Why I Love Romance & Writing Happy Endings: Guest Joanne Troppello

While I focus mainly on the craft of writing, I occasionally talk about my publishing journey or invite guest authors to share their experiences. My hope is that this will inspire readers in their own journeys, whether you find a kindred spirit or get inspired by something new. Today’s guest, romantic suspense author Joanne Troppello, shares why she likes happy endings. I like happy endings too – that’s why I write children’s books and romantic suspense, where good wins out and is rewarded. I like books that leave the reader feeling happy.

Here’s Joanne:

The willing suspension of disbelief was first utilized by the English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Basically, if a writer can impart a human element and an aspect of truth into the story, the reader will be drawn in and willingly suspend their disbelief and fully engage in the far-fetched tale. 

Isn’t that why we read fiction novels and short stories and go to see movies? We want to be entertained and forget about our lives for the moment and transport to another world. In that process of being transported to another world, I tend to enjoy happy endings for the characters involved. My husband, on the other hand, always teases me that sad endings are fine too because that’s real life. Then I usually come back with I have enough issues in real life and that’s why I want to escape into happy endings. Due to my affinity for happy endings and all things romantic, when I decided to write novels, I naturally fell into the romance genre. However, I also enjoy a good mystery, so romantic suspense really feels like home to me. 

Writing romance novels gives me a chance to focus in on the hero and heroine and not get bogged down by having to deal with a whole bunch of characters. However, someday I may decide to write that epic dramatic tale with multiple plotlines and several main characters—but not today or at least not in the near future. Right now, I’m in love with love stories.

Who doesn’t enjoy creating dashing heroes and fair maidens in distress? Okay, so maybe that’s too much of a stretch, but I like the dynamic of creating well-developed characters that fall in love. I want to tell their story. I am a true romantic at heart. I guess that’s why I’m a sucker for a great romantic drama or comedy. True, the formula is always the same in those movies as well as novels—but I revel in the fact that as an author, I can use that time honored formula and make it my own. Using creative ways, I can dream up exciting plots with twists and turn, all the while sharing a true love story with readers who feel the same way—they love happy endings.

True, real life isn’t always a bed of roses and I don’t want to create a fantasy world. Weaving real life elements into the story is the cement that holds everything together. I want to show that true love is true when it can weather the storms of life and come out stronger. It grows through trials and tribulations and with a decision to stick together through good times and bad times, love will always win out.

As a reader, I want to read a book which portrays this perspective that there is such a thing as true love. It embraces romance, but like a diamond—has many facets. True love is able to endure the daily pressures just like it welcomes romance and roses into the relationship. True love knows the difference between both sides to the relationship, but can’t co-exist without the other. A fire starts with a spark, then bursts into full flame and if not tended to, will die out. That’s where fanning the flame comes into play—I want to know that the hero and heroine, not necessarily live happily ever after, but live together in true unconditional love in the real world.

Are you a kindred spirit—do you love romance and happy endings?      

Joanne Troppello is an author of romantic suspense novels.  She has published three books: Shadowed Remembrances, Mr. Shipley’s Governess and Bella Lucia. Currently, she is working on her new writing project, The Paradise Redeemed Series. Joanne is married and loves spending time with her husband and family. She enjoys interacting with readers at The Mustard Seed Blog.

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Handling Writer's Block: Trouble Moving Forward

Last week I talked about how to overcome some of the challenges of getting started on a new project. Now let's look at what to do if you're bogged down in the middle and can't figure out where to go from here.

Let’s say you’ve written your first paragraph, or page, or scene. Perhaps you’ve even gotten pretty far in the story. But then you get stuck. For me, this usually means I don’t know what happens next. I may know where the story is going in the long term, but I’m not sure about the next piece.

If this happens, you can go back to your pre-writing exercises about plot or goals (see last week's post). But here’s another trick that might work faster.

 The Next Five Minutes

What will your character do in the next five minutes? That’s right, just five minutes. It’s easy enough to figure out that. Of course, sometimes the character doesn’t do anything interesting in the next five minutes. Keep looking ahead. What happens after that? And after that?

