since my mother read me The Hobbit, and I never got past the first two pages of LOTR) in which case it seems to me a good analogy

Yeah, I got that. I was just pointing out the irony of her choice. The "start with an earthquake" thing is a metaphor, basically meaning open up with action. Otherwise we'd have loads and loads of earthquake movies

Yes, I do see the irony there.

Lots of earthquake movies - for heaven's sake, don't let's give Hollywood ideas!

Emma

Oh, goodness, god save us from more 'earthquake' chapters. You haven't even been introduced to the character(s) and already you're supposed to care if they get sucked into the gaping hole, or swallowed up by boiling lava - just extending the metaphor, in Childrens fiction it's usually the bullying scene, or the row with the parents.
I see it as more a case of the writer having a fully formed character(s) in their minds from the off and introducing them to the reader as the plot progresses, rather than dwelling on who they are and what makes them tick (packing their suitcase) in the opening chapters as the writer gets to know them.
I'm all for the character growing and changing during the course of the book, but I'd prefer they weren't an amorphose blob to start with.


- NaomiM


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Diverging a bit, but Terry Pratchett is excellent at character studies and coming of age stories, often with a long journey guided by an old hand, where the teenaged mc finds themselves before they must confront their destiny - Thief of Time, Monstrous Regiment, the Free Wee Men trilogy, Mort....often he alludes to things about the mc in the opening chapters which do not become clear until they reach the end of their quest, which is a sure sign of a fully formed character from the off. Although, whether he goes back and puts that stuff in after the first draft is another question.

Naomi, I so agree - (I think it's a point Editorial Anonymous makes somewhere) that we need a reason to care what happens to a character before something earth-quakey happening to them will keep us reading. The reason could just be an engaging voice or an intriguing premise, but it had better be set up on the first page, because otherwise why do we keep reading? We know what earthquakes do: why read on, unless we want to know what this earthquake did to this person, and what they're going to do next?

Emma

My history teacher used to tell us that when we'd finished an essay, we should go back and delete the first paragraph or two, as we would invariably have used those for unnecessary flaffing to get ourselves into what we actually wanted to say. I've found that advice quite useful for writing fiction as well - isn't it essentially part what Editorial Anonymous says about writers using the first chapter to orientate themselves in the story? Can be useful to get you going, but then reviewing (or, god forbid!) deleting that first chapter might give the overall story a better place to start, and the reader a better place to begin...

Yes, I think it's very true - I think of it as throat clearing.

A writing workshop exercise I know gets the students to write page 42 of a novel - right in the middle of things. Then the tutor says, 'Okay, that's page one of your story. Take it from there.'

Emma

I think it was in a Sol Stein book where I read "You have to care about the people in the car before you see it crash." I like that; it's not enough to launch into action, but you have to present rounded characters to take part in that action if the reader is going to give a damn about what happens to them. Makes sense I think?

That's one of the biggest problems with crime - you need to start with a corpse, but if the reader doesn't care about the person it was, it's just a corpse.