How to Write the First Chapter of a Novel: Beginner's Tips

The first chapter of a novel is perhaps one of the most thrilling and, at the same time, the most daunting aspects of the writing process a writer has to go through in their life. To most novices, it seems to be like looking at a blank page and it seems as though you are on the verge of an entire world of the unknown. There is a fantastic idea of a story that may be buzzing in your head, and putting it down in appealing first lines may be tricky. That is where the question of how to start a novel is so significant. The tone of your book is established by the first pages, the first pages present your world and entice the reader to continue flipping through the pages. Unless the opening draws them in, then there are odds that they will never learn the rest of your story.

An effective opening chapter does not necessarily have to answer every question, disclose every secret, it only must create desire and make the reader wish to have more. The reason why writers often fail to start is often the pressure to make it a masterpiece, but the truth is that beginnings are something that can be emulated and refined as time goes by. The last but the most crucial thing is to simply have a proper sense of purpose: whom your characters are, where the story starts and why the readers will be interested. This guide will help you to manage those initial steps in order to begin your novel with a feeling of confidence and make your first chapter your door into the world you are telling.

Before You Write: Overcoming the Mental Hurdles

You need to get your head in the right state before you sit down and commence writing your first chapter. It is not only a matter of learning how to write a novel, but of conquering the inner obstacles that will stop your efforts even before you start. Some of the greatest pitfalls among novices are doubt, pressure and unrealistic expectations, however, with the proper attitude one can overcome all these and begin to write with confidence.

Silencing Your Inner Critic

Each writer has an internal critic who reminds him of the voice of doubt that mocks the idea like, “It is a terrible idea or you are not a real writer. This may make writing seem like such a burden, particularly to the novices. The way to fight imposter syndrome and fear of a bad first draft is to keep in mind the nature of first drafts as imperfect. Attaining perfection may slow down your development.

A useful strategy is to put words on the paper, without thinking about being a perfectionist. You can always revise later. The other helpful strategy is to make time to write imperfectly, devoid of perfectionism and write in freedom. In the long run you will discover that the more you write the less your inner critic will complain.

Defining Your "Why"

Before proceeding with how to start writing a novel it is important to clarify your reasons as to why you are going to tell this story to your audience. It is a good exercise that will assist you in relating to the deeper motive of your novel and will keep you going when the process becomes difficult. Spend a minute and ask yourself: Why do I really want to write this novel?

Do you have a desire to explore certain theme or idea? Are there any characters who are screaming to be performed? Or is this a personal story that holds meaning to you? After gaining a clear understanding of your Why, make it official and write it down so that you can have a reminder of what drives you to keep on going. In case you are at a loss or simply on a really hard writing day, reconsidering your motivation will enable you to move on and continue writing.

Setting Realistic Expectations

To write a novel, it is necessary to make an optimistic expectation corresponding to your life and objective. Among the greatest pitfalls that authors commit themselves to is the need to produce a masterpiece at the very first step. Although it is excellent to have ambitions, it is unrealistic to come up with a perfect novel within a month and this might stir up frustration. Rather, seek achievable gradual improvement.

A better strategy would be to put in place achievable and sustainable daily or weekly writing goals. As an example, you can make yourself write a specific number of words daily, whether it is 500 or 1000 words, and this will assist you to attain gradual progress. Instead of a goal-oriented approach on the final product, a small win of simply being present and writing is in itself a victory. With time, you are going to discover that you get used to writing, and that first draft of your novel will start to form without worrying so much about getting it right now.

Finding Your Story: Idea Generation & Selection

You must have a story that will make you excited to continue with the process of drafting and revising before you can type a single word. Ideas are all over, yet it is hard to determine which ones can be extended to become a complete novel. This is a period of exploration, interest and refining until you are convinced that your idea is viable enough to drive you through to book length.

Where to Find Novel Ideas

Ordinary moments are the most likely to give the best novel ideas. Note a few pieces of dialogue, some surprise-feelings or weird details in day-to-day life, it can give impetus to something even greater. A useful method is the use of the question what if? What if two strangers switched lives for a week? What if a hidden secret changed the course of history? Combining curiosity and imagination may create endless opportunities. 

The other piece of advice is to think about the various kinds of genres you like reading. In case you love fantasy, mystery, or historical fiction, use the themes, tropes, and ideas that appeal to you. There is nothing to be afraid of combining genres, too, many of the best stories combine something distinct to form something new and thrilling.