Here’s an example from my novel, The Well of Sacrifice. The heroine, a Mayan girl named Eveningstar, has been captured by the evil priest and sentenced to death by sacrifice. What does she do? Well, she’ll try to escape, of course. But how? There’s not much she can do during the day, with guards and other people all around. I’ll skip ahead.

Now it’s night time. Does she quietly go to sleep? Of course not! She’ll be thrown into the well of sacrifice in the morning, so she’s too anxious to sleep. She’ll sit up, listening to the guards outside her door. She’ll wait for her opportunity. 

What opportunity? Hmm.... What if one of the guards leaves for a few minutes, perhaps to go to the bathroom. With only one guard outside, she has a chance. She’ll look around for a weapon....

And my character is off and running, on the next part of her adventure.

Checking with the Enemy

You can also try looking at the action from another point of view—that of the villain. If you have a human antagonist, what is that person doing to foil your hero? Whether it’s an a bully at school, an evil sorcerer, or parents who “only want the best” for their child, keep them active in the story, causing trouble.

I used this technique for my middle grade historical mystery, The Eyes of Pharaoh, when the main characters were trying to find a missing friend. What would they do next? I couldn’t figure out anything exciting enough. Then I checked in with my villain. Was he just sitting around waiting for the heroes to act? No! He had plans of his own, plans to set a trap... and then I knew what would happen next.

Whether you're struggling to meet a deadline or just working at your own pace, chances are you will get stuck sometimes. 

Maybe these tips will help you move forward. Happy writing!

Do you have a way of handling writer's block? Please share in the comments!

Next week I’ll talk about when and how to take a break in your writing.

Write Now!: Overcoming Writer’s Block

Over the last two weeks, I discussed goal setting. But sometimes, even if you know what you want to do, it’s hard to get started. This post addresses the challenges of writer’s block and diving into that intimidating first chapter or paragraph.

How do you feel when you see a blank piece of paper—or a blank computer screen? Sometimes it’s the excitement of potential, a clean slate, ready for the ideas to flow, for a wondrous work to emerge. But sometimes that blank seems to go on and on—as if it can never hold anything but emptiness. How does one start?

That feeling can come partway through a manuscript as well. It’s like walking to the edge of a cliff, and being unable to take the next step. You’re stuck, and there’s nothing to do but walk away—perhaps to the sofa, to spend time with a good book. A book that is already written, by someone else.

Most writers faces writer’s block at times. Even successful and prolific writers struggle with writer’s block. They have just figured out how to get past it more quickly. 

In my experience, you can break writer’s block into two basic types: trouble getting started, and trouble moving forward. For each, a few simple tricks can help you get past the block, so the words flow again. This week we’ll look at ….
    
Trouble Getting Started

Starting a new piece can feel like a big commitment. I find this most true of longer work, like novels. Do I really want to spend the next year on this project?

I’ve written several work-for-hire books, where I’m writing for a publisher’s pre-existing series (such as Jesse Owens: Young Record Breaker and Milton Hershey: Young Chocolatier, written under the name M.M. Eboch). Often I have to write a sample chapter to apply for this work. That’s easy enough—it’s just one chapter. I don’t have to write the rest of the book until much later, once a contract comes through. At that point, it’s easy enough to keep going. After all, I already have the first chapter!

You can try a trick like this yourself. Don’t think about sitting down to write a whole story or book. Just plan to write the first page, or even the first paragraph. Forget about the rest, and just work on those opening lines. 

In fact, how about writing several first paragraphs? You’re not trying to write The Perfect Beginning. You’re just getting different options on paper, so you can choose the best one later. No single paragraph is important, because you’re going to throw most of them out anyway. That gives you permission to play.

This helps get past the fear of The Wrong Start. Sometimes it’s hard to begin, because you’re afraid of what will happen. Will a bad start sabotage the whole piece? What if you put all your energy into this story, and it’s terrible?

Give yourself permission to write something awful. After all, it’s just the first draft. You’re going to do a lot of editing anyway. At worst, you can throw out the whole thing. Even if you toss the story, you’ll have made progress. You can start over, with a better idea of what you want to say (or at least what you want to avoid). And any writing—even bad writing—is a kind of practice. It gets you into the habit of sitting down and putting the words on paper. That’s the first step in becoming a writer.

