Writing workshop: First chapters

How to start your novel to make your readers want more. Plus a walk through two of my opening scenes.

The other day I went to Henley Literary Festival to hear some friends give a talk.

On one panel, Eva Rice, author of the excellent Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, gave this advice about first chapters.

‘Start as near as you can to the end,’ she said, paraphrasing the great American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, as almost every author in the audience scribbled her advice down.

Writers will always listen to any thoughts on first chapters from their contemporaries because they are notoriously hard to do. I’m 19 books in and I’ll still start a first draft at Chapter two or three, leaving tricky Chapter one as long as I can.

First chapters are difficult because there’s pressure to get them right. How many times have you picked up a novel or read an ebook sample and not got past the opening few pages because they don’t grab you?

There aren’t many hard and fast rules about first chapters, but there are a few things they need to achieve to optimise your chances of pulling your reader in.

I thought it would be useful to walk you through the opening scenes of two of my most successful books - a thriller and a romantic comedy to see what I did and why.