What should you avoid in the first chapter?

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What should you avoid in the first chapter?

7 Common Mistakes To Avoid In Your First Chapter

  • An overly slow opening. Take a look at where you’ve decided to begin your novel.
  • Generic or clichéd beginnings.
  • Overwritten prose.
  • Too much descriptive detail.
  • Backstory or info-dumping.
  • False beginnings/bait-and-switches.
  • An unnecessary prologue.

What should be included in the first chapter of a book?

An ideal first chapter should do the following things:

  • 1) Introduce the main character.
  • 2) Make us care enough to go on a journey with that character.
  • 3) Set tone.
  • 4) Let us know the theme.
  • 5) Let us know where we are.
  • 6) Introduce the antagonist.
  • 7) Ignite conflict.

How do I not start my novel?

25 Terrible Ways to Start a Novel

  • Starting 5 or 10 pages before the beginning of the story.
  • Not introducing your main character immediately.
  • Introducing a whole boardroom of characters.
  • Not creating conflict on the first page.
  • Starting with summary rather than a scene.
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How do you write an engaging first chapter?

First Chapter Checklist #2: Writing the Opening Scene

  1. Introduce the Opening Scene’s Main Character. Story begins with character.
  2. Establish the Main Character’s Scene Goal.
  3. Establish or Foreshadow the Antagonistic Force via Conflict.
  4. Introduce Other Important Characters.
  5. Ground the Setting: Place, Time, Season, Weather.

What is an info-dump in writing?

An info-dump is what it sounds like. A big ol’ chunk of info that a writer splats out into the middle of a scene. They can bring the pacing of a story to a grinding halt while the audience has to sift through more information than they care to know about X, Y, or Z.

What is an information dump?

noun. a large quantity of backstory, or background information, supplied at once, often as a narrative at the beginning of a story, film, etc.: The first eight pages are heavy with an infodump about Harry’s childhood in Iceland.

What should you avoid include in your exposition?

Characters should and do deliver information to one another, but it needs to sound like human speech, be in character, and work in the context of the plot. If you don’t know where to stick backstory, avoid the temptation of putting it in dialogue.

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How do you dump an exposition?

Give the exposition dump its own current. Give the information that you need in the form of a story (sort of like the cliched villain’s monologue of how his horrible childhood led him on a quest to world domination), with a beginning, middle, and an end; don’t just vomit facts.