The first few chapters that I have to write for my stories, are so hard for me to write. Even if I plot out my whole story, I can't for the life of me, make the first chapter interesting. If it'll help, I can add a summery of my book?
I'm not clear on your problem. You can't start writing or you just think your first chapter is rubbish?
The first chapter for me is where I have the most steam aside from worldbuilding. So if you're a fantasy or sci-fi writer, you might want to weave fascinating descriptions into your opening. But you can go the other way too and go straight to the action. Star Wars opens with a title crawl of exposition, and then it jumps right to a space skirmish which quickly turns into a ship boarding and a capture, with a daring escape sneaking out the back of the scene to take the rest of the movie with it. Incorporating both is ideal. Movies manage to fit both as a picture is worth a thousand words, conserving scenery description with a few words. People are generally more willing to read three minutes worth of scenery description than sit through three minutes of establishing shots.
Think of the first chapter as starting a conversation with a friend. Your friend is waiting for you at the coffee shop. You walk in, plop your things on the table, and say, "You won't believe what just happened to me!" Then start with the story.
Keep in mind, as well, that often the first chapter will change over the course of writing your story (depending on your process, of course). As you get further and further into your story, you may find that the true beginning is something different (or somewhere different) than you originally thought. I wouldn't necessarily get too hung up on it. If it's preventing you from continuing on because you keep going back and tinkering with the beginning, I'd say try letting it go and just keep writing, knowing you can always go back and change it after you get further in. Additionally, you can post an excerpt of your beginning here for critique and see if anyone else also thinks you have real problems or if it's all just in your head. If you're looking for a sense of how to begin a story, often I find starting with immediate conflict is a good way to go. It doesn't have to be a big conflict or even related to the main story arc. It should just put the POV character into an uncomfortable situation quickly and show the reader how this character deals with it. No backstory needed, no lengthy descriptions--that can all come later. Give something like that a try, even if just for practice, and see how it compares to what you normally do.
If your first chapter is boring then it isn't your first chapter. Start your first chapter when something interesting happens.
My advice would be to just start writing, however bad you think the first chapter is. You can fix it in the edit, and you may well decide you want a different beginning by the time you get to the end of the novel anyway.
=========== This is a common problem. One famous author said throw the first 3 chapters away. So just start writing, and keep on writing, then write some more. When you are finished you toss the first chapters it took you to warm up and get into the story, while you are revising and rewriting. Alternatively don't write until you have planned the entire book first. It does not have to be in great detail, although that can be helpful to many of us; but, driving directions to get from zero to the conclusion are often very useful to many of us.
Just start writing somewhere. Maybe it isn't the beginning of the story, and you'll have to go and write stuff that happens before where you started. Maybe you end up having to change some of what you wrote because the beginning of your story shifts. But, like everyone here says, just start writing. Make it a habit. Write every day you can. Everything you do can be redone, trimmed, filled out, and changed. But none of that will happen if you don't get started.
No reason why the first chapter should be any less interesting than the others. It's more likely to be one of the most gripping, because it's your chance to pull us in right away. I'd say think what you like to see when you read a book and make sure you focus on characters more than exposition or background or anything else. You can introduce this world you've created gradually, but we'll first be drawn to who the story is about, and why we should care for them. Some people feel the need to inject action right away into the plot or grab you with an attention-grabbing opener. That can work, but it's completely fine to take your time and ease us into the story too. Sometimes a prologue is good to show something happening, perhaps even from the villain's point of view, or a different character. It's good to create mystery and suspense, so long as we come back to it later and rewarded for reading from the beginning.
First chapters are notoriously difficult. The best advice I can give is get into the scene as late as possible and out of the scene as early as possible. Create conflict and, if you can, open on some interesting action that grabs the readers attention early. But the best thing to do is JUST START. It doesn't matter because if you need to, you can go back and rewrite. Just get the ball rolling.
=========== And yet many writers use the first chapters to warm up and write way too much background information they need to know but bores the reader . That famous author was onto something when he said throw away the first 3 chapters. Then the first one will be interesting after the dull rambling start is removed.
Both, I start writing and when I read it over, it's something that I should just flush down the toilet.
So, my character is abused by her step-dad, and if you're saying "starting with immediate conflict", should I have it begin with her getting partnered up with Grayson for a History project (they're going to end up dating later in the book) or what?
Well bombing the hell out of the house, is the fastest and easiest of the hooks, so to speak. Unless you can create intrigue another way, and foreshadow the conflict in a way that keeps them interested. Most would agree that bombing the house up front is the way to go, but I say sometimes sounding the air-raid siren can work too. Try writing it 3 times in different ways. 1. Conflict (Drown it in Conflict) 2. Hinting at Conflict (about half strength or so) 3.Introducing Characters,World, and then near the late-middlle end add in some conflict elements. (give us a taste, a dash if you will.) And if you still aren't sure get somebody else to look at what you have, and get multiple thoughts and input on it. Good Luck, and I hope you get your first chapter writ.
Yes, I would concur with this. If you're having trouble starting, then start by writing whatever scene you have imagined the most strongly. (Even if it's the end!) Pretend you've already written what has gone before, and just step straight into the scene. You don't need to write your story in chronological order. I know this tactic works, because it's what I did myself! The first chapter I wrote was actually from the middle of my story—the moment when one lead character realises she loves the other main character and her life is about to change. You can work by writing your strongest scenes, then finding a way to link them together. The beginning will emerge, as you realise what you actually need to get your characters to those places you've envisioned so strongly. I think the beauty of this method is that it helps avoid excessive infodumping and boring story starts. If you've written a few scenes from within the story, you will have a better idea of what is actually needed for your beginning. Chances are it will be relatively simple stuff.
Writing out of chronological order is something I need to try. I just tend to start from beginning to end because I think otherwise I'll get confused. Very often I don't have a plan gluing everything together so it really is like building a brick at a time and seeing this novel unfold across a number of months. I also only write very little notes. It'd be good to try out different methods and see if they work--I imagine we may be more excited for one specific part of the story or drawn to write it which in turn makes writing the rest easier for us if we know what's going to happen. Once we know our characters it's easier because we get a sense of what they're like and where they are going... which means the story starts telling itself. When we're invested in the characters any twists and turns are usually character related... the actual plot doesn't always have to be anything but in the background, occasionally creeping into the forefront to keep the story running along.
Yes. Your point about knowing your characters better after writing a scene or two about them is spot-on. That's what can make this 'out of order' method work. However, if you write in chronological order, that's fantastic as well. As you say, it avoids confusion. I'm a big advocate of 'do whatever works.'
Also, the really awesome thing that I've found about the writing out of order method is that sometimes new characters and scenes just kind of happen. Things that you think are totally unrelated just rear their head out of nowhere, and suddenly you have an entirely new plot thread to weave throughout the story.
Historically, I don't write out of order. I may try it with one of my new projects. What I wanted to add was this: Just write where you think you should start, then keep going. My first novel I wrote an entire first chapter that I later cut. My book started better with Chapter 2. I clung to that first chapter for awhile thinking it was good...but once I finally let it go and axed it I could see how much better it was to start with the second. Sometimes you can't see these things until you've written them out.
Yes i find that, i write out of order, and my books can get a life of it own.. you can gain characters and new plots appaearing. You look back and think did i write that, where did you come from. etc.. With first chapters, I say dont worry about a good start, just write, come back to it.. Book one of my series of novels, the first page of the first chapter, has been re written about six times. You have to hook the reader with in the first paragraph, first page, make them want to turn that page and continue, and not want to put the book down until they have read it to the end. It can take time to get the right start, dont let it stop your creative juices from flowing.