Testing Your Idea's Novel Potential

After you have a possible idea, the next step is to find out whether or not it has the strength to sustain you through the entirety of a novel. A typical novel covers a range of 70,000 to 100,000 words, and thus you want to be sure that your concept is deep enough and complex enough to cover this length. The following are some of the questions that you can ask yourself in an attempt to test your idea:

• Is there conflict? Any novel requires some central conflict (external: battles, enemies; internal: struggle of characters). In the absence of a conflict, the story will not have the momentum that keeps the readers interested.
• Are there interesting characters? Your characters must be attractive and well-motivated and grow. Characters development is as crucial as the plot.
• Is there enough material? Make sure that there is more than one dimensional in your idea, such as subplots or side characters to pad the word count.

When your idea answers these questions, then you are probably in the right direction!

From Idea to Core Concept: Crafting Your Logline

One good method of testing and explaining your story is to provide one sentence of a logline that sums up the essence of the novel. Consider it as the support in your storyline. A simple formula is: (Protagonist) must (goal) despite (conflict/obstacle). As an illustration, it was a young woman who had to unravel the disappearance of her sister in a town where everybody conceals their own secrets. This practice makes you reduce your novel to its very core and then you have a proper structure to build.

Laying the Foundation: Essential Pre-Writing Choices

When thinking about how to get started writing a novel, it is important to set a good ground before you start writing the first chapter. Such preliminary choices as point of view, voice, and setting will determine the tone, speed and format of your novel. Imagine that they are the outline of your novel. Making such choices purposefully, you will spare yourself the confusion that is to come and make your readers experience something even more involving and emotionally touching.

Choosing Your Narrative Perspective (POV)

The point of view (POV) is what makes your story be interpreted by the readers. One of the most dramatic decisions you will make initially is the first-person or the third-person. Each has its advantages and disadvantages but it is worthwhile to select the one that best fits your kind of story.

Tip: Write a brief scene in first-person and third-person and have a feel of which one sounds the most appropriate to your story and its subject matter.

Finding Your Narrative Voice

Your narrative voice is the character of the narrator of your story; it determines the manner in which your story is told, no matter the POV. Is your voice quirky? Lyrical? Gritty? Sassy? The emotional texture you produce with your voice is what attracts the readers and makes them go through the pages.

Try These Voice-Finding Exercises:

• Voice Journaling: Select one character and make them write a journal entry about an important thing that occurred in his life. Allow them to wander, rave or cogitate; in whatever way they might. This assists in the determination of their tone and rhythm.

• Tone Rewrites: Take a neutral sentence and put it in various tones: sarcastical, poetic, anxious, cheerful. This practice is a demonstration of how tonal changes make your narration feel different.

• Narrator Monologue: Draft one-page ranting, compliments or comments by your narrator’s point of view about a topic you have no personal interest in (e.g. traffic, breakfast, loneliness). Their natural voice will come out fairly fast.

Even a basic story can become memorable with the help of strong voice. Consider The Catcher in the Rye; it is not the story that has made it a classic but the voice that Holden Caulfield has.

Defining Your Setting

Setting is not merely the backdrop, but a character on its own. The setting of the world your characters will be in will have an effect on their decisions, the plot, and it sets the mood right at the first page. The descriptive setting allows the reader to feel that he/she is on the ground, thoroughly engaged with the plot and attached to it in an emotional manner.

Ask Yourself:

• How does the setting impact on the day to day lives of your characters?
• What do we see, hear, smell and even what are the cultural practices in this world?
• What is the role of the setting in escalating conflict or stakes?

Tip: Be sure that your setting can show how your protagonist feels. Hogwarts starts as a place of belonging and hope to Harry; but when the threats start, even the safety of stones walls is put to the test. Setting is like the reflection on the inner world of your character.

The Blueprint: To Plot or Not to Plot?

Each author has his or her approach to the creative process. There are those that love to plan everything and others that like letting the story develop as they write. There is no one right starting strategy, it is merely the strategy that keeps you driven and working. You may be a legalist architect of your novel or prefer to plunge in the uncharted waters, being aware of these methods will assist you to realize the style that best suits you.

The Plotter's Approach: Outlining Your Story

Plotters find comfort in frameworks prior to the process of writing. They make road maps usually by taking proven outlining techniques to keep them on track. The Three-Act Structure is one of the famous approaches according to which the story is separated into:

• Act I (Setup): Present characters, conflict and stakes.
• Act II (Confrontation): Characters confront challenges and meet failures and development.
• Act III (Resolution): The resolution takes place bringing about a change and resolution.

This is a method used to make sure that writers do not have to go down dead ends and that their story does not run off. Plotting may be the right fit to you in case you prefer to have clarity and direction prior to starting.

The Pantser's Approach: Writing by the Seat of Your Pants

Pantsers find out the story as they progress. They are not restricted, but rather they feel free, and characters can surprise them, and the plots can turn in another direction. Although this technique may contribute to exciting discoveries, it also can occasionally result in aimless drafting that needs more serious revisions. Pantsers strategies entail:

• Momentum building through freewriting.
• To have a solid story start with a powerful character or conflict.
• Viewing the first draft as a way of discovery and not a finished work of art.