Find advice on great starts in Advanced Plotting

Start before the Beginning 

If you’re still having trouble getting started, you may not know enough about your story. Perhaps you’re not sure of your plot, or don’t know your characters well, or aren’t confident about your message. In this case, try pre-writing. With pre-writing, you’re not even trying to write the story or article. You’re just writing about it. That helps prepare you to write the actual story.

Some authors like to interview their characters. They ask questions and write down the answers in the character’s voice. You can ask your character about her family, friends, school/work and other activities. Ask about her past and her future. Be specific, with question such as these:

•    Who is your favorite person at school or work? Who do you dislike, and why? Who do you envy, or admire?
•    Do you see yourself getting married and having children someday? At what age? How many kids?

You can come up with dozens of questions on every aspect of life. But one warning—do not use this information in the story! Readers don’t want a biography of a fictional character. They want a story with conflict and action. Pre-writing is just an exercise to help you learn more about your character. You might use a few small details from your character biography, if they fit naturally into the story, but most of the exercise is just background information. Your character will seem more real because you know everything about her life, even though you’re only showing your readers a small slice of it.

The Story before the Story

You can pre-write about the plot as well. Write a summary of what’s going to happen. Once again, don’t think of this as part of the final story. Think of it as an outline so you know where you’re going. Once you know what’s going to happen, you can start writing the story in vivid scenes full of action and dialogue.

If you can’t decide where you want the story to go, try interviewing yourself. Ask questions that will help you identify your goals in writing the story.

•    Who is my audience?
•    What do I want them to get from my story? Why?
•    What is my theme or message?
•    How can my plot best bring out that theme?

Don't worry if you struggle with some of these questions. You may not know the final answers until you're in the process of revision. Once again, your goal now is to learn more about the story, so you’ll feel confident writing it. With each of these writing exercises, it’s best to do them, review them, and then put them aside. You may want to refer to your plot questions once in awhile, so you don’t forget anything, but if you keep looking at your character biography, you’ll be tempted to put in all those details, and your story will bog down in backstory.

Do you have any tips to share? What has worked for you? Where do you get stuck?

Next week I’ll discuss Trouble Moving Forward.

Reviews: Is Four Stars the New Five Stars?

I’m glad that my books have received a lot of five-star reviews on Amazon. But I’m starting to wonder if four-star reviews might actually be better.

How is this possible? Given what I’ve heard on some listserves, people are starting to be suspicious of five-star reviews. The idea is that if a potential buyer sees a lot of five-star reviews, they’ll just assume those reviews are by the author’s family and friends and therefore biased. And sometimes that’s true.

Apparently it’s also possible to buy five-star reviews for as little as $5 from people who’ve never read your book. It’s questionable how well those work, though, if they don’t contain any real content. Personally, I think I can judge whether a review is biased or not based on the content of the review, though that does take time. In general if I’m browsing for new books on Amazon, I’ll look for those that have at least 15 reviews so that any fake or biased reviews are somewhat outweighed by unbiased ones.

Sure, those could all be friends and family reviews – but speaking as an author, it’s really hard to get people to review your books, even family and friends, even assuming your family and friends have actually read your books (often not the case). There’s just that overhead of going to Amazon, signing into your account, getting to the review page... and then coming up with something to say. People are intimidated by this. Even other writers are intimidated by this.

When someone I know tells me they liked one of my books, I try to politely say, “Reviews are always appreciated, of course!” I emphasize that I do not expect a five-star review or a in-depth analysis. An honest review is preferred. You can briefly mention something you liked – and it’s fine to also mention something that didn’t work for you. After all, reviews work best when they let the reader know whether or not they would really like the book. “This is the greatest book ever!” doesn’t really help, as that’s a matter of opinion that obviously won’t be true for every reader. But commenting that the book had too much sex/violence/raunchy humor/cute animals for your taste, or not enough, helps a potential reader make her own decision based on her own tastes.

