Hello guys. I am new to the forums and quite new to writing, hope the thread is in the right place. I am currently trying to write my first fantasy novel and I have really grand ideas and an absolutely huge detailed world along with an outline that I would consider finished. I have read a lot of things about how the first chapter should be written, that it should be interesting, but not necessarily packed with action and so on. I believe that my first chapter is quite interesting and most importantly tense, but I did something that many people say is a bad idea. The protagonist's family gets slaughtered somewhere in the middle of the chapter, during a family dinner, among them his bride-to-be, a girl that he cared about very much. He is the only person to survive the attack and is forced to flee, on a ship, to a different continent. He is left shocked and confused, he doesn't know who or why did it, he doesn't understand how or why he survived and he isn't ready or willing to keep on surviving, but it's a human instinct, so he will. The point is, everybody says that you shouldn't bring in action until your character is well established, that the readers won't be interested in it until they start to care about the protagonist. That death scene is really tragic and brutal, those events start to shape the main character into what he will have to become and they mark the beginning of his journey. At least to me... I certainly don't want the readers to not care at that point. I really need an advice on this. If you think that this is a bad idea, please tell me where I could start instead. Thank you.
I'm not sure what the "official" rules are but if that's where you want to start your story and it's important to both the character and plot then I'd say go for it. Be true to your story and not some vague notion of rules on creativity.
Hi, I think you're fine as long as the reader cares about the characters you kill and so feels your protagonist's pain. I think it was Sol Stein who said 'we need to see the people in the car before the car crash'. You could make the bride-to-be a really well rounded, interesting character that the reader likes, cares about and wants to see live happily ever after with your MC. They don't want her to die and feel stress when you put her in danger, hoping she finds a way out. But she doesn't. Hope the writing goes well. Dave
I think as long as you include one meaningful conversation with the hero and his bride-to-be before the scene where she is killed, that will be enough to start with. You can then flesh out the relationship after that through the hero's thoughts etc... I don't think it's a problem at all. If it is 'against the rules', that just means it'll help your character stand out.
Thank you all very much. I do think I missed the point about making the girl likable, was completely focused on the protagonist. A dialogue seems to be exactly what I needed. Since I am already here... How do you feel about my idea? Do you think it's unoriginal? The further I am going into the chapter, the more scared I am getting about it being too generic.
It always good to start with action to throw the reader into the story. This plot point will also give the MC strong motivation. The only concern is that you might not be able to make the reader care for the character in half a chapter, which may result in a shrug of the shoulders when she is killed.
And that is one of my many fears. Though now that some time has gone by since I wrote the saddest parts, I am starting to look at it from a different perspective. I suppose I should stop worrying too much about the reader's reaction to her death, and instead start worrying about the reader's reaction to the effect that her death has on the protagonist. Seems to me that it would be near impossible to make the readers love a secondary character halfway through the first chapter.
There are no rules in writing, only principles. The difference being that rules shouldn't be broken whereas principles say that something typically works well when done a certain way. I'm paraphrasing screenwriter Robert McKee here. But the idea is the same for novels. There is no reason that you can't rush to the inciting incident in the first chapter so long as you do it in a way that feels organic to the story and well paced, but remember that the principle exists for a reason. It is often better to develop the character and his/her relationship to his/her family first, because it will give the scene more emotional impact compared to watching a bunch of strangers die.
Absolutely nothing wrong with it.... do you want a boring first chapter, and then kill off people in chapter 2? Unless you feel it gives off a darker vibe than the rest of the book has, and might turn people away? It makes for an interesting opening scene, and makes you care about the protagonist. What does every good movie do these days? Start with the action, a sword fight, a battle, etc etc, not people sipping tea in the shire
Not true at all. Very common to start with action. Also, action is a good way of showing your character and making the audience care. Very common. No problem.
Great, thank you all again. I didn't want to go for a Harry Potter like first chapter, aka, "Oh, let me introduce the whole family, show how they all hate the MC, show them have their family dinner, etc." I remember that it really turned me away from the book the first time I started reading it, had to come back a while later only to find out that it was worth it.
Not only is it okay to whack people in the first chapter, it happens all the time. This happens a lot as a way to propel the hero on a journey and sear something onto their conscience and build out their character. The movies Gladiator and Star Wars both kill the hero's families at the very beginning. One of my favorite novels (which I cite all the time) is The Three Body Problem, which also opens with the gruesome slaughter of a main character's father - which in that case turns the character into a very cold, numb person who can do horrible, anti-heroic things. So, go for it, but be careful not to make it a trope, and make sure the emotion is real.
Take a lesson from the movie "psycho". When Alfred Hitchcock and Joseph Stefano were discussing the plot, Hitchcock suddenly came up with an idea - "Why don't we get a top-rated actress and kill her in the first scene?" It had never been done before. So everyone went to the movie to watch Janet Leigh and BAM! - she was stabbed to death at the beginning of the movie. Don't be afraid to do what seems right to you. You are in control of your own art.
The beginning? It's about halfway through. They firmly set her up as the main character before killing her. That is what makes it so shocking.
As long as it isn't the most gruesome death scene in your story, you should be fine. Also it is better be somebody important to the characters and the story. Maybe explain the importance of these poor bas...er...people are killed and how it affects the story in the long run. They could be considered a 'plot point' as they are important enough to not live past the first few pages. I think if you can pull it together and get away with it in a clever way, then sure. Which is a different twist of turning it into a Crime/Fantasy/Thriller. Now because that would be pretty damn epic, somebody should write one of those. So off you go to spill some blood in the first 5-20 pages of your novel. View attachment 9409 Off to play something in the key of C# (meatgrinder). Have fun.
Not to mention every Law And Order, CSI, and every other cop show EVER, that has someone get killed in the first 5 minutes XD.
I'd recommend keeping the deaths of his family always in the foreground throughout the book. By this, I don't mean have him remember every three seconds but have it brought up enough where their worth as characters isn't lost to the reader. It is very hard to sympathize with someones loss if you have no attachment to the character/characters. If it is brought up enough throughout the story, perhaps through different flashbacks, the reader will begin to comprehend how much such a loss affected your protagonist.
No word of a lie... I have never heard anybody say this before. What I have heard is the term: [in media res] The readers can only care about what your character cares about. You can make them care about the deceased by making the character care. You can actually add considerable pathos and depth by introducing 'triggers' along the journey and calling to them in a flashback chapter. ("So that's why he sat glassy eyed staring at the velvet chair in chapter 2.")
Look at Star Wars. The action starts right away. Episode VI: starship chase and boarding, right off the bat. Episode V: wampa attack. Episode IV: Vader threatening an officer and the two two droids talking to Jabba. Episode I: Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are attacked by droids. Episode II: Padme's ship explodes. Episode III: huge space battle. Episode VIII: Kylo Ren slaughters a village. Rogue One: Krennic kills Lyra Erso while Jyn hides. The trick is to use that scene to introduce your characters. If you use the scene to introduce the action, you're doing it wrong.
I'd argue that Episodes 1, 2 and 3 don't introduce characters, since they don't have any characters, just monotone automatons delivering terrible dialogue. Episode 8 starts with a standard kick the dog/ pet the dog device and then becomes a very bland, by-the-numbers action movie with a Mary-Sue protagonist, which also horribly mishandles the only scene with any emotional weight. I haven't bothered with Rogue One. 4, 5 and 6 were fun though. Brand recognition- making intelligent people like stupid things for decades.
Perhaps the greatest flaw of most fantasy writers are writing big 'epic' world building introductions that don't tell the story. Don't fall into that trap. Your introduction needs to be a strong enough story beat to hold the reader for a couple of chapters. I don't know what people say about not jumping into action scene but that is some of the worst advice I can imagine. You should do exactly that, jump right into the story. Yes, you need to characterize people too, but it's his family getting murdered, people will go with you that the guy cares. You're talking about a first chapter like it's a book by itself. It's not. It's the start of the story. So the story needs to start. It'd be great if you had an extra book to characterize how awesome this guys family are before they get butchered; that'd certainly generate lots of pathos. But you don't have that and this isn't that book. You just don't have the space to get people invested the way that you need to to make sure that every reader will be shocked and appalled. But that's ok, because this is the start of the book. The really heartrending stuff happens later. Assuming the rest of the book is action and adventure type stuff you should start with action. The first chapter should show the reader what to expect in the rest of the book.
The problem comes when you kill off the character (or a POV character) whom the reader has assumed is the protagonist. If you do that in the first chapter, it can make the reader mistrust your writing, and not want to get invested in any of your important characters in case this happens again. To some extent, this is what plagues George RR Martin's writing, and has made me stop reading his books. I got so fed up with POV characters getting killed off. It made me think: I'll wait till the series ends, find out who is left standing, then maybe go back and read it again. (Probably won't, but that was my thought.) There is nothing wrong with killing off somebody whom the protagonist loves, though. That can be a really compelling start to a story.
I always felt Dashiell Hammett missed an opportunity in the Maltese Falcon by glossing over the murder of Miles Archer. There's a murder in the first chapter, best friend of the main protagonist, driving the main plot (Maltese Falcon is the mystery of who killed Miles Archer) but all we do is discover the body. As a kid, I tried to imagine what his last words would have been. (Talk about "Archer" - "Wooooodhooooouse!")