In case you are more motivated by spontaneity than structure, the pantser method can help you keep the creativity flowing.

The Plantser's Hybrid Method

Plantsers are a combination of two worlds, having a rough outline to guide them but allowing the unexpected to happen. An example would be you drawing broad plot lines and leave the details open. Such an approach will give you sufficient guide so as not to experience writer block, but at the same time leave your story to develop on its own. This is the balance loved by many writers, as it gives importance to planning as well as to creativity.

Exercise: List three key moments of your story (beginning, middle, end). Take them as anchors, but leave a lot in between to work out on their own. This manner you are aware of the destination and at the same time have fun in the process.

Meeting Your Characters: Protagonist & Cast

Any novel has its heart in the characters. Whatever is the thrill of your plot or the creativeness of your setting, readers will remain because they are interested in what is happening to the person in the story. This is why the development of the main character or the protagonist, the antagonist, and the supporting cast is very important, particularly in chapter one.

Crafting a Compelling Protagonist

It is your protagonist through whom the readers experience your story. They must have something beyond a goal, they must have personality, weaknesses, fears, and hopes.

Ask Yourself:

• What is desired by your protagonist (external goal)?
• What do they require (internal development)?
• What flaw holds them back?
• Why should the readers side with them even when they get it wrong?

An effective protagonist is not a dormant character. They make choices, bear the results and develop. It does not matter whether your hero is brave and courageous or silent and ambivalent but the important fact is that he or she will be transformed throughout the story.

The Antagonist's Role

It is not just a villain, but rather a great antagonist is an engine of conflict that causes your protagonist to develop. This may be a man, a machine, a natural power or even a personal struggle.

Key Traits of Effective Antagonists:

• They feel that they are correct (when they are not).
• They put into test the main character and his/her main beliefs.
• They push the intensity out of emotional and physical levels.

Be sure not to make the mistake of a one dimensional bad guy. Prepare your antagonist with motivation, complexity and purpose even though the purpose may be opposite to that of your hero.

Introducing Your Cast in the First Chapter

Your supporting characters are critical in making your main character and filling the world out. Nonetheless, readers can get lost in the overcrowding of the first chapter with names. Instead:

• Concentrate on the introduction of few characters that directly affect the first conflict.
• Show characters by doing and by talking not by description.
• Create expectation of secondary characters; you can do so through gradually integrating them into the story.

Consider in what way J.K. Rowling presented the world of Harry Potter. The opening chapter did not introduce the reader to all the characters at once - it planted seeds, introduced the main actors and allowed the reader to be interested. It works the same way with your job: you need to create the most necessary relationships at the very beginning, and still, maintain some of the mystery that will attract readers to read more.

Writing the First Chapter: Hooking Your Reader

Your first chapter of your novel has a great burden with it- it is your only opportunity to capture the attention of the reader and persuade him or her to continue turning the pages. An engaging introduction preconditions the introduction of your world as well as the preview of the conflict to follow. With the right words, your opening chapter can be a call to continue reading the rest of your piece that will be impossible to resist.

The Anatomy of a Strong Opening Chapter

The first chapter does not need to pack in all of your world or backstory it is simply the beginning of curiosity and emotional engagement of your reader immediately. The following are the main components of an effective introductory part:

• The Hook: Stressing about how to begin a story, then worry not as you can easily begin your story with an attention-grabbing event, mysterious event, unusual voice, statement or action to grab the attention of your readers. You want the reader to feel that he/she must know what will happen next.

• Establishing Tone & Voice: The mood of the entire novel should have been conveyed in Chapter One. Is it dark and gritty? Light and humorous? Epic and emotional? Allow the reader to experience the atmosphere on the very first page.

• Introducing Conflict: You do not have to have the main conflict on page one, but foreshadowing of some tension, whether internal or external, will provide your story with an instant forward motion.

• Posing Story Questions: Have the reader leave at least one huge question that he or she desires to see answered. What’s happening? What is the reason why this character is running? What secret are they hiding?

How to Start a Novel First Sentence

You may find the initial sentence to be the most difficult one when you are standing in front of a blank page and are unable to write anything. However, if you are thinking how to start a novel first sentence, then keep in mind that your first line of opening does not have to be a masterpiece. It only requires that it makes one curious or emotional. The following is the way to begin the first sentence of a novel, as you wish to make it be:

Tip: It is not necessary to worry about creating the perfect first sentence. Most authors do revert to perfecting it when the draft is complete and they get a clear idea of the tone of their story.