I’ve heard of authors getting horribly upset over three-star reviews. In my opinion, three stars isn’t bad at all, especially if the review mentions some positives and negatives. That helps me make my own decision. If the reviewer mentions a lot of typos, I know that would bother me, so I’ll skip the book. But some people don’t care, so they may buy the book if the story sounds interesting.

And again, all opinions on literary quality are personal. We don’t all like the same thing. If someone gives a book 3 stars because “I was hoping for more of a mystery but the romantic elements were stronger,” that’s a great review in terms of letting the reader know what to expect.

When I’m browsing new authors, I’ll particularly look at the bad reviews. They won’t necessarily keep me from trying the book, but I want to know what bothered other people. Than I can make my own decision.

Knowing how valuable reviews are to authors, I’m trying to do more on both Amazon and Good Reads. (And it is hard to find the time.) I won’t trash a book, but I will give a review as low as three stars, trying to point out what worked and didn’t for me. (If I’d give a book lower than three stars, I probably quit after the first chapter or two so I won’t review it.)

What do you think? Are we seeing star inflation in the same way some schools complain about grade inflation? Is there a backlash against five stars? Do you even read reviews, and if so, how do they influence your buying decisions? If you review books, are you afraid to give a bad review?

The truth behind the reviews? Rattledhas 19 Amazon reviews, many of them from people I don't know, averaging over four stars. Whispers in the Darkwhich I consider to be a stronger book, has seven reviews, six of them five-star reviews from people I know.

Networking Works

You hear a lot these days about platform building. Also social networking. And the big question is how.

I haven’t figured out the answers for online social networking, but I have found that in-person networking works. I thought I’d share a few stories to show how it can happen.

For a ghostwriting project, I met a Simon & Schuster editor at a conference, and then visited her when I was in New York. She gave me a tour of the office and mentioned some of the series work they were doing, including one series that used ghostwriters and their Childhood of Famous Americans (COFA) series. Over lunch, I asked how they found writers for that. She gestured across the table and said, "Like this."

I followed up and she put me in touch with the proper editors. For the ghostwriting project, I pitched five ideas, they chose one they liked, and I wrote up an outline and sample chapter. They accepted it but said it would be a year before we went to contract, because they were booked up. I checked back in a year and they'd forgotten all about me, but I resent the material and got the contract. I learned a lot from working with those two editors (one left partway through), and it was fun and good money for the amount of time. It didn't turn into additional work, though. I guess they have a stable of four or five regular authors for that series. One hadn't been working out, so they tried a few of us as replacements, and I didn't get the regular job.

For the  COFA, they said my writing sample wasn't suitable, so I asked to do a sample chapter specifically for them. They assigned me George Washington Carver and loved the sample, but again, there was a year wait. Then marketing killed the Carver book. They asked if I wanted to do Jesse Owens or Elvis, and I wound up doing Jesse Owens. After I turned it in, they asked if I could do Milton Hershey, with a very tight deadline – I'm guessing somebody dropped out or didn't do a good job. Interesting aside, Hershey is my best-selling book, according to the sales data now available to authors through Amazon's Author Central (this is the bookstore sales data publishers use, not just Amazon sales).

I did two science picture books for Picture Window Books through a book packager, Bender Richardson White. I met the packager at an SCBWI event and followed up with resume and writing samples.

For my Haunted series, I sent the first manuscript and series proposal to an editor I knew through SCBWI conferences. I’d chatted with him at several conferences over the course of about five years and we’d always had a nice rapport, so I imagine seeing my name got the manuscript to the top of his stack. He called me in less than a month!

So does that mean it’s impossible to get jobs unless you meet the right people? No. The first work-for-hire job I got, for the book Modern Nations of the World: Turkey, came based on a resume and writing sample. (At that point, I had one novel published and maybe a couple of articles, so it wasn’t a stellar resume either). It was a couple of years before they contacted me. I had moved and my address had changed, but fortunately my e-mail was the same. I did three books with that publisher.

Most recently, I did three ESL picture books for a company out of Korea. That came about through a tip on a listserv. I followed up with a resume and writing samples and got the first job within a couple of weeks.

So the long answer is, networking can help your career. But so can strong writing and standard submissions, even if you don’t have connections.

How about you? Do you struggle with making connections? Have you had any good or bad experiences?

A Strong Start

Writers spend a lot of time worrying about their first page. You want to draw the reader in immediately, but unless the book is a sequel, the reader is starting with nothing. An opening has to introduce the main character, establish the setting, and capture the author’s/ character’s voice. Ideally, it will clarify the genre and give the reader an idea of what to expect from the rest of the book. That’s a lot to get into a page or two.

In an unpublished fantasy novel, I realized during revisions that I didn’t have any fantasy elements in the first 20 pages, which would mislead the reader into thinking this was straight historical fiction. I changed to this opening:

Anise knew the candy must be enchanted. The genie cook always put some kind of protection on the food, so no one could eat it until he said so. Would it stick her jaws together so she couldn’t speak? Turn her lips and tongue blue? Taste like camel dung?

It’s definitely fantasy now, and it also hints at the Middle Eastern setting. 

In The Well of Sacrifice, I think I started too slow, with too many details of setting and culture before we got to a problem happening now. You want to start in a moment of action, where something is changing, and cut the background. The book is still in print after 12 years, so I guess the start didn’t bother people too much, but if I revised it now I’d try for more early action.

On the other hand, don’t rush things—take a little time to set up the situation, so it makes sense and we care about the characters, and what’s happening to them. Sometimes writers worry too much about flashy writing, and they come up with openings that are confusing or misleading. The first chapter tells you what to expect from the rest of the book, whether it’s humor, action, tragedy or whatever. You don’t just need a good hook—you need the best hook for this novel, a hook that will attract those readers who will most enjoy the book. A clever, funny hook is great—but only if the rest of the book is also clever and funny.

Don’t worry about the beginning during the first draft. Chances are it will change completely anyway. Wait until you have a solid plot before you start fine-tuning your opening and ending. Many authors write a novel, then throw away the first chapter and write a new first chapter—the one that belongs there. It seems like it’s almost impossible to write a strong opening until you’ve finished the rest of the book.

You can test both your opening and your ending by seeing how much you can cut. What if you delete the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page? Does the story still make sense? Does it get off to a faster start? What if you cut the whole first chapter, or several chapters? If you can’t cut, can you condense?

On the other hand, if your beginning feels confusing or rushed, you might want to try starting earlier in the story. Try setting up a small problem that grabs the reader’s attention, luring them in until you can get to the main problem. In The Well of Sacrifice, the Maya are dealing with famine, disease and marauders in the early chapters, even before the king dies and an evil high priest tries to take over. That gives readers time to understand these characters and their world.

Sourcebooks Online Reading Club: Keeping Readers Involved?

I’ve talked a little on my Wednesday posts about how publishers can stay relevant when many of their services (such as printing and distribution) are no longer necessary. I’m glad to report at least some interesting experimentation going on. Sourcebooks has announced an online reading club, "Discover a New Love," for romance fans. For $9.99 per month, members get one free e-book each month, which they choose from among four featured titles.

$10 for a book isn’t that great, but members also get exclusive discounts off other e-books (as low as $1.67 per title according to the site). Plus, members become part of an online book club with “online parties and live events” and the option to join “focus groups, panels, and surveys,” so this may especially appeal to people who like social networking through books. That’s probably a small segment of readers overall, but sites like Goodreads and the Amazon Kindle Boards show that some readers enjoy online book discussions, and romance readers may be more social than most.

It seems to me that this kind of club will work best for publishers or imprints with a narrower focus (as Sourcebooks is focusing on romance), although through-the-mail-book clubs sometimes offer a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. As I mentioned in my post about publisher relevancy, publishers may benefit from deciding what they want their name to mean (beyond “quality” which they all claim) and promoting a clear brand.

Plotting: Fast Starts

Last week I talked about the elements you want to work into your first chapter. The trick is, you can’t take too much time with setup. To start your plot off right, start when the action starts—don’t warm up on the reader’s time.

You probably won’t be able to do this in the first draft. Most of us need to ramble a bit before we get focused. But during revisions, cut anything unnecessary from the first chapter.

Ask whether it should even be the first chapter. Can you start later, when the story is already in progress? If not, are your opening pages dramatic? Should you start earlier, with a dramatic episode that leads to the main plot?

Be careful that you don’t start too fast. The inciting incident – the problem that gets the story going – should happen as soon as possible, but not until the reader is prepared. If it happens too late, the reader gets bored first. But too soon, and the reader is confused. The reader must have enough understanding of the character and situation to make the incident meaningful. For example, opening in the middle of a gunfight doesn’t have much impact, if you don’t know who’s fighting or why.

Beginnings are tricky, but see if one of the following works:

•    Start with two people on the page.

•    Start in the middle of a fight or other conflict.

•    Start in the action, at a moment of change. Then work in the back story.

•    Start with a cliffhanger – something powerful about to happen.

Exercise: Pick five of your favorite books. (I recommend using books published fairly recently, as styles change.) Study how they open.

•    What characters are on the first page? What are they doing, or what is happening to them?

•    Is the background explained, or do you have to wait to understand what’s going on, or can you figure out the situation from what’s happening now?

•    Did this opening grab you? Why or why not?

Skim the rest of the first chapter.

•    Has the author set up the main problem already? Or is there a small problem which relates to, or hints at, the main problem? If there is no problem at all, is the opening still interesting? Why or why not?

•    Is background information worked into the first chapter? How is it done?

I’ll have even more next week on getting off to a strong start. Find more advice on strong beginnings—and all aspects of a strong plot—in Advanced Plotting.

Blog Tours: What’s the Point?

Besides writing this blog, I enjoy doing occasional guest blog posts for other authors. In the last couple of weeks, I talked about critique groups versus professional editors in an “Editor Spotlight” on Karen Elliott’s blog The Word Shark. I also talked about proper pacing in a guest post for Adventures in YA and Children’s Publishing.

But I’ve never done a “blog tour.” This is becoming increasingly popular for authors who have a new book out. They set up a month of guest posts on other blogs, trying to do at least one guest spot every day. Each post should be different and entertaining. Doesn’t that sound exhausting?

It may be a good way to spread the word about your new book. It no doubt makes authors feel like they are doing something definite to launch the title. But does it increase sales?

That’s hard to say. Apparently, it takes about seven times seeing something before someone is likely to take action on it, so blasting your name across multiple blogs in a month may help reach that critical mass. Plus, you hopefully extend your reach to a wider audience, since the blogs don’t all have the same followers.

These are good things, but I’m not sure it’s necessary to do all the posts close together. If people don’t hear your name for a year, they may forget it, so you want to stay active in the blogosphere. But if they hear it every day for a week, they may get tired of it. If they hear your name every few weeks, that’s a good reminder, and the passage of time may mean that potential buyer will find it easier to take action. You’re more likely to hit them at a moment when they have money, are planning a shopping trip, feel like reading your type of book, etc.

Besides, by spreading out your publicity, you won’t exhaust yourself as much. At least that’s my plan. I post here once or twice a week; I guest on other blogs at random intervals, when the opportunity arises. I also invite authors to do guest posts here, so long as they talk about the craft of writing or their publishing journey, to keep things in line with my blog topic. (Click on the link to “Guest Posts” for examples.)

What do you think? Do you get more excited if you see an author as a guest on several of your favorite blogs? Or is it tiresome? Have you tried a blog tour, and if so, was it worthwhile?

Please note, blogger hasn’t been letting me comment on my own posts lately, so forgive me if I don’t respond to comments directly in the thread, but I will be reading.

* [I'm adding this note here because I can't comment.] Thanks for your comments. I listened in on a webinar yesterday by Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing about driving traffic to your blog, and he reinforced the idea that regular – but not daily – guest posts are valuable. (Though he was looking at traffic coming back to your own blog, not at book sales.) He showed a graph of visitors to his blog after he did a guest post elsewhere. A single post creates an upswing in visitors, but that peak then rapidly declines. But if you have other guest posts (or other online mentions in the news, etc.) you keep bumping the number of visitors back up. I don’t think the graph showed how often you have to post to have the best effect, but my impression was every week or few weeks works at least as well as every day.

He also mentioned three reasons for guest blogging – driving traffic to your own blog, building credibility (e.g. presenting yourself as an expert by posting on large, respected blogs), or building relationships. Figuring out what you’re trying to accomplish can help you decide if it’s worth doing a guest post and what kind of sites to target. For example, if your goal is to drive traffic to your own blog, you wouldn’t  waste time doing a post for someone who only has 50 followers – but you might if, for some reason, you want to build a relationship with that blogger.

As I said, he was focused simply on blog traffic – he makes money training other bloggers – so it may be different if your goal is to sell books, to recruit editorial clients, or whatever. But it’s still worth figuring out your goal and the best way to achieve it. (And as a side note, I picked up one editorial client from my guest post on Karen Elliot’s editing/proofreading blog.)

First Chapter Challenges

I’m going to spend the next few weeks reviewing tips for opening your novel strong.

People often struggle to find an opening scene that is dramatic, powerful, eye-catching! Something that will make the reader want to keep reading! We may see our opening pages as something almost separate from the full manuscript—something we can submit to a first pages critique, or send to an editor or agent who only wants to see a few pages as a sample. But treating the first chapter as an ad may not be best for the chapter, or the rest of the manuscript.

Suzanne Morgan Williams, author of Bull Rider, gave a talk at our New Mexico fall retreat on first chapters. Suzanne noted that the first chapter makes a promise about the rest of the book.

Many readers will browse a book’s opening pages in a library or bookstore, to decide if they want to take the book home. If you offer the reader a fast-paced, action-packed opening, when your book is really a subtle emotional drama with lyrical descriptive writing, you’re going to disappoint the readers who enjoyed the opening. Even worse, readers who would have enjoyed the whole book might never get past the opening page.

What You Promise

The first chapter should identify your book’s genre. This can be trickier than it sounds. Say it’s a romance, but the main character doesn’t meet the love interest until later in the book. Can you at least suggest her loneliness, or desire for romance? (And get that love interest in there as soon as possible!) Or perhaps you’re writing a story involving magic, or time travel, or a step into another dimension. Even if you start in a realistic contemporary setting, try to hint at what’s to come. Maybe the main character is wishing that magic existed—that’s enough to prepare the reader.

In The Ghost on the Stairs, we don’t find out that the narrator’s sister has seen a ghost until the end of chapter 2. But on the opening page, she comments that the hotel “looks haunted” and is “spooky.” Those words suggest that a ghost story may be coming.

The first chapters should also identify the setting. This includes when and where we are, if it’s historical or set in another country or world. In a contemporary novel, you may not identify a specific city, but the reader should have a feel for whether this is inner-city, small-town or whatever.

Be careful if you have a major change in location coming. You may want to set the main character in their ordinary world, before you take them on your journey, but that can mislead the reader into thinking that it’s a story about the ordinary world. Consider including some kind of early hints that change is to come.

Your opening pages should focus on your main character. You may find exceptions to this rule, but your readers will assume that whoever is prominent in the opening pages is the main character. Switching can cause confusion. You should also establish your point of view early. If you’ll be switching points of view, don’t wait too long to make the first switch.

And of course, you want some kind of challenge or conflict in your opening chapter. This doesn’t have to be the main plot problem—you may need additional set up before your main character takes on that challenge, or even knows about it. But try to make sure that your opening problem relates to the main problem. It may even lead to it.

In The Ghost on the Stairs, Tania faints at the end of chapter 1. Jon does not yet know why, but this opening problem leads to the main problem—she’d seen a ghost. If I’d used an entirely different opening problem, say stress with their new stepfather, that would have suggested a family drama, not a paranormal adventure.

So try to get these elements in there quickly—genre, setting, main character, and challenge.

First chapters are a struggle for many of us. Few authors wind up using their original opening. We may throw it out, and just start with chapter 2, or we may write something entirely different. The final version of the first chapter may actually be the last thing we write! Knowing the rest of your story is important for figuring out what your first chapters should be. Don’t stress about the first chapter during your first draft, but make sure you fix it later. Keep in mind that fixing it may involve throwing it out altogether!

See also: my post on Open Strong: First Chapter Exercises.