I’ve never liked the “introduce the villain early” advise. It should be replaced with “introduce the conflict early”. Cause sometimes the villain is a mystery until much later in the book. Sometimes the protagonist’s conflicts are more systemic than physical.
Completely agree. Also, I tend to prefer systemic conflicts in novels because they're both more realistic/relatable AND a hell of a lot harder to solve.
In my story, revealing the villain early would not work, as the conflict itself is the preparation for the villain's arrival. In order for the oomph of the plot to work, the villain has to remain a shadow in the background like Sauron.
"If youre comparing the sunset to cat vomit, youve gone too far." Now tempted to try and figure out a way to wrote a piece where thats a reasonable opening lmao Edit: thank you all for mentioning the book Uglies. You can stop telling me now😂😂
@@mastertofu thats brilliant lol, all i could think off was some bizzare form of *high* fantasy where on this particular day the sunset is the literal vomit of a giant cosmic cat, or maybe something from the pov of a character with that hyperspecific form of strange, pessimistic, way out-there dry humour lol
I was shook by the empty bookcases for a moment, but it is so freaking good to hear that you and Cliff are moving to a new home you're so excited about (or, I guess you're already there...?)!!!
What if a book like Six of Crows need that exposition dump? It is pretty boring but the entire series can then focus on the action plot instead of the exposition. So what if its kinda necessary? Should i just simplify it?
@Ginelle Plunkett thank you! The manuscript is done, in the edits, I have a small set of agents I'll query, but if they don't pick it up, I'll self publish. It's been with me for 14 years, it's ready to terrorize the world
13000 words into my first book. I started with my main character piss drunk, puking on the dirty floor of a nightclub bathroom in a sci-fi city. Starting at rock bottom, and the only way is up when he finds purpose in life when be gets asked to search for a missing comrade in arms from his time in the army.
To add onto #4, "establishing normalcy" doesn't actually mean show us your character's mundane life like brushing their teeth, getting coffee, and then having lunch with friends. It means show the calm before the storm while also letting the reader know that the storm is coming. The character's normal life still needs to be interesting and relevant to the plot (show us what they have to lose). Show us what makes them stand out even if they're an everyman. Just as an example: The Hunger games and Harry Potter both portray the normal lives of the main characters while also showing the reader that something is off - We see Katnis' routine and how much she loves her sister, but we know the lottery is happening that day, so it builds tension. In Harry Potter, we see the Dursleys going about their lives, but strange things are happening (a cat reading a sign or a strange man calling Vernon a muggle), before the wizards show up at the end of the chapter and reveal the existence of magic to the reader.
Most people who recommend winging the first chapter specifically follow up that advice by saying that you will likely end up ditching that chapter and changing it later. It's a tool meant to get YOU to understand the story so you can get all our info-dumping instincts out of your system and move on. That advice was never meant to be the way to write a really great first chapter. It's a way to get yourself started and excited about the story, so you have some momentum to keep going.
Jenna looks like a ghost from the void coming to tell me to rewrite my first chapter, which is appropriate considering the shit mood I am in today. Love you!
Beginning directly with the inciting incident DOES work in FANfiction. In this case, the readers ARE there because they know and love the characters, and it only takes a sentence or two for you to reference the location and relevant plot information from the source material. Tony Stark is one of my favorite characters EVER, drop me a hint where we are on the timeline of which reality and just get to it. At the Baxter Building, middle of registration? Go it, let's boogie. If you are writing an original work, you want the "yeah, yeah I know that bit already" stuff in your first chapter, but make sure to leave out the "who cares, why do people always write this stuff" stuff.
The Hunger Games does this extremely well, so there are some exceptions. Within the first, I think, two sentences, she mentions that "today is the day of the reaping." Of course we don't know what that means, but that's what makes it so exciting and such a great hook! A young girl is having a nightmare because today is the day of the reaping. Now we want to keep reading to find out what the reaping is and why it's so frightening to children. Although I wouldn't *exactly* call that the inciting incident. Prim's name being chosen in the reaping would be the inciting incident. But it's fairly close.
But fanfiction can take a lot of different forms. AU's especially can't drop you at the beginning of the inciting incident because we usually make slight changes to the characters in order to slot them into a different world. If you're writing a vampire AU and your characters are a different species, then of course that will change details about the characters that can be relevant or necessary. I think of it like writing a sequel? Your reader is already invested and excited to see what happens next, but you still have to do some setup.
Brandon Sanderson once said that you should get to the inciting incident as soon as you can. If it's the first scene then so be. You can add another scene later.
@@CassTeaElle One of the reasons i love the hunger games is that every single chapter follows the three act structure, so for that chapter, it most definitely is an inticing incident
I’m a hardcore planner but I totally wing the first chapter as a sort of experiment. I figure out what tone fits best, who I’m following, potentially interesting plots and themes to be explored and then outline from there. It helps get an idea out to see if it’s even workable without investing a bunch of time in outlining and developing a lost cause.
Yes, that's what that advice is intended to be. It's for you, the author, to get started. It was never meant to be taken as advice for how to write a great first chapter.
Pantsing is fine, it just tends to mean more editing later. JRR Tolkien himself was a pantser. Steven King and Terry Pratchett are two other well known and successful pantsers. It's just as valid a way to write, only requiring a different focus from ploters in the second draft.
I feel like the advice of winging it, is aimed at newer writers (or pantsers) as a way to start writing your story and not start your first chapter. I say this only because I've heard the advice followed up with typically people start the novel too early and you can identify the right spot a couple of pages later. It's a bit like the advice a friend has of when starting a story put in a cliche opening (it was a dark and stormy night) so that you don't suffer blank page syndrome. They're designed to get the book written not published.
Winging it is great, if you're willing to go back and make the changes. I'm consummate pantser (if I do more than the vaguest planning, the plot bunnies doth escapeth). But I also have to let whatever I write sit for at least a month so I can edit it. The closer I can get to full on forgetting it, the better. Sometimes it sucks, and I need to know that. I need to cut and paste (or even delete *gasp) the extraneous out and improve the boring. But a lot of people have that "I did it, so it's good" mentality, even if they know academically that that isn't true, they still can't take that red pen of objectivity to what they originally did.
@@adde9506 yesss, this, exactly. I love what I write, but I’m fully willing to make massive overhauls where/when necessary - most recently I completely excised a prologue and chapter 1, then radically changed the ending so the big climax was, you know, actually a big climax and not a vaguely confusing circular discussion. But I know from past experience, at workshops and such, that some people can only respond to critiquing with “uh, excuse me, I’m just here for you to tell me how great my novel is, not how it can ‘be improved’? Rude!” I think a lot of people hear “kill your darlings” and only take it literally (as in, kill off your characters in abundance a la GRRM, not as in actual murder, to clarify), when really it means just this. Sometimes you might love a character, a scene, a plot thread, whatever. But if it’s not right, you have to be able to cut it loose. Kill that darling, like dead-heading a poppy, and hopefully something better will come of it. But do always keep those bits saved somewhere. You know. Just in case.
I just commented exactly this. That advice was never intended to be a way to write a great first chapter. That advice is to get people going, give you some momentum and help you, the author, understand the story better, as well as getting all your info dumping tendencies out of the way. In fact, in some ways you could look at this method as a pantser's way of planning their story. There's definitely nothing wrong with doing it that way.
@@adde9506 Everything is on the cutting board. Everything. Even the title. First paragraph? "When the body finally hit the ground there was a lovely splatter pattern, which people going about their nightly business tracked up and down the busy block." No, the sentence will not survive, but now you can go on with the story about why someone fell ten stores.
In the relative realm of storytelling, I'm a GM (Game Master)... SO I do a LOT of winging it by nature of the TTRPG... There's no choice. ALL the protagonists (for better or worse) are Characters controlled by OTHER PEOPLE. AND so I can relate to the very definition of "pantser"... BUT I'd never EVER in hell just transfer the recorded story from (for instance) a D&D Campaign directly to text and attempt to publish it... EVEN without the dice rolling and discussions of mechanics edited out, any self-respecting editor or publishing house would CRUCIFY me for such a god-awful clusterf*** being fobbed at them. ...and I don't need that lesson to already recognize a bad idea when I hear it. Now, that said, the reality is that most actually decent Campaigns COULD very well result in even GOOD reading material. They'd require a LOT of passes to clean them up, punch up the dialogue (or punch it down a bit as appropriate), and add a bit of depth and color to the drama, the setting, etc... while dubiously avoiding too much purple prose... Don't just believe me, look up "Vox Machina" from the Channel "Geek & Sundry" and have a listen for yourself... and check some of the fan-animations to go along. You'll SEE the difference instantly. I don't get to take a week or month off. Most Campaigns would near instantly fizzle if I tried. Part of our duties as GM's is to keep the thing together in whatever clanking, clattering, shambles we have, and we make a sort of promise to do so as we accept the duties of a GM... SO every week, for better or worse, I show up with whatever notes I can have in hand... the Prep' as prepared as it can be for contact with the Players... a chaotic bunch who seem to DELIGHT in derailing whatever I've tried to compose for them. AND I wing it as far as I can for an average 4 to 6 hour RPG session. Players write their own roles in the story... building Character sheets (a profile with numerical values to work with dice) and then flesh them out and explore their personalities as we go. AND yes, it happens that some Players happen to be in the mood to play a Villain while others prefer Heroes... AND it doesn't always "work itself out". I generally GET to play the Villains and Monsters, so horrible people are kind of my bread and butter. You (Players) are SUPPOSED to hate them and want them DEAD... BUT with a Table full of Villainous bastards, I have to be flexible enough to shift and find heroes in the stack of Non-Player Characters (NPC's) to toss at them because they keep recruiting and making friends with the Villains... No... It's not going to result instantly in "high quality" writing. It's only going to get written. Winging it should be a viable option, a "tool in your kit" to be employed from time to time. BUT it needs kept in perspective, because I promise you that EVERY writer out there does some editing passes on their work, too. Many drafts are completely unrecognizable in comparison to the finished and polished work that even hit an editor's desk. Writing professionally is a LOT of long hours and tedious (read "mind-warping") work. If it was easy, everybody would already be a rich and famous author with several books under there belt and Jenna wouldn't have a successful "writers' coaching" channel to work on. I think at the very root of these problems, a LOT of people just seriously underestimate how big a deal it is... They get frustrated, and the enthusiasm fizzles out before they have a decent piece of work. ;o)
@@LeeAnneRMT I’m a bit of a perfectionist X,D So if I’m close to 40 pages mark, I’ll make sure it stays at that number and not above, if above then it has to be 45, if way less then it would be 35 I don’t quite know to explain it
Funnily enough, I end up having more difficulty writing the second chapter than the first. My story flows in a way where bringing in the main villains and the inciting incident should appear in the first chapter. I've finished establishing the world and characters in the first chapter and now I can't write the second chapter up to the same standard.
