Really struggling with opening chapters…

@joy-caroline. Girl, I feel you. I’ve still yet to finish a Novel, and my main WIP, Freedom’s Fire has been rewritten…3-5 times. The beginning chapters always seemed so…plain. Like, chapters that wouldn’t satisfy the reader, you know?

But I have rewritten chapters before, normally for the reason that I felt like I was just dragging on the story. I needed to shorten things up and get into the story and the message as soon as possible. Even now, I don’t know if I’m completely satisfied, but I’m learning to not expect perfection.

Do your chapters feel like they’re rushing into the story or dragging it on, perhaps?

Are your characters in those chapters not acting natural?

I can’t say I’m an expert on this and I am still fairly new to this whole writing game, but I hope I helped at least a little. Also, don’t be afraid to let others read those chapters you’re not satisfied with. For me, it’s often that I’m just my worst critic.

I’m wishing and praying for the best of luck for you! 🙂

@joy-caroline

First of all, considering that you’re in the third draft, you have made a lot of progress with this WIP. And you like the opening, so that’s a good thing.

YES, I haven’t liked ANY of the opening chapters I’ve written. AT ALL. Mostly because they didn’t convey the feel for the story, characters, or world correctly. If it got one right, it got another wrong. So I’ve destroyed them and never gotten anywhere.

The prologue I put on here for my allegory is the first opening I’ve liked. It’s rough draft, so the writing isn’t my best, but the story it conveyed was perfect. Hopefully that means I’m getting better, and won’t come back in a few weeks and despise it. 😉

I have heard that the chapters right after the opening but before the action are some of the hardest to write. In my case, I can see that. Moving from the first portrait into the story is always where I’ve gotten hung up.

However, here’s a few thoughts, whether they’re any good or not, I don’t know.

You say the chapters do what they need to do, but they just aren’t satisfying. Can you see any reason why? Do you need a touch of humor or foreshadowing? Something to make this “season” of the book be special in itself? Are the characters out of character? Or are they just not showing their character? Does the story meander a little (Not necessarily a bad thing.)?

And then, have you had others read it? What do they say about it?

I hope everything works out. God bless!

@joy-caroline

I totally feel this struggle. I have rewritten so many chapters, especially opening ones, because I’m almost never satisfied with chapters that I’ve written. Opening ones can be so difficult because you’re juggling introducing the book’s themes, characters, and conflicts all at once in a way that’s memorable, satisfying, and intriguing enough to keep the reader hooked.

Something I like to think about when I think of opening chapters are TV shows. The first few episodes of a TV show are like chapters—some can pull you in right away, and with others, you kinda have to rely on the good word of your friends to inspire you to keep watching to the good parts.

One of my all time favorite shows is Avatar: The Last Airbender. The writing is just amazing. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I think it’ll still be useful as a vague example haha

In the first few episodes of the show, the characters are introduced, and through their dialogue and actions, several things are revealed: the important themes of the show, the character relationships, and the conflicts in the story, some conflicts that will later come full circle (like Aang, the MC, always trying to choose the most peaceful way out of a fight even in episode 1, which becomes a huge problem when he’s preparing to fight the villain at the end of the story in volume 3). The characterizations feel vivid, and because of that, the conflict of the story is rooted in characters the audience already has the opportunity to care deeply about. Showing these vividly realized, sympathetic characters in difficult situations immediately makes the conflicts and the whole plot feel more important and satisfying to the audience.

I suggest a few things: maybe try to find ways to insert problems that will later come full circle in an important way, a Chekhov’s gun situation, if you will (like Aang’s pacifism). That way, the foreshadowing might help give your first chapters that extra satisfying kick.

Another thing to do might be to find ways to amplify your characters’ personalities and struggles in those first chapters. Whenever I’ve found that a chapter felt hollow, it’s usually because I’m not feeling very connected to the characters or their relationships and find their struggles hard to sympathize with. Sometimes, if I can’t tell who’s who, I’m so confused that my connection to the story drops lol, especially when reading my own work.

Double check to make sure that everything in the plot in those chapters is making sense and/or absolutely purposeful, in one way or another. This might just be me, but sometimes, I go back and realize that something feels dissatisfying in a chapter, and then I realize that it’s because I stuffed the chapter with content that has nothing to do with furthering the plot/character development, OR my plot failed in some way and there’s something that doesn’t make sense about it.

Finally, I’d check to make sure that each chapter starts off with a solid hook, and ends with a cliffhanger appropriate to the chapter’s content. Meaning, not necessarily something super dramatic, but something that gives the reader a sense of urgency about finding out what happens next, like an unanswered question or anticipation of a new, dangerous conflict.

If you’ve read this long…thanks for reading! lol I hope this is helpful to somebody. These are just some things I keep in mind for myself when I’m revising.

@joy-caroline This is why I get annoyed sometimes when I write my stories in notebooks–I can’t go back and erase what I don’t want like I can on a computer. I do that all the time. Half of my notebook-written stories [that I still want to continue] are abandoned, thirty pages in or so, because I wasn’t so sure about the beginning and just wanted to restart the story on my computer or my iPad where I could edit it a lot easier.

@joy-caroline You’re welcome!!

@joy-caroline

Aw, you’re super welcome!!! I’m so glad I was able to help!💗 And, YAY, I’m so happy to hear you love your new chapters now!!!!