What You Need in a First Chapter

Everyone knows what you need in a first chapter, right? You just need it to be an absolutely perfect sample of writing that intrigues readers without looking like it’s trying too hard. No big deal. Let me just whip one of those up this morning.

There’s a lot riding on a first chapter. Maybe you’re trying to entice readers to take a chance on your book. Maybe you’re hoping to persuade an agent to want to read on. So how do you get the balance right between scene-setting and action? How do you introduce key characters without starting with heavy-handed exposition? And how the hell do you ‘set the tone’? Never fear, today we’re going to look at all of these key components of a first chapter, and how you can make sure you’re getting them right.

Your first chapter has to introduce your protagonist

You want to make a compelling first impression with your main character. One of the easiest ways to do this is to show them in action as quickly as possible. Put them in the middle of something, preferably something that demonstrates what matters to them. Give readers a taste of their values and priorities.

Showing them in relationship with other characters and the world of your story also helps to give readers an immediate sense of context. How powerful are they? How self-interested? Are they afraid to go after what they want, or are they confident? The more clues you can leave for readers about these questions early on, the better a sense they’ll have of what to expect from the story, which can make them intrigued to read more.

The question of how to describe your protagonist can be tricky. The old ‘character sees themselves in a mirror’ trick often causes eye-rolls, but how else can you weave in a physical description? And how much description do you even need? Opinions vary wildly on this! Some advocate for removing as much physical description as possible. Others say you have to find a way to work in a detailed description, or readers won’t know what to picture. Personally, I recommend prioritising.

What are their most important characteristics? What things actually matter? I’m not especially short, but my brother is tall, so he often acts as if I’m absurdly tiny.If I were writing a story about our sibling dynamic, I could use one of those interactions to describe ‘my’ character’s height. Eye colour? Probably not so important! Does your character spend a lot of time and energy on their hair? It’s worth discussing that in detail, but you may not need to focus as much on their shoe choice.

You need to set the tone of the story

A first chapter should indicate the kind of tone readers can expect from the rest of the book. I’m going to write a blog post going into more detail about tone, but it’s about the way the themes and events of the book are written. Tone can be formal or informal, comedic or serious, suspenseful, optimistic, etcetera.

Setting up the tone properly allows readers to judge whether the rest of the book will suit them. One of the easiest ways to control tone is through the narrative voice. If you’re writing in the first person, the personality of your point-of-view character will dictate the tone. If you’re using third-person narration, you can control the tone through the narrative ‘personality’. You can also use description, and the kind of details you focus on, to influence the tone of your writing.

Introduce the setting to your readers

The first chapter will have to introduce certain worldbuilding elements. This is more obviously true if your story is set in a world or time period that we’re not currently living in – historical fiction, fantasy or science-fiction, for example. But bear in mind that, even if the story is contemporary fiction with no supernatural or unusual elements, not everybody has the same frame of reference. If I write a story set in the UK, I have to do some worldbuilding to make sure that readers in other countries have a sense of where my characters are.

However, despite having to do some worldbuilding, you also have to avoid info-dumping. To do that, once again you have to prioritise the various elements of your character’s environment. Look at the aspects of the world your character is actively engaging with over the course of the chapter. Anything that shapes their actions or decisions. Then ask yourself, how many of those things need to be explained? Can the reader pick up the information they need from context clues? If an explanation is needed, how will you deliver this? Can it be a quick line of narration, or do you want to have it explained in dialogue to a less experienced character?

If in doubt, cut it out and run it by a beta-reader to check whether it makes sense. Readers tend to be able to handle a few unanswered questions better than being drowned in excess information, so I recommend erring on the side of less.

A first chapter needs to sow the seeds of the core conflict

Of course, every first chapter needs a hook, and one of the best ways to do this is by introducing the core conflict. What does your main character want, and what’s in their way? You don’t have to set out every aspect of this challenge right away. In fact, better not to! Leave some things to emerge over the course of the first act. But you want readers to be able to start thinking about how your character is going to set out to get what they’re looking for.

Perhaps more importantly, you can use this opportunity to give readers an indication of how things might go wrong! Whether that’s because you’ve given them a peek into your character’s flaws, or because they’ve seen hints of the level of challenge associated with the character’s goals, you want them to know the protagonist isn’t going to have an easy ride. You don’t have to be tied down by the expectations you set up in this chapter, you can play with them later – within reason, of course! But it’s things like this that get your readers anticipating what might come next. And once they’re anticipating, they’re more likely to want to keep reading and find out for sure!

What do you love in a first chapter?

And, equally importantly, what do you think should be avoided at all costs? Personally, I don’t like getting bogged down in too much detail. If I’m interested in a book’s premise I’ll try to push through a slow-moving first chapter, but I always prefer to get dropped right into the action. Share your thoughts in the comments, and let me know if I missed any of your favourite first chapter tips!

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• Five Writing Tips and Tricks to Help You Write Better Descriptions
• Three Greatest Advantages of Close Third-Person Perspective
• Developing Characters: Five Top Tips