Second chapter thoughts: where your main character says F this shit its someone else's problem. Or tries to hide the problem? I'm working on chapter 3 where my characters are finding out the problem isn't an isolated incident.
Either skip ahead or write it badly. Then let it stew for a month. When you come back, you'll be able to improve it, or use it to connect chapter 1 to chapter 3. You don't get off for that month. Keep writing. You don't have to write the story in order, and moving on will give you some perspective about all the stuff. You'll have more to work with.
I'm a practicing GM (Game Master)... AND you might be VERY surprised how many adventures and campaigns get off to a fine start and then spend some time "flailing and floundering" for a while. There are two crucial differences between what I do creatively, and what you're trying to do, though... 1. I don't get to quit or take time off. Every week, as agreed, I show up with notes and continue the world-setting "as is", because that's the promise I made to my Players... 2. I have Players who write their own "heroic"(???) roles into the storyline as we go. It's Table-Top RPG, not Shakespeare or Tolkien in spite of a proclivity for people to try really hard to change that... There are ongoing debates, arguments, and general mixed feelings about "Ret-cons"... Usually, the "default" answer is "avoid them". Going back to rectify a "bad call" as a GM shouldn't be the first answer you attempt in lieu of just working with what you have. Life is indelible "IRL" and so should be a Game that attempts to simulate it... with a lot of "ish". AND most of the time, with some reasonable editing to get rid of those "too boring to live with" bits that nobody's going to care about outside of the Players anyway, most adventures and campaigns REALLY COULD be turned into good reading material. After a few months, it's not uncommon for Players to shed tears when a Campaign is closed and the Characters retired... Let alone if such a Campaign takes YEARS (and some do). For an aspiring writer, I'm only going to suggest, a clunky Chapter 2 with a lot of imperfections is okay. It's ONLY a first draft. You don't need a finished product all polished and ready to sell, no matter how you sell it. EVERY SINGLE WRITER went back over the work multiple times and changed it. MANY first drafts are unrecognizable for the finished products that hit even the editor's desk. ...AND writing isn't easy. If it was easy, everybody would want to do it. ;o)
When you write your rough draft just get the words down, fix it in editing. That applies to the first chapters as well. Sometimes that first chapter you write in a rough draft ends up on the cutting room floor, sometimes you decide to start at chapter three instead. Sometimes you end up writing three new chapters in place of chapter one. You may nail it the first time. There is no way to know until you have the whole manuscript sitting in front of you. At that point, you can make a list of all the things you need to accomplish with your first chapter and check them off.
Thank you. I’m stuck on the first chapter for my teen drama about how a friends group who deals with the loose of a friend and their group falling apart.
@@blackhagalaz it begins the hint the friend goes missing. I want it to fill like a normal friends group saying goodbye, completely unaware of what’s going to happen, and that’s a little tricky
@@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155 I can imagine. How about you have a scene in the beginning where the group hangs out together? Like watching a movie and going for some burgers afterwards, including the friend who goes missing. They talk, have fun, maybe flirt depending on the group dynamic and then they talk about looking forward to something. A great football match, a prom, a convention whatever. Something they all want to do together. Let them talk about the plans they have. Something very basic like asking that girl out, or going on vacation in the summer. Normal teenager stuff. That makes the reader feel secure and the same time makes them care more about the kids, including "missing kid". The reader won't know that these kids will never make their plans happen. Because the next day after they all hung out together "missing kid" suddenly doesn't answer calls, or wasn't in class in the morning. But the friends don't think to much of it first and again think about their own lives. More false security but a little suspicion. After that you can drop the bomb on the reader.
@@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155 Great. That gives you a lot of possibilities to establish your characters motivations. I am sure you will find some topics that connect all of them so they can be the cheerful friends group for a while before one of them goes missing
When I was working on my PhD Thesis, my director (and others) used to tell me that the intro (of your thesis, of you paper, whatever) is typically the most difficult section to write, and that it's also typically a good idea to write the intro last.
Advice 7: I was actually thinking that the conflict could be applied instead of the villain. In my book, the conflict is a war that the humans are pushing for a continuation of, but the plot twist is that 'the villain' is the one who have whispered these ideas into other's ears and are essentially betraying their own race to become king and kill all humans, using the cover of the war as a way to make it necessary instead of straight up murder. I was thinking of introducing 'the villain' is the middle of the book or something, or when it becomes necessary to introduce the ruling body for the elves.
In my last story, the villain was always there, right from the prologue, but she didn't actually become the villain until the very end - but the conflict is dead obvious from the beginning, too. In my current project, the villain is a background character until about the middle of the story, but the conflict she adds on to is present from the first chapter.
Best advice: first drafts suck. Get over it, get the story on paper (in the file, whatever) you can't edit what you don't have. It's a journey of discovery, and part of what you discover is (drum-roll) humans aren't perfect, including you. First draft is you telling yourself the story. Part of capturing the wild story is bloody and messy. When you have the story in the stall, then you clean it up, trim the hooves, repaint the burnt trees, back-fill plot holes, and all the other things that will make it easier for people to read/understand. There was a chapter to explain why the hero's best friend is important? Now it's a paragraph of backstory, told between sips of beer. But the villain needs more word count. "Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," a story about what made the villain, for example. (the opening is the villain practicing his pathetic evil laugh; blows that "first lines have to be perfect" right out of the water!)
I've BS'd my way through several first chapters, but I'm only now starting to get serious about writing my first novel. This video has reassured me that, though it will need a considerable amount of polishing, most of the important things in the first chapter are more or less already there. Thanks for the advice and encouragement, Jenna
I think we should wing the first chapter with the knowledge it will be mostly/completely re-written. For me its a great way to establish in my own mind what the conflict is and who some characters are. Then I do an outline, then re-write chapter 1 and beyond.
Every time I feel discouraged about my current wip, I always hear you in the back of my mind saying "accept the suckage" and I suddenly feel a little better about myself.
Jenna: "It's been a while since I upset the Pantsers..." Pantsers: "Good luck on the move Jenna! Hope it doesn't become too needlessly stressful. Best wishes your way!" (What!? You thought we would have taken the low road? We're not Plotters.)
I don't worry about writing the first chapter first. If a great start comes to mind immediately, then sure! If not, I just skip to scenes that I have a more clear idea on and then loop back around to the first chapter when I have a more clear sense of what it should be. Honestly often times I just write at the start of the project, jumping around a bit (especially to keep up momentum if I get stuck on one part), and then worry about how the chapter divides fall later on, if I even get to that point before ADHD distracts me from the project.
every time i see you get a milanote sponsorship i get so happy 😭 i wouldn't have known what milanote was if it wasn't for you and it helps me so much! so thanks! i don't think i'll ever stop thanking you for this lmao
About the "wing it" advice... You can totally wing it, just expect that you might need to add another chapter before when you're revising or that you have to write another chapter in its stead altogether. If that works for you do it. If you don't know if it works for you, try it. don't let anybody tell you that your method is wrong, all that matters is how well it works for you.
love how your sponsors are actually helpful! always get confused with sponsors either not helping me much or just being way too expensive to use, milanote is actually helpful and easy to use! amazing video, ily queen
I'd just like to take a minute to say thank you! I'm an aspiring manga artist who writes my own stories, and even though I've been writing since I was four, there's still a lot I need to learn. Even though your channel is geared towards novel writing, I can easily translate the tips (and criticisms) to comic scripts. Again, thank you and keep up the good work, I'll be watching as long as I can!
