Before you begin the first chapter, take some time to research your ideas. One time a writer suggested that his character with a house on Jupiter, completely ignoring the fact the Jupiter has extremely harsh winds and no real solid surface. Avoid these kind of errors, and you will be fine.
So how exactly does one start the first chapter? With the handiest tool in the repetoire of writers: the hook! Many writers have heard of hooks, yet few are able to use them easily. One of the simplest hooks is introducing a character. How you introduce him is important, it depends on the type of story you are writing. If you are writing about an average joe, you might start by describing him getting ready for work. If you are writing for Spiderman, it might be more appropriate to have a high speed pursuit as a start. There are two starts that must never be used.
The man snuck quietly along the roof, his eyes blazing red with anger. He wanted revenge...
Edgar was born in a marriot by his parents. His parents were...
Dark, wet, and greasy: these described how Edgar felt now.
Never ever ever use these.
The problem with the first one is that no one really cares about this character because there is nothing about him to care for. We want a character we can relate too, not a stock character out of a ninja movie.
The second one is a history lesson. The history of a character should rarely be used in the first chapter, especially if the story is told from the first person viewpoint. When I meet someone for the first time, I never tell them my life story. If they ask me how I know something, I will tell them how, but I won't tell them everything about me, not unless they ask it of me. If I don't, why should my characters?
The third one is not good because it doesn't make the reader interested that much in the character. It doesn't describe who Edgar is, what he's doing, or what the setting is. He might be in a federal prision or working on his car. Where the second one told too much, the third one is telling us too little.
A hook should make you interested in the person. It gives an idea on who the character is, what he is doing, and where he is.
Grif Sylver went into action as the alarm went off. He grabbed his kevlar vest, his Colt .45 and put on some pants and charged out the door, ready for anything. His heart was pounding. He checked the stairs and the windows. Nothing. He suddenly remembered where he was.
"You're not in Iraq now Grif," he told himself, repeating the words of the Marine Psychiatrist. Things would be different, the alarms were not to warn you of an attack, but to wake you up in the morning. He went back inside his apartment and made himself a bowl of cereal.
This is good because it tells you volumes about the character, the setting, and what he is doing.
From here you go on to describe more. You can go on to develop the story from there. At all times, describe the character. If he is doing something, describe the character and how he is doing something. If he is doing something while moving, describe what the character is doing and where he is as he is doing it. Just as when your character multitasks, your sentences must multi-task.
Don't worry about the plot in the first chapter. You have an entire book for it. What you should do is to have the events in the first chapter introduce, or at least prepare to introduce the reader to the main conflict. This way you know how he gets involved in it. Dropping a reader into an event without explaining it beforehand is ill-advised if you don't explain why they are there in the first place.
From here you can start to write your story.
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