The First Chapter – hook your reader and set the tone for the story.
Chapter One. Page One. Paragraph One.
And so the adventure begins!
For me, Dialogue and Action is my comfort zone.
I introduce my main character and main conflict. I also set the tone of the story.
Chapter One, Paragraph 4:
Even though Meredith was on the best of terms with her sister, she couldn't help but feel a sharp nip of jealousy. It hadn't been so long ago that she'd had her own happy home. Unfortunately, she'd filed for divorce from Viktor, and then there'd been that bizarre little accident where she'd ended up dead, and then undead.
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| EBook and Audio |
Charlene hadn't told Rachel that she'd fixed her up with a cowboy, much less Lynox Maddox, the "Wild Cat" of the rodeo circuit. Rachel signed. She should have known. After all, Charlene only dated men who wore boots and Sentsons.
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| English/Spanish Ebook |
The Governor of New Mexico decreed that all Indian children over the age of six be educated in the ways of the white man.
Indian commissioner Thomas Morgan said, "It is cheaper to educate the Indians than to kill them."
Chapter One, Page One
Prologue
1880 Apacheria, Season of Ripened Berries
Isolated bands of colored clay on white limestone remain where the sagebrush is stripped from Mother Earth by sudden storms and surface waters. Desolate. Bleak. A land is made of barren rocks and twisted paths that reach out into the silence.
A world of hunger and hardship. This is my world. I am Tanayia. I was born thirteen winters ago. We call ourselves N'dee, The People. The white man calls us Apache.
Chapter One
I rose from my blanket and dressed in my favorite buckskins and moccasins. After coming out of my wickiup, I stepped