So good to see you back! I hope the move went well, if y'all are done at this point, and that you and Cliff are getting some well-deserved rest now. And you're back with what looks like a very useful topic, too. Okay, Lilly's running commentary in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 1. "The scariest moment in my life is waking up in a hospital room with every part of me hurting. Every single part, except for my legs." And yes, I know that's two sentences, but...who wants more/ If you do, ya gotta wait for it, don't you? 2. I mean, I do, but at the same time, it's very, VERY plot-relevant. I basically begin with the inciting incident and keep going from there. This is a multiple POV book, yes, but Adam (that's the character who's talking back there) is the one who really gets the plot going, and yes, the disability sticks. I'm sure y'all can infer what's happened here, and there is no such thing as the cure narrative in my world, thank the Gods. But it's not just "bang for the sake of bang"...which is a sentence that could be read in more than one way. XD 3. I know I need to calm down about this one. I'm already on draft two in SOME parts of my book, and this is one of the things I kind of need to fix. I describe unimportant things in too-important ways sometimes, though, to be fair, ONE of the things I put a lot of focus on is a subtle but running motif throughout the book. My hero character, if he trusts you, he'll give you an article of his clothes. I'm not talking his shirt: I mean like a jacket or a hat or an accessory. But it's a running theme that "this person is a good person if they have Jeremy's clothes". I just describe the clothes too much. Mind you, that's after the first chapter. 4. Not applicable. Like I say, I hit the ground running. Poor Adam, but he's a good boy, for one thing, and for another, he DOEA learn to deal. Takes him more than one book to fully start to work with it, though. 5. HOPE IT WORKS, because that's what . Sigh...but then, this is realistic fiction, and real life is messy. Very. Hell, real life even begins in a messy way. If you're healthy, you come out of mama squalling like a storm. XD This is me trying to justify my move here, by the way. 6. Thankfully, I'm good at nuance. There's some REAL SHIT going down with this family, and it's more of an undercurrent just at first, but I'm not going to openly say "The father is an emotionally and physically abusive piece of work" right off the bat. Gotta give the man-child some time. And I f*cking hate him. If your dad sucks in real life, I'm really sorry. I am. 7. Snort, see my last point. You'll figure it out. 8. LOL, well, the reason why I have o start my last book over from the start is because I was trying to write "The next '1984'". NOT realistic, NOT a good idea, NOT something that should be done. Orwell is my favourite author and deserves all the credit, ALL of it, but I don't need to basically write him a love letter in my own literature. Besides, I'm not in the same class as him in terms of skill. Not even close. 9. I kinda did...? I men, I KNEW where it was going and where I wanted it to end up, and I knew WHY, but I hadn't written a strict outline. Yes, I do prefer the organic process, but I need to go back now and change a good bit of the first chunk of my book to make it agree with what I'm writing now .They'll be quicker fixes, but still important. 10. I introduce all of the main characters, except Jeremy, I have the inciting incident, and I do let people know about the general dynamic, but without giving the whole plot away just at first. I hope that's enough to hook people. Y'all tell me, though.
This post was great timing for me. I wrote an outline of a great story that I'm really jazzed about. But when it came time to sit down a write that first chapter, I totally psyched myself out. I froze. I haven't touched my computer for days. I needed to hear the advice in this post. Thank you, wish me luck! I'm goin' in . . .
your advice on writing is good minus the vulgar words, which for me is a big with all the adjectives out there that could and can be used. thank you for your insight into writing.
I added an one or two page chapter that is actually an example about how dangerous the plot is. Because its weird to fit in a chapter thats two pages about someone’s life, i made it a nightmare. That’s how i let readers know what the danger comming is and (i hope) it makes them want to know how the main character experiences it! :)
"winging it sucks" Honestly, I can agree with that. I winged my first chapter and it ended up being so long that it naturally split into two chapters and I had to rethink my entire approach. Not having even the most basic of structure going into the story is a pretty bad idea. Just lay out what chapters do what. If it ends up being too long, divide your chapters further, I suppose.
As an agent, that first piece of advice is important, but sometimes misunderstood. A good hook is something that intrigues and makes us want to read the subsequent sentence, chapter, etc. That's all. It doesn't have to be over the top or promise death and destruction.
I just have to say this. THANK YOU so much for helping me through my amateur writing phase! All your videos are hilarious and absolutely helpful! U r awesome! And thanks again. 🥺🥰
I've been too flowery with my first chapter. I had two people who told me it was too confusing so right now I'm going through a re write. It's been a block but I think I getting the hang of it! I'm very new to writing so Im gonna be making a lot of mistakes, thank you Jenna for this video to help me through it!
My friend and I are planning for writing a book. We are structuring it, thinking about everything we need to for the story. We are putting in a lot of work, and I just can't wait to get started! I'm trying to switch from Pantser to structuring. Structuring sounds scary, and like a lot of work. I realized that I probably need the first chapter (that I currently have) to be chapter 2, and write a firs chapter.
I started reading No Longer Human, and it didn't pull me in the beginning. So number 1 is very correct. I'm still reading it, and find it very interesting now that I can somewhat relate with it.
Best advice I had from high school about essay writing that also applies to novels is don't start writing at the beginning. I can understand writing in a linear format but if you start at the second chapter and go from there it gives a bit of freedom and is less stressful as you can write as if a reader is already invested, then once you know how everything folds out you can write the first chapter to set the tone properly.
Thank you for this take on your "10 WORST" list! It's so much more helpful for me to not just hear the things to avoid but like...the range of available real estate that is not right on top of the bad choices. Also, applying this to my still-deciding-if-it's-a-webcomic-or-a-webseries script, I'm kinda excited how much is already set to be established at the start. Now to make sure it's true to the overall tone of the story, which process should also help me reign in the rest of the story tone.
Sometimes I think about meticulously combing through all of Jenna's "worst tips" videos so that I can write a book in which I'm very diligent about doing everything she says to do in them, which is what she's really saying not to do, so that my book is carefully tailored to be a book that Jenna would really hate. I'll never actually do it because it would be too much work for too little reward, but imagining doing something that senselessly spiteful is one of the little things that keeps me going.
I love all of Jenna's tips so much!! I just wish she wouldn't swear so much (I wouldn't think of unsubscribing though). I do have one question: is it okay to put contraction words into your writing where the character isn't talking?
I have a story idea that I'm working on right now, in which I start off with a metaphorical expletive IN the inciting incident. The first chapter starts off fast paced and stressful, but it quickly settles down and gives a loose sense of normalcy and security. Personally, I think it suits the story. Overall, the story isn't one where the characters can guarantee their safety. The story is a lot like Firefly. It's dangerous and uncertain, and the first chapter introduces the characters and the 'stage' of the story. I give a little background to explain why the primary character would stay with the others, and his home life isn't good, so it doesn't lend to a peaceful beginning. I provide the reader with some cursory understanding of the setting, and I set up the leading villain. All in all, it feels appropriate while only violating the rule about starting with the inciting incident. How would you rate it?
question: 11:54 (sorry for how long this is. you can just look at the first sentence for the actual question. I just added more to my specific situation) If your first chapter is more of a mystery, would it be an issue to introduce the "main character's goal" in the second chapter? in my case, the first chapter is primarily a world building chapter. it shows the characters; their relationships with each other, some of the dynamics and synergies with their personalities, and it gives a small bit of a sad backstory on the main character.... although it's pretty basic dead father type stuff. (I have plans to add symbology related to that later. But it's not symbology that's like "Kai, Remember your father! He is always with you! You CAN defeat the darkness!!!" none of that shit. it actually hinders hi- ANYWAY I AM RAMBLING SORRY) However, a lot of the actual PLOT of the story is a mystery in chapter 1 (some of it being very subtle phrases or symbology, while others are more intended to be seen and SOMEWHAT resolved by the end of the chapter.) It opens up with the main character, Kai, having a bit of a premonition dream (although it is pretty vague.) he wakes up and goes to school with his older brother. TLDR: his brother gets attacked by dogs and should have died, but he survives later in the story, in a hospital. (ofc, that's the first mystery.) But then the dreams keep happening. some are short dreams that only repeat a line from a previous dream. Others are whole separate dreams with their own meanings. (This being the second mystery) At the end of the chapter, Kai, his brother, and his mother go to Kai's friend's(Alex's) birthday party. At the party, Alex's mother gets murdered by a random intruder. this both adds another mystery of "who is this guy and why did he want her dead", but it also adds to the other mystery of the dreams, considering one of the dreams is basically fore-shadowing that moment. chapter 2 begins with a time jump. we see that all the same characters are there, as well as one new character, and that their relationships have developed a lot. the chapter then gets into more of the actual plot of the story. The issue is that (unless i am blind and don't see it) there is no clear "goal" for Kai himself. We are left with those three questions of course, but there is no clear-cut goal for Kai. Infact, because ch2 is a time jump of 12 years, and that it starts with Kai STILL having another one of those dreams, it's implied that not a lot has happened in all that time (at least for him...) anyway, sorry, that was long.
This is a great video for newbie writers. My book is a semi-autobiography about mental health and toxic environments, so I know that I'll be breaking a bunch of rules when it came to establishing my character's background. Since it's important to the plot but I've focused more on the internal dialogue and put some self-deprecating and dark humor to make it entertaining. Although the rules may apply differently in terms of what my themes are about.
Definitelt agree with the "pants the first few chapters" idea if you're usually a plotter. I was working on a sci-fi book for a few years that I'd plotted meticulously. Eventually, though, I had to come to terms with the fact that I just didn't really like it and it wasn't going anywhere. I decided to set it aside and start writing a new story based on a very basic concept (town gets attacked by monsters that everyone thought were just made up). I'm already making more progress, have more confidence in the work, and having way more fun writing it.
For me I opened my political thriller with a Prologue involving state-sponsored racketeers raiding my child protagonist's family and murdering the mother. That inciting incident would explain a lot of things as timeline shifts a few decades into the future
I'm trying to write just for fun and see how it goes and I don't like the first chapters I come up with. The current one I have is a huge exposition dump on the characters family and problems brought on by the government but I don't feel too comfortable with it.
I'm 16 and for a long time I've wanted to write a novel. Now I'm seriously trying to but I'm taking it more as an experiment rather than a "serious" thing. This approach is very useful to take down pressure... and in the mean time I'm writing;) (btw if you have any suggestion on how to procede feel free to answer this comment). Oh and thank you Jenna for your amazing videos! :D
I’m trying to write one, it’s based in the mid-late 2010s and is about a zombie apocalypse, and a woman who, before, wasn’t the most mature or caring of others but she grows over the whole story by caring for someone she finds alone. The only thing is that I’m struggling to figure out how to do the dialogue with her mother which sounds not only natural but also good. I’m not used to writing dialogue I mainly tended to descriptions of things and characters but not dialogue.
I never plan my first draft of anything; whether it's a for hire piece of work or a novel or anything else. I know what I'm supposed to be writing about in general and know the bullet points I need to hit, then I just go for it. What comes out is ugly, often incoherent to anyone but me and almost always 98% trash. But I'm looking for that 2% that I can polish into my story or article or chapter. it's a shotgun approach, but it works for me, it helps me get out all the noise and get to the core of what I want to say. And after I've written it a few dozen times, I feel confident enough to call it a first draft. In my mind, at least, all those early iterations are the A-through-Z drafts. My first draft is literally the first draft I'm willing to let someone else read.
I have been told I'm great at first chapters, and I kinda always discovery write them. Like, I have a random scene pop up in my head, and I write it, and it usually turns out great. :p Some people just work that way. I couldn't plan the first chapter if my life depended on it. But I can outline later chapters, sometimes. As the story grows in my head as I'm writing it, the more I have written, the further ahead I can "see" in the plot. I think we can just accept that everyone is different, and what works for some doesn't work for others. It's ALWAYS a good idea to TEST all methods though because you could be surprised. But trying to outline kept me FROM writing for 10 years, so I'm not doing that again. Pantsing all the way, and I don't care if I need to do more rewriting because of it. I enjoy it. :P
The thing about pantsing the first chapter is that it might not end up being the first chapter, or anywhere near what the final product will look like. I write it, then I figure out what is missing, what needs to be delayed, moved up sooner, removed entirely, etc. But, by then I've gotten to know the characters and the aesthetics I want for the project. Like you say, future me has all the polishing and fine-tuning covered. This me just needs to get a sense for what we're doing.
I love your explanations, thanks a lot for this video! And I feel kind of stupid, but I could never wrap my head around the apparent contradiction of "start with a bang" and "start with normalcy" ... I mean, yes, if my story is about fantasy adventures, I could start with a battle. But that'd be pretty hard to sell as normalcy (as long as my main character isn't a veteran mercenary or something)... to me it always seemed like you mostly have to pick one or the other ... or am I missing something obvious?
The novel I've written has several character perspectives, and as such, each of the characters has what is essentially a chapter one. The entire book serves as more of an introduction to each of the characters (with interesting and plot-heavy events), with the main narrative conflict occurring at the end of it. It's difficult to sell to agents however, as they usually request the first three to four chapters, and in my case, they are just receiving several different first chapters.
I actually introduced my MC internal conflict at the start not only as a way to flesh her out but also to show that power is not inherently a good thing. Sort of took a note from Spiderman when uncle Ben says with power comes great responsibility.
I'm currently going through a massive edit of my first book so I can start submitting to agents! I've been really struggling with my beginning chapter so this will help a lot!
I'm somewhere between a pantser and a plotter. I know the beginning, ending, and a few conflicts I want to put in, but I don't go too in depth because this is a story I'm telling myself and if I know everything then I'll get bored.
I can't tell if she referenced "Uglies" when talking about comparing cat vomit to the sunset or if it was just a funny coincidence but either way its pretty funny.
I love listening to her videos sometimes just to improve my skills at writing. But when I write, it's just for a hobby, so I'm glad I don't have to care what "readers" think. The only thing I would feel better publishing in future is my poems. Recently I started challenging myself into writing different styles of poems or a topic I never written before. But when I write books I can finish the first chapter easily but my problem is I can never push myself to write a second chapter. I always start a new book just because everything can inspire me from movies, video games and sometimes my weird dreams I always have. I can't even count how many books I have started from writing a summary to the first chapter and then getting a wall in my head. I am probably better off just writing creepypasta stories in which I done before.
The best first line I've ever read in any book... "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." I can't even count how many pages I've read in this story ever since that hook got hold of me.
great writing advice; also, Milanote is so fun to use; i think i am going to like it more and more than i already do; i see the benefits of it already; thank you for all your advice... :)
I wrote a somewhat eastern-style portal fantasy (AKA, Isekai) story with reincarnation as the device that gets the MC to the other world. I started the 1st chapter by breaking the MC's grandaughter's neck in a car accident, MC was at fault. He then sells his soul to Amashilama in order to heal her, and gets taken to the other world as a result. I like the Isekai genre because it has several places where the genre actually makes all the standard writing conventions a LOT easier. The 1st, and most helpful one is that audiences of the Isekai genre expect a more drawn-out story. They also have learned to expect a much longer "daily life" arc where you mature the main character. Every Isekai is actually expected to be a long-run series of multiple books, and it is something of a standard to spend the entire 1st half of the 1st book establishing your "sense of normalcy." (As for the reason why "sense of normalcy" is not so boring in this case, that would be because a lot of it is actually introducing the world, and also because we have started off with a base-line of the MC knowing no one in this world. Therefore, we actually have to introduce all of the supporting cast individually in a more normalized setting before we bring in our 2nd inciting incident (if we count the means by which they were sent to the other world as the 1st.))
I been plan making the anti hero dark lone warrior manhwa comic. My problem is making chapter what he's going to do during his journey path to his goal, killing someone who betray him. Who he's going to meet, which or should he had necessary/major character that accompany him on his revenge
Hey, Jenna, in the event you ever see this comment, I was wondering, would you have any suggestions for writing a prologue? I figured that anything more than a couple of pages could probably be a chapter in itself, but since seeing a prologue can also be seen as a first introduction to the story, would you have any preferences or suggestions? Do you prefer books without a prologue (some of them can be pretty pointless or just reveal too much in my experience), or do you think they have a certain purpose? Wishing you the best with your move!
I've read all one gazillion pages of The Wheel of Time, but I barely made it passed the scene setting in chapter one of the first book. I ploughed through it because another author I loved at the time had a recommendation blurb on the back. So over setting the scene is a real problem that 2 great writers (Robert Jordan and Anne Rice) had. Most people don't have the brilliant stories those 2 did, though.
Your personality is amazing and so easy to listen to and stay hooked 😆 I would so buy a “writing your first novel” teaching audio book or video program from you 🤣
Sometimes writers mistake the 'hook' for a gimmick. You don't necessarily have to go over the top. Giving the reader a who, what, where, when and why in a relatively fast will suffice. But sometimes it's hard to forget the famous Dean Koontz "Death was driving an emerald green Lexus" hook.
I’ve never liked the “introduce the villain early” advise. It should be replaced with “introduce the conflict early”. Cause sometimes the villain is a mystery until much later in the book. Sometimes the protagonist’s conflicts are more systemic than physical.
Completely agree. Also, I tend to prefer systemic conflicts in novels because they're both more realistic/relatable AND a hell of a lot harder to solve.
@@Newfiecat that they are
@@victorbryan5482 that they is
In my story, revealing the villain early would not work, as the conflict itself is the preparation for the villain's arrival. In order for the oomph of the plot to work, the villain has to remain a shadow in the background like Sauron.
Additionally, it may not even be clear just who is the antagonist, e.g. the matter of who is open to interpretation.
"If youre comparing the sunset to cat vomit, youve gone too far."
Now tempted to try and figure out a way to wrote a piece where thats a reasonable opening lmao
Edit: thank you all for mentioning the book Uglies. You can stop telling me now😂😂
A story in the view point of a sick cat. The sunset is a shade of yellow similar to its vomit.
@@mastertofu thats brilliant lol, all i could think off was some bizzare form of *high* fantasy where on this particular day the sunset is the literal vomit of a giant cosmic cat, or maybe something from the pov of a character with that hyperspecific form of strange, pessimistic, way out-there dry humour lol
@@Summer-uq1vr that sounds fun
Uglies the first sentence 😹
@@vandanatripathi6465 Came here to say this
I guess I took number two too seriously since I quite literally opened the chapter with an explosion.
_Bang!_
Everyone died, the story is over, thanks for reading, bye!
@@aecholapis exactly 😂
That actually sounds bomb💥 ( pun intended) but it depends on what kind of book is it
@@andrealovesbooks8670 oh it's filled with explosions, so I thought it's only fitting that it starts with one.
@@jesterking5417 what genre is it ?
I was shook by the empty bookcases for a moment, but it is so freaking good to hear that you and Cliff are moving to a new home you're so excited about (or, I guess you're already there...?)!!!
According to Insta, yes.
I was shook about it, too.
Don’t make it a exposition dump. It already puts your readers in a bad mood for your book
the info they need to comprehend the story can be told trough the entire book, if not, is not needed to understand the plot :D
@@carlixalfonzo exactly
What if a book like Six of Crows need that exposition dump? It is pretty boring but the entire series can then focus on the action plot instead of the exposition. So what if its kinda necessary? Should i just simplify it?
@@seraphywang4638 explain the info as it’s needed
@@seraphywang4638 Show the world as the characters navigate through it.
I love the fact that Jenna hates trees. My novel is about a boy who can tap into the consciousness of trees.
@Chris King Thanks, me too!
“The trees lined the horizon; fur, pine, oak, and ash, and they marched to war with the humans.”
@@RelatvityUnset as they frankly should
That sounds so cool.
@Ginelle Plunkett thank you! The manuscript is done, in the edits, I have a small set of agents I'll query, but if they don't pick it up, I'll self publish. It's been with me for 14 years, it's ready to terrorize the world
13000 words into my first book.
I started with my main character piss drunk, puking on the dirty floor of a nightclub bathroom in a sci-fi city. Starting at rock bottom, and the only way is up when he finds purpose in life when be gets asked to search for a missing comrade in arms from his time in the army.
Sounds interesting 😄👍
Please let me know when you finish because I so want to read it.
That sounds interesting, what's the title of your book?
To add onto #4, "establishing normalcy" doesn't actually mean show us your character's mundane life like brushing their teeth, getting coffee, and then having lunch with friends. It means show the calm before the storm while also letting the reader know that the storm is coming. The character's normal life still needs to be interesting and relevant to the plot (show us what they have to lose). Show us what makes them stand out even if they're an everyman.
Just as an example: The Hunger games and Harry Potter both portray the normal lives of the main characters while also showing the reader that something is off - We see Katnis' routine and how much she loves her sister, but we know the lottery is happening that day, so it builds tension. In Harry Potter, we see the Dursleys going about their lives, but strange things are happening (a cat reading a sign or a strange man calling Vernon a muggle), before the wizards show up at the end of the chapter and reveal the existence of magic to the reader.
Most people who recommend winging the first chapter specifically follow up that advice by saying that you will likely end up ditching that chapter and changing it later. It's a tool meant to get YOU to understand the story so you can get all our info-dumping instincts out of your system and move on. That advice was never meant to be the way to write a really great first chapter. It's a way to get yourself started and excited about the story, so you have some momentum to keep going.
Jenna looks like a ghost from the void coming to tell me to rewrite my first chapter, which is appropriate considering the shit mood I am in today.
Love you!
"Future-you has the polishing covered!"
blasted mind-reading cyborg.
Beginning directly with the inciting incident DOES work in FANfiction. In this case, the readers ARE there because they know and love the characters, and it only takes a sentence or two for you to reference the location and relevant plot information from the source material. Tony Stark is one of my favorite characters EVER, drop me a hint where we are on the timeline of which reality and just get to it. At the Baxter Building, middle of registration? Go it, let's boogie.
If you are writing an original work, you want the "yeah, yeah I know that bit already" stuff in your first chapter, but make sure to leave out the "who cares, why do people always write this stuff" stuff.
The Hunger Games does this extremely well, so there are some exceptions. Within the first, I think, two sentences, she mentions that "today is the day of the reaping." Of course we don't know what that means, but that's what makes it so exciting and such a great hook! A young girl is having a nightmare because today is the day of the reaping. Now we want to keep reading to find out what the reaping is and why it's so frightening to children.
Although I wouldn't *exactly* call that the inciting incident. Prim's name being chosen in the reaping would be the inciting incident. But it's fairly close.
But fanfiction can take a lot of different forms. AU's especially can't drop you at the beginning of the inciting incident because we usually make slight changes to the characters in order to slot them into a different world. If you're writing a vampire AU and your characters are a different species, then of course that will change details about the characters that can be relevant or necessary. I think of it like writing a sequel? Your reader is already invested and excited to see what happens next, but you still have to do some setup.
Brandon Sanderson once said that you should get to the inciting incident as soon as you can. If it's the first scene then so be. You can add another scene later.
don't write fanfiction, you're better than that.
@@CassTeaElle One of the reasons i love the hunger games is that every single chapter follows the three act structure, so for that chapter, it most definitely is an inticing incident
I’m a hardcore planner but I totally wing the first chapter as a sort of experiment. I figure out what tone fits best, who I’m following, potentially interesting plots and themes to be explored and then outline from there. It helps get an idea out to see if it’s even workable without investing a bunch of time in outlining and developing a lost cause.
This is awesome
Yes, that's what that advice is intended to be. It's for you, the author, to get started. It was never meant to be taken as advice for how to write a great first chapter.
It often takes as much time to plot as it does to pants. As long as you'll do the harsh editing, pantsing is essentially thinking on paper.
Then you can rewrite the opening chapter after you complete your tale.
I do that too! I consider it a hybrid of brainstorming and rough writing
Pantsing is fine, it just tends to mean more editing later. JRR Tolkien himself was a pantser. Steven King and Terry Pratchett are two other well known and successful pantsers. It's just as valid a way to write, only requiring a different focus from ploters in the second draft.
If you stay hyper focused on your characters and plot then editing won't be a SUPER pain in the ass.
I feel like the advice of winging it, is aimed at newer writers (or pantsers) as a way to start writing your story and not start your first chapter. I say this only because I've heard the advice followed up with typically people start the novel too early and you can identify the right spot a couple of pages later. It's a bit like the advice a friend has of when starting a story put in a cliche opening (it was a dark and stormy night) so that you don't suffer blank page syndrome. They're designed to get the book written not published.
Winging it is great, if you're willing to go back and make the changes. I'm consummate pantser (if I do more than the vaguest planning, the plot bunnies doth escapeth). But I also have to let whatever I write sit for at least a month so I can edit it. The closer I can get to full on forgetting it, the better. Sometimes it sucks, and I need to know that. I need to cut and paste (or even delete *gasp) the extraneous out and improve the boring. But a lot of people have that "I did it, so it's good" mentality, even if they know academically that that isn't true, they still can't take that red pen of objectivity to what they originally did.
@@adde9506 yesss, this, exactly. I love what I write, but I’m fully willing to make massive overhauls where/when necessary - most recently I completely excised a prologue and chapter 1, then radically changed the ending so the big climax was, you know, actually a big climax and not a vaguely confusing circular discussion.
But I know from past experience, at workshops and such, that some people can only respond to critiquing with “uh, excuse me, I’m just here for you to tell me how great my novel is, not how it can ‘be improved’? Rude!”
I think a lot of people hear “kill your darlings” and only take it literally (as in, kill off your characters in abundance a la GRRM, not as in actual murder, to clarify), when really it means just this. Sometimes you might love a character, a scene, a plot thread, whatever. But if it’s not right, you have to be able to cut it loose. Kill that darling, like dead-heading a poppy, and hopefully something better will come of it. But do always keep those bits saved somewhere. You know. Just in case.
I just commented exactly this. That advice was never intended to be a way to write a great first chapter. That advice is to get people going, give you some momentum and help you, the author, understand the story better, as well as getting all your info dumping tendencies out of the way.
In fact, in some ways you could look at this method as a pantser's way of planning their story. There's definitely nothing wrong with doing it that way.
@@adde9506 Everything is on the cutting board. Everything. Even the title. First paragraph? "When the body finally hit the ground there was a lovely splatter pattern, which people going about their nightly business tracked up and down the busy block." No, the sentence will not survive, but now you can go on with the story about why someone fell ten stores.
In the relative realm of storytelling, I'm a GM (Game Master)... SO I do a LOT of winging it by nature of the TTRPG... There's no choice. ALL the protagonists (for better or worse) are Characters controlled by OTHER PEOPLE.
AND so I can relate to the very definition of "pantser"... BUT I'd never EVER in hell just transfer the recorded story from (for instance) a D&D Campaign directly to text and attempt to publish it... EVEN without the dice rolling and discussions of mechanics edited out, any self-respecting editor or publishing house would CRUCIFY me for such a god-awful clusterf*** being fobbed at them.
...and I don't need that lesson to already recognize a bad idea when I hear it.
Now, that said, the reality is that most actually decent Campaigns COULD very well result in even GOOD reading material. They'd require a LOT of passes to clean them up, punch up the dialogue (or punch it down a bit as appropriate), and add a bit of depth and color to the drama, the setting, etc... while dubiously avoiding too much purple prose... Don't just believe me, look up "Vox Machina" from the Channel "Geek & Sundry" and have a listen for yourself... and check some of the fan-animations to go along. You'll SEE the difference instantly.
I don't get to take a week or month off. Most Campaigns would near instantly fizzle if I tried. Part of our duties as GM's is to keep the thing together in whatever clanking, clattering, shambles we have, and we make a sort of promise to do so as we accept the duties of a GM...
SO every week, for better or worse, I show up with whatever notes I can have in hand... the Prep' as prepared as it can be for contact with the Players... a chaotic bunch who seem to DELIGHT in derailing whatever I've tried to compose for them. AND I wing it as far as I can for an average 4 to 6 hour RPG session.
Players write their own roles in the story... building Character sheets (a profile with numerical values to work with dice) and then flesh them out and explore their personalities as we go. AND yes, it happens that some Players happen to be in the mood to play a Villain while others prefer Heroes... AND it doesn't always "work itself out". I generally GET to play the Villains and Monsters, so horrible people are kind of my bread and butter. You (Players) are SUPPOSED to hate them and want them DEAD... BUT with a Table full of Villainous bastards, I have to be flexible enough to shift and find heroes in the stack of Non-Player Characters (NPC's) to toss at them because they keep recruiting and making friends with the Villains...
No... It's not going to result instantly in "high quality" writing. It's only going to get written. Winging it should be a viable option, a "tool in your kit" to be employed from time to time. BUT it needs kept in perspective, because I promise you that EVERY writer out there does some editing passes on their work, too. Many drafts are completely unrecognizable in comparison to the finished and polished work that even hit an editor's desk.
Writing professionally is a LOT of long hours and tedious (read "mind-warping") work. If it was easy, everybody would already be a rich and famous author with several books under there belt and Jenna wouldn't have a successful "writers' coaching" channel to work on. I think at the very root of these problems, a LOT of people just seriously underestimate how big a deal it is... They get frustrated, and the enthusiasm fizzles out before they have a decent piece of work. ;o)
I’m four pages away from finishing my first chapter… the timing for this couldn’t have been any better!!!
I love that you have a plan of how many more pages the chapter will take.
@@LeeAnneRMT I’m a bit of a perfectionist X,D
So if I’m close to 40 pages mark, I’ll make sure it stays at that number and not above, if above then it has to be 45, if way less then it would be 35
I don’t quite know to explain it
Dude how many words is your first chapter????!!!!!!!
@@shanadaddah1998 Oh, not much at all! I’m a screenwriter so it’s pretty different from novel writing!
@@artsyminmin8990 oh good, you scared me 😅!
Funnily enough, I end up having more difficulty writing the second chapter than the first. My story flows in a way where bringing in the main villains and the inciting incident should appear in the first chapter. I've finished establishing the world and characters in the first chapter and now I can't write the second chapter up to the same standard.
Second chapter thoughts: where your main character says F this shit its someone else's problem. Or tries to hide the problem? I'm working on chapter 3 where my characters are finding out the problem isn't an isolated incident.
What do you write?
Either skip ahead or write it badly. Then let it stew for a month. When you come back, you'll be able to improve it, or use it to connect chapter 1 to chapter 3. You don't get off for that month. Keep writing. You don't have to write the story in order, and moving on will give you some perspective about all the stuff. You'll have more to work with.
Same! I wrote a great prologue and first chapter, now I'm struggling my way through chapter two. Thankfully though, I think I'm getting there. :)
I'm a practicing GM (Game Master)... AND you might be VERY surprised how many adventures and campaigns get off to a fine start and then spend some time "flailing and floundering" for a while.
There are two crucial differences between what I do creatively, and what you're trying to do, though...
1. I don't get to quit or take time off. Every week, as agreed, I show up with notes and continue the world-setting "as is", because that's the promise I made to my Players...
2. I have Players who write their own "heroic"(???) roles into the storyline as we go. It's Table-Top RPG, not Shakespeare or Tolkien in spite of a proclivity for people to try really hard to change that...
There are ongoing debates, arguments, and general mixed feelings about "Ret-cons"... Usually, the "default" answer is "avoid them". Going back to rectify a "bad call" as a GM shouldn't be the first answer you attempt in lieu of just working with what you have. Life is indelible "IRL" and so should be a Game that attempts to simulate it... with a lot of "ish".
AND most of the time, with some reasonable editing to get rid of those "too boring to live with" bits that nobody's going to care about outside of the Players anyway, most adventures and campaigns REALLY COULD be turned into good reading material. After a few months, it's not uncommon for Players to shed tears when a Campaign is closed and the Characters retired... Let alone if such a Campaign takes YEARS (and some do).
For an aspiring writer, I'm only going to suggest, a clunky Chapter 2 with a lot of imperfections is okay. It's ONLY a first draft. You don't need a finished product all polished and ready to sell, no matter how you sell it. EVERY SINGLE WRITER went back over the work multiple times and changed it. MANY first drafts are unrecognizable for the finished products that hit even the editor's desk.
...AND writing isn't easy. If it was easy, everybody would want to do it. ;o)
Alternate title:
"How to not make your first chapter ****ing boring!"
YES THAT IS AN AWESOME TITLE
When you write your rough draft just get the words down, fix it in editing. That applies to the first chapters as well. Sometimes that first chapter you write in a rough draft ends up on the cutting room floor, sometimes you decide to start at chapter three instead. Sometimes you end up writing three new chapters in place of chapter one. You may nail it the first time. There is no way to know until you have the whole manuscript sitting in front of you. At that point, you can make a list of all the things you need to accomplish with your first chapter and check them off.
Thank you. I’m stuck on the first chapter for my teen drama about how a friends group who deals with the loose of a friend and their group falling apart.
Hey that sounds great! (The premise, not the teenager dying lol). Is there anything particular where you are stuck?
@@blackhagalaz it begins the hint the friend goes missing. I want it to fill like a normal friends group saying goodbye, completely unaware of what’s going to happen, and that’s a little tricky
@@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155 I can imagine. How about you have a scene in the beginning where the group hangs out together? Like watching a movie and going for some burgers afterwards, including the friend who goes missing. They talk, have fun, maybe flirt depending on the group dynamic and then they talk about looking forward to something. A great football match, a prom, a convention whatever. Something they all want to do together. Let them talk about the plans they have. Something very basic like asking that girl out, or going on vacation in the summer. Normal teenager stuff. That makes the reader feel secure and the same time makes them care more about the kids, including "missing kid". The reader won't know that these kids will never make their plans happen. Because the next day after they all hung out together "missing kid" suddenly doesn't answer calls, or wasn't in class in the morning. But the friends don't think to much of it first and again think about their own lives. More false security but a little suspicion. After that you can drop the bomb on the reader.
@@blackhagalaz thank you. As for the group dynamic, there’s two couples(one m/m and the other f/m) and one single
@@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155 Great. That gives you a lot of possibilities to establish your characters motivations. I am sure you will find some topics that connect all of them so they can be the cheerful friends group for a while before one of them goes missing
When I was working on my PhD Thesis, my director (and others) used to tell me that the intro (of your thesis, of you paper, whatever) is typically the most difficult section to write, and that it's also typically a good idea to write the intro last.
Advice 7: I was actually thinking that the conflict could be applied instead of the villain. In my book, the conflict is a war that the humans are pushing for a continuation of, but the plot twist is that 'the villain' is the one who have whispered these ideas into other's ears and are essentially betraying their own race to become king and kill all humans, using the cover of the war as a way to make it necessary instead of straight up murder.
I was thinking of introducing 'the villain' is the middle of the book or something, or when it becomes necessary to introduce the ruling body for the elves.
You can also introduce a fake antagonist in the beginning
In my last story, the villain was always there, right from the prologue, but she didn't actually become the villain until the very end - but the conflict is dead obvious from the beginning, too. In my current project, the villain is a background character until about the middle of the story, but the conflict she adds on to is present from the first chapter.
I really needed this right now when writing the first chapter
Best advice: first drafts suck. Get over it, get the story on paper (in the file, whatever) you can't edit what you don't have. It's a journey of discovery, and part of what you discover is (drum-roll) humans aren't perfect, including you. First draft is you telling yourself the story. Part of capturing the wild story is bloody and messy. When you have the story in the stall, then you clean it up, trim the hooves, repaint the burnt trees, back-fill plot holes, and all the other things that will make it easier for people to read/understand. There was a chapter to explain why the hero's best friend is important? Now it's a paragraph of backstory, told between sips of beer. But the villain needs more word count. "Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," a story about what made the villain, for example. (the opening is the villain practicing his pathetic evil laugh; blows that "first lines have to be perfect" right out of the water!)
I've BS'd my way through several first chapters, but I'm only now starting to get serious about writing my first novel. This video has reassured me that, though it will need a considerable amount of polishing, most of the important things in the first chapter are more or less already there. Thanks for the advice and encouragement, Jenna
I think we should wing the first chapter with the knowledge it will be mostly/completely re-written. For me its a great way to establish in my own mind what the conflict is and who some characters are. Then I do an outline, then re-write chapter 1 and beyond.
“And that’s you, bitch” is my greatest takeaway Jenna. Seriously, thanks! ♥️😆
Every time I feel discouraged about my current wip, I always hear you in the back of my mind saying "accept the suckage" and I suddenly feel a little better about myself.
Jenna: "It's been a while since I upset the Pantsers..."
Pantsers: "Good luck on the move Jenna! Hope it doesn't become too needlessly stressful. Best wishes your way!" (What!? You thought we would have taken the low road? We're not Plotters.)
This makes me feel better about my first chapter, which was already way better than my first book's.
I was so scared when I saw the empty book case. But now... phew! Awesome you and Chris are moving.
I don't worry about writing the first chapter first. If a great start comes to mind immediately, then sure! If not, I just skip to scenes that I have a more clear idea on and then loop back around to the first chapter when I have a more clear sense of what it should be.
Honestly often times I just write at the start of the project, jumping around a bit (especially to keep up momentum if I get stuck on one part), and then worry about how the chapter divides fall later on, if I even get to that point before ADHD distracts me from the project.
I was having so much trouble with my first chapter, this was much needed!
Welcome back. Can’t wait to see the new space (unless it’ll be like the old one 😜).
every time i see you get a milanote sponsorship i get so happy 😭 i wouldn't have known what milanote was if it wasn't for you and it helps me so much! so thanks! i don't think i'll ever stop thanking you for this lmao
The first chapter is always hard.. I appreciate all your super helpful videos!! 😫😊
About the "wing it" advice...
You can totally wing it, just expect that you might need to add another chapter before when you're revising or that you have to write another chapter in its stead altogether. If that works for you do it. If you don't know if it works for you, try it. don't let anybody tell you that your method is wrong, all that matters is how well it works for you.
love how your sponsors are actually helpful! always get confused with sponsors either not helping me much or just being way too expensive to use, milanote is actually helpful and easy to use! amazing video, ily queen
8:20 Breaking Bad starts with a few shots of desert scenery... and then pair of pants flying across the screen.
you know, filiming in an empty place like that sort of sets the mood for a dark creepy story, as right now, the vibe is chilling.
Just discovered your channel and man, it’s helping me out a whole lot with a new perspective. Thank you and subbed! 💜
welcome to the channel, it is very good
I'd just like to take a minute to say thank you! I'm an aspiring manga artist who writes my own stories, and even though I've been writing since I was four, there's still a lot I need to learn. Even though your channel is geared towards novel writing, I can easily translate the tips (and criticisms) to comic scripts. Again, thank you and keep up the good work, I'll be watching as long as I can!
So good to see you back! I hope the move went well, if y'all are done at this point, and that you and Cliff are getting some well-deserved rest now. And you're back with what looks like a very useful topic, too. Okay, Lilly's running commentary in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
1. "The scariest moment in my life is waking up in a hospital room with every part of me hurting. Every single part, except for my legs." And yes, I know that's two sentences, but...who wants more/ If you do, ya gotta wait for it, don't you?
2. I mean, I do, but at the same time, it's very, VERY plot-relevant. I basically begin with the inciting incident and keep going from there. This is a multiple POV book, yes, but Adam (that's the character who's talking back there) is the one who really gets the plot going, and yes, the disability sticks. I'm sure y'all can infer what's happened here, and there is no such thing as the cure narrative in my world, thank the Gods. But it's not just "bang for the sake of bang"...which is a sentence that could be read in more than one way. XD
3. I know I need to calm down about this one. I'm already on draft two in SOME parts of my book, and this is one of the things I kind of need to fix. I describe unimportant things in too-important ways sometimes, though, to be fair, ONE of the things I put a lot of focus on is a subtle but running motif throughout the book. My hero character, if he trusts you, he'll give you an article of his clothes. I'm not talking his shirt: I mean like a jacket or a hat or an accessory. But it's a running theme that "this person is a good person if they have Jeremy's clothes". I just describe the clothes too much. Mind you, that's after the first chapter.
4. Not applicable. Like I say, I hit the ground running. Poor Adam, but he's a good boy, for one thing, and for another, he DOEA learn to deal. Takes him more than one book to fully start to work with it, though.
5. HOPE IT WORKS, because that's what . Sigh...but then, this is realistic fiction, and real life is messy. Very. Hell, real life even begins in a messy way. If you're healthy, you come out of mama squalling like a storm. XD This is me trying to justify my move here, by the way.
6. Thankfully, I'm good at nuance. There's some REAL SHIT going down with this family, and it's more of an undercurrent just at first, but I'm not going to openly say "The father is an emotionally and physically abusive piece of work" right off the bat. Gotta give the man-child some time. And I f*cking hate him. If your dad sucks in real life, I'm really sorry. I am.
7. Snort, see my last point. You'll figure it out.
8. LOL, well, the reason why I have o start my last book over from the start is because I was trying to write "The next '1984'". NOT realistic, NOT a good idea, NOT something that should be done. Orwell is my favourite author and deserves all the credit, ALL of it, but I don't need to basically write him a love letter in my own literature. Besides, I'm not in the same class as him in terms of skill. Not even close.
9. I kinda did...? I men, I KNEW where it was going and where I wanted it to end up, and I knew WHY, but I hadn't written a strict outline. Yes, I do prefer the organic process, but I need to go back now and change a good bit of the first chunk of my book to make it agree with what I'm writing now .They'll be quicker fixes, but still important.
10. I introduce all of the main characters, except Jeremy, I have the inciting incident, and I do let people know about the general dynamic, but without giving the whole plot away just at first. I hope that's enough to hook people. Y'all tell me, though.
I have my novel starting with a character talking while the main character listens, wishing the date would end.
Sounds cool! We get to know that the main character isn't here because s/he wants, thus bringing mystery to why they'd go on this date. Good luck!
This post was great timing for me. I wrote an outline of a great story that I'm really jazzed about. But when it came time to sit down a write that first chapter, I totally psyched myself out. I froze. I haven't touched my computer for days. I needed to hear the advice in this post. Thank you, wish me luck! I'm goin' in . . .
Good luck!
your advice on writing is good minus the vulgar words, which for me is a big with all the adjectives out there that could and can be used. thank you for your insight into writing.
Thanks for explaining good advice. All the best for your new home.
I added an one or two page chapter that is actually an example about how dangerous the plot is. Because its weird to fit in a chapter thats two pages about someone’s life, i made it a nightmare. That’s how i let readers know what the danger comming is and (i hope) it makes them want to know how the main character experiences it! :)
"winging it sucks"
Honestly, I can agree with that. I winged my first chapter and it ended up being so long that it naturally split into two chapters and I had to rethink my entire approach. Not having even the most basic of structure going into the story is a pretty bad idea.
Just lay out what chapters do what. If it ends up being too long, divide your chapters further, I suppose.
As an agent, that first piece of advice is important, but sometimes misunderstood. A good hook is something that intrigues and makes us want to read the subsequent sentence, chapter, etc. That's all. It doesn't have to be over the top or promise death and destruction.
You’re literally my saviour. What would we do without your amazingly blunt advice 😅
I always said: if you don’t feel excited writing about it, then your reader won’t feel excited reading about it. Following this helped me a lot, idk.
I just have to say this. THANK YOU so much for helping me through my amateur writing phase! All your videos are hilarious and absolutely helpful! U r awesome! And thanks again. 🥺🥰
The black dress and black background combo looks incredibly cool!
I've been too flowery with my first chapter. I had two people who told me it was too confusing so right now I'm going through a re write. It's been a block but I think I getting the hang of it! I'm very new to writing so Im gonna be making a lot of mistakes, thank you Jenna for this video to help me through it!
My friend and I are planning for writing a book. We are structuring it, thinking about everything we need to for the story. We are putting in a lot of work, and I just can't wait to get started! I'm trying to switch from Pantser to structuring. Structuring sounds scary, and like a lot of work. I realized that I probably need the first chapter (that I currently have) to be chapter 2, and write a firs chapter.
I started reading No Longer Human, and it didn't pull me in the beginning. So number 1 is very correct.
I'm still reading it, and find it very interesting now that I can somewhat relate with it.
Best advice I had from high school about essay writing that also applies to novels is don't start writing at the beginning. I can understand writing in a linear format but if you start at the second chapter and go from there it gives a bit of freedom and is less stressful as you can write as if a reader is already invested, then once you know how everything folds out you can write the first chapter to set the tone properly.
Thank you for this take on your "10 WORST" list! It's so much more helpful for me to not just hear the things to avoid but like...the range of available real estate that is not right on top of the bad choices.
Also, applying this to my still-deciding-if-it's-a-webcomic-or-a-webseries script, I'm kinda excited how much is already set to be established at the start. Now to make sure it's true to the overall tone of the story, which process should also help me reign in the rest of the story tone.
Sometimes I think about meticulously combing through all of Jenna's "worst tips" videos so that I can write a book in which I'm very diligent about doing everything she says to do in them, which is what she's really saying not to do, so that my book is carefully tailored to be a book that Jenna would really hate. I'll never actually do it because it would be too much work for too little reward, but imagining doing something that senselessly spiteful is one of the little things that keeps me going.
Hey Jenna...do you offer 1st page critiques?? Would LOVE your notes!
I love all of Jenna's tips so much!! I just wish she wouldn't swear so much (I wouldn't think of unsubscribing though). I do have one question: is it okay to put contraction words into your writing where the character isn't talking?
I have a story idea that I'm working on right now, in which I start off with a metaphorical expletive IN the inciting incident. The first chapter starts off fast paced and stressful, but it quickly settles down and gives a loose sense of normalcy and security. Personally, I think it suits the story. Overall, the story isn't one where the characters can guarantee their safety. The story is a lot like Firefly. It's dangerous and uncertain, and the first chapter introduces the characters and the 'stage' of the story. I give a little background to explain why the primary character would stay with the others, and his home life isn't good, so it doesn't lend to a peaceful beginning. I provide the reader with some cursory understanding of the setting, and I set up the leading villain. All in all, it feels appropriate while only violating the rule about starting with the inciting incident. How would you rate it?
The entire checklist: "JUST STFU!!!"
XD
I love how honest you are Jenna
Latest I've ever put a villain in my work is chapter 10 (still in the 1st draft phase).
question: 11:54 (sorry for how long this is. you can just look at the first sentence for the actual question. I just added more to my specific
situation)
If your first chapter is more of a mystery, would it be an issue to introduce the "main character's goal" in the second chapter?
in my case, the first chapter is primarily a world building chapter. it shows the characters; their relationships with each other, some of the dynamics and synergies with their personalities, and it gives a small bit of a sad backstory on the main character.... although it's pretty basic dead father type stuff. (I have plans to add symbology related to that later. But it's not symbology that's like "Kai, Remember your father! He is always with you! You CAN defeat the darkness!!!" none of that shit. it actually hinders hi- ANYWAY I AM RAMBLING SORRY) However, a lot of the actual PLOT of the story is a mystery in chapter 1 (some of it being very subtle phrases or symbology, while others are more intended to be seen and SOMEWHAT resolved by the end of the chapter.) It opens up with the main character, Kai, having a bit of a premonition dream (although it is pretty vague.) he wakes up and goes to school with his older brother. TLDR: his brother gets attacked by dogs and should have died, but he survives later in the story, in a hospital. (ofc, that's the first mystery.) But then the dreams keep happening. some are short dreams that only repeat a line from a previous dream. Others are whole separate dreams with their own meanings. (This being the second mystery) At the end of the chapter, Kai, his brother, and his mother go to Kai's friend's(Alex's) birthday party. At the party, Alex's mother gets murdered by a random intruder. this both adds another mystery of "who is this guy and why did he want her dead", but it also adds to the other mystery of the dreams, considering one of the dreams is basically fore-shadowing that moment. chapter 2 begins with a time jump. we see that all the same characters are there, as well as one new character, and that their relationships have developed a lot. the chapter then gets into more of the actual plot of the story.
The issue is that (unless i am blind and don't see it) there is no clear "goal" for Kai himself. We are left with those three questions of course, but there is no clear-cut goal for Kai. Infact, because ch2 is a time jump of 12 years, and that it starts with Kai STILL having another one of those dreams, it's implied that not a lot has happened in all that time (at least for him...) anyway, sorry, that was long.
This is a great video for newbie writers. My book is a semi-autobiography about mental health and toxic environments, so I know that I'll be breaking a bunch of rules when it came to establishing my character's background. Since it's important to the plot but I've focused more on the internal dialogue and put some self-deprecating and dark humor to make it entertaining. Although the rules may apply differently in terms of what my themes are about.
AHHHH Your a life saver- I discovered I am mostly doing it right!! YAY!!! Subbed. (usually a screenwriter but delved into the world of webnovel)
Definitelt agree with the "pants the first few chapters" idea if you're usually a plotter.
I was working on a sci-fi book for a few years that I'd plotted meticulously. Eventually, though, I had to come to terms with the fact that I just didn't really like it and it wasn't going anywhere. I decided to set it aside and start writing a new story based on a very basic concept (town gets attacked by monsters that everyone thought were just made up). I'm already making more progress, have more confidence in the work, and having way more fun writing it.
*Jenna hammers in avoiding an info-dump*
And this is why I always write a separate document for world-building before writing the story itself.
For me I opened my political thriller with a Prologue involving state-sponsored racketeers raiding my child protagonist's family and murdering the mother. That inciting incident would explain a lot of things as timeline shifts a few decades into the future
I'm trying to write just for fun and see how it goes and I don't like the first chapters I come up with. The current one I have is a huge exposition dump on the characters family and problems brought on by the government but I don't feel too comfortable with it.
I'm 16 and for a long time I've wanted to write a novel. Now I'm seriously trying to but I'm taking it more as an experiment rather than a "serious" thing. This approach is very useful to take down pressure... and in the mean time I'm writing;) (btw if you have any suggestion on how to procede feel free to answer this comment).
Oh and thank you Jenna for your amazing videos! :D
I’m trying to write one, it’s based in the mid-late 2010s and is about a zombie apocalypse, and a woman who, before, wasn’t the most mature or caring of others but she grows over the whole story by caring for someone she finds alone. The only thing is that I’m struggling to figure out how to do the dialogue with her mother which sounds not only natural but also good. I’m not used to writing dialogue I mainly tended to descriptions of things and characters but not dialogue.
I never plan my first draft of anything; whether it's a for hire piece of work or a novel or anything else. I know what I'm supposed to be writing about in general and know the bullet points I need to hit, then I just go for it. What comes out is ugly, often incoherent to anyone but me and almost always 98% trash. But I'm looking for that 2% that I can polish into my story or article or chapter. it's a shotgun approach, but it works for me, it helps me get out all the noise and get to the core of what I want to say. And after I've written it a few dozen times, I feel confident enough to call it a first draft. In my mind, at least, all those early iterations are the A-through-Z drafts. My first draft is literally the first draft I'm willing to let someone else read.
I am literally writing a new chapter and I forgot your channel. THANK YOU NOTIFICATION
I have been told I'm great at first chapters, and I kinda always discovery write them. Like, I have a random scene pop up in my head, and I write it, and it usually turns out great. :p Some people just work that way. I couldn't plan the first chapter if my life depended on it. But I can outline later chapters, sometimes. As the story grows in my head as I'm writing it, the more I have written, the further ahead I can "see" in the plot. I think we can just accept that everyone is different, and what works for some doesn't work for others. It's ALWAYS a good idea to TEST all methods though because you could be surprised. But trying to outline kept me FROM writing for 10 years, so I'm not doing that again. Pantsing all the way, and I don't care if I need to do more rewriting because of it. I enjoy it. :P
The thing about pantsing the first chapter is that it might not end up being the first chapter, or anywhere near what the final product will look like. I write it, then I figure out what is missing, what needs to be delayed, moved up sooner, removed entirely, etc. But, by then I've gotten to know the characters and the aesthetics I want for the project. Like you say, future me has all the polishing and fine-tuning covered. This me just needs to get a sense for what we're doing.
I love your explanations, thanks a lot for this video! And I feel kind of stupid, but I could never wrap my head around the apparent contradiction of "start with a bang" and "start with normalcy" ... I mean, yes, if my story is about fantasy adventures, I could start with a battle. But that'd be pretty hard to sell as normalcy (as long as my main character isn't a veteran mercenary or something)... to me it always seemed like you mostly have to pick one or the other ... or am I missing something obvious?
Omg I can already tell the line "lest the reading gods smite me" has left a lasting mark on me
The novel I've written has several character perspectives, and as such, each of the characters has what is essentially a chapter one. The entire book serves as more of an introduction to each of the characters (with interesting and plot-heavy events), with the main narrative conflict occurring at the end of it. It's difficult to sell to agents however, as they usually request the first three to four chapters, and in my case, they are just receiving several different first chapters.
My cats vomit was as colourful as the evening's sunset 🌅
Sounds like something Harry Dresden would say lmao
It's like I'm there.
Solid advice as usual!
I actually introduced my MC internal conflict at the start not only as a way to flesh her out but also to show that power is not inherently a good thing. Sort of took a note from Spiderman when uncle Ben says with power comes great responsibility.
I'm currently going through a massive edit of my first book so I can start submitting to agents! I've been really struggling with my beginning chapter so this will help a lot!
I'm somewhere between a pantser and a plotter. I know the beginning, ending, and a few conflicts I want to put in, but I don't go too in depth because this is a story I'm telling myself and if I know everything then I'll get bored.
I can't tell if she referenced "Uglies" when talking about comparing cat vomit to the sunset or if it was just a funny coincidence but either way its pretty funny.
It's been like eight years since I read that series... Did they actually do that?
I love listening to her videos sometimes just to improve my skills at writing. But when I write, it's just for a hobby, so I'm glad I don't have to care what "readers" think. The only thing I would feel better publishing in future is my poems. Recently I started challenging myself into writing different styles of poems or a topic I never written before. But when I write books I can finish the first chapter easily but my problem is I can never push myself to write a second chapter. I always start a new book just because everything can inspire me from movies, video games and sometimes my weird dreams I always have. I can't even count how many books I have started from writing a summary to the first chapter and then getting a wall in my head. I am probably better off just writing creepypasta stories in which I done before.
I have several antagonists in my story. One is shown fairly early, the others in chapter 7 or so, and the third party much later. :P
The best first line I've ever read in any book...
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
I can't even count how many pages I've read in this story ever since that hook got hold of me.
great writing advice; also, Milanote is so fun to use; i think i am going to like it more and more than i already do; i see the benefits of it already; thank you for all your advice... :)
I love your advice wow thanks. You rock
Right on time, Jenna. Well done 🤙
I wrote a somewhat eastern-style portal fantasy (AKA, Isekai) story with reincarnation as the device that gets the MC to the other world. I started the 1st chapter by breaking the MC's grandaughter's neck in a car accident, MC was at fault. He then sells his soul to Amashilama in order to heal her, and gets taken to the other world as a result.
I like the Isekai genre because it has several places where the genre actually makes all the standard writing conventions a LOT easier. The 1st, and most helpful one is that audiences of the Isekai genre expect a more drawn-out story. They also have learned to expect a much longer "daily life" arc where you mature the main character. Every Isekai is actually expected to be a long-run series of multiple books, and it is something of a standard to spend the entire 1st half of the 1st book establishing your "sense of normalcy." (As for the reason why "sense of normalcy" is not so boring in this case, that would be because a lot of it is actually introducing the world, and also because we have started off with a base-line of the MC knowing no one in this world. Therefore, we actually have to introduce all of the supporting cast individually in a more normalized setting before we bring in our 2nd inciting incident (if we count the means by which they were sent to the other world as the 1st.))
I been plan making the anti hero dark lone warrior manhwa comic. My problem is making chapter what he's going to do during his journey path to his goal, killing someone who betray him. Who he's going to meet, which or should he had necessary/major character that accompany him on his revenge
Hey, Jenna, in the event you ever see this comment, I was wondering, would you have any suggestions for writing a prologue? I figured that anything more than a couple of pages could probably be a chapter in itself, but since seeing a prologue can also be seen as a first introduction to the story, would you have any preferences or suggestions? Do you prefer books without a prologue (some of them can be pretty pointless or just reveal too much in my experience), or do you think they have a certain purpose? Wishing you the best with your move!
I've read all one gazillion pages of The Wheel of Time, but I barely made it passed the scene setting in chapter one of the first book. I ploughed through it because another author I loved at the time had a recommendation blurb on the back.
So over setting the scene is a real problem that 2 great writers (Robert Jordan and Anne Rice) had. Most people don't have the brilliant stories those 2 did, though.
Your personality is amazing and so easy to listen to and stay hooked 😆 I would so buy a “writing your first novel” teaching audio book or video program from you 🤣
Excellent tips! Thank you, Jenna!!
Thanks for the advice Jenna!
Sometimes writers mistake the 'hook' for a gimmick. You don't necessarily have to go over the top. Giving the reader a who, what, where, when and why in a relatively fast will suffice. But sometimes it's hard to forget the famous Dean Koontz "Death was driving an emerald green Lexus" hook.