How to write the beginning of a novel

Getting the opening of a novel right is a tricky business. Writers, both novice and experienced, can agonise for hours, days, weeks, maybe months on end on that opening page, that first paragraph, first sentence, first word even, changing it many times and sometimes getting so hung up on it that the novel never gets written!

It is that first page that grabs the reader, sometimes it is even the first sentence. So here are my top tips on getting the opening of a novel right.

Tip No. 1

The best piece of advice I was given, and I can’t recall by whom, was to write the first three chapters, then IGNORE them. DON’T return to edit them but press on with that first draft. Only when that is almost complete, or complete, go back and revise them.

Tip no. 2

This follows swiftly on from number one. Ditch the first three chapters and start the novel at chapter four because that is often where the action starts. It is advice that has served me well and while I won’t always ditch the first three chapters in entirety I will usually edit out the dreary unnecessary stuff and find I am left with one chapter instead of three.

Tip no.3

In your first page answer the basic open questions:

Who? - this needs to be the main character;

What? -what has happened or is happening;

Where? – is the main character outside, indoors, in a forest, up a mountain, at sea?

When? – is it night, day, sunset, present day, in the past?

A word of caution here though, this all needs to be weaved into your beginning in a show don’t tell manner. Examine how quickly you can set the scene?

Tip no. 4

Begin with your main character, and his or her dilemma. The character and the situation must be intriguing enough to make the reader want to read on?

Tip No. 5.

Set the tone of the novel through its narrative, is it a romance, mystery, thriller, adventure, horror or humorous. Does your first page convey the genre? 

Tip no.6

Does that first page immediately set up tension hinting that there will be conflicts ahead? Those conflicts will draw readers in. They’ll want to know what happens next and that will keep them reading.