Classic Opening Pitfalls to Avoid

Although all the stories are unique, some mistakes made in the first chapter may send the reader away, quickly. Here are a few to watch out for:

• Info-dumping: It is not necessary to start with long exposition or world-building. Instead, demonstrate to the world by doing and speaking.

• Too many characters too fast: Concentrate on 1-2 important characters. Excessive names may confuse readers.

• Starting too early: Leave the dull preliminaries out of it, and get to the point where the action in the story really begins, at the point of change.

• Cliches or vague generalizations: It is better to avoid such cliches as: It was a day like any other, or: She never knew that her life was going to change.

An excellent introductory chapter is a promise: This book is worth reading. With the help of a sharp hook, a clear voice and an interesting conflict, and you not only hook your reader, you keep her turning the pages.

Powering Through: Maintaining Momentum

The beginning of the novel is exciting, and it is the continuation that many writers fail. There is nothing wrong in banging your head on the wall or being exhausted after the initial burst of creativity. The positive thing is that with the proper strategies, you can foster momentum, and you will be able to overcome any obstacles to continue with your story.

Dealing with Writer's Block at the Start

A writer block can be particularly aggravating when it occurs at the very start. You have the itch to write; but the words will not come. Don’t panic. It does not mean that your idea is not good, the creative brain just needs to be prodded.

Try These Practical Fixes:

• Change your environment: Your surroundings are a good place to get new ideas even by simply shifting the room.

• Write a different scene: In case the beginning seems cumbersome to address, jump to a section that you are eager about. It is best to turn back to the first in the future.

• Set a timer: Perfectionism prevents you from simply creating a piece of writing, so use the Pomodoro method (25 minutes writing, 5 minutes off) to get started.

• Revisit your “why”: Check yourself on why you are writing this story. Emotional attachment can start your flame once again.

The initial version does not need to be ideal. It’s supposed to exist. You see you can do it up later; but only when it is written.

Building a Sustainable Writing Habit

Motivation is great; but it is practice that completes a novel. Being able to write consistently, even in little portions, will cause a momentum, which will lead to confidence and improvement.

How to Build a Writing Routine That Lasts:

• Set realistic goals: You do not need to shoot at having a perfect chapter every day. Goal 300-500 words or 20-30 minutes of concentration.

• Use scheduling cues: Write every day at the same time, or set up writing to happen together with an old habit (ex. right after your morning coffee).

• Track your progress: Visualize your progress using a word count tracker, spreadsheet, or writing application.

• Create your ideal writing space: It can be a clean desk and a candle or your all-too-noisy cafe and your headphones, find space somewhere that your brain can be on.

Tip: Say to yourself, I am not writing a novel, I am only writing 25 minutes. Keep on repeating this and you will see your novel in no distant day.

Free Resources to Start Your Novel

A novel can be an overwhelming undertaking unless you have the right resources to make the process far easier. In order to assist your transitioning of idea to first draft with confidence, we have the following free tools that you could utilize immediately:

• Downloadable First Chapter Checklist: The first chapter of your novel is the most important one it establishes the tone of the novel, introduces main characters, and makes the reader hooked. In order to make sure that you are covering all the important notes, a First Chapter Checklist should be used. This easy to access downloadable tool will take you through the aspects that must be in place.

Download our free first chapter checklist: Downloadable First Chapter Checklist

• Simple Novel Outline Template: This is a template of a good outline of a novel, particularly when you work best with structure. The Simple Novel Outline Template assists you in plotting out such major components as the character introductions, the inciting incident, the turning points, and the resolution. When you fill it in it gives you some form of direction to your story as you write.

Download our simple novel outline template: Downloadable Novel Outline Template

• List of 20 Story Prompts: Sometimes you are stuck or just uninspired and a great prompt can help you get going again. The List of 20 Story Prompts created by us is intended to give you new ideas, whether you are writing a thriller, romance, fantasy or any other genre. These suggestions are general enough to give you inspiration, and at the same time they are precise enough to set your imagination to work.

Download the list of 20 story prompts: 20 Story Prompts for Novel Writing

Conclusion

The initial chapter of a novel can seem a huge step to take, but it can also be a highly satisfying one in your creative process. Whether it is silencing your inner critic and defining your why, shaping your characters, perspective choice, and experimentation with plot styles, every decision you make lays the groundwork of your story. Keep in mind that your initial draft does not need to be flawless it just needs to be completed. It is the process that creates the magic, not the perfect beginnings. Being curious, consistent and connected, not only will you learn how to begin a novel but you will also learn how to keep the pace as you read through to the final page. Believe in yourself, live with the flaws, and above all, get going. The world you have dreamed of is just about to open and it is one sentence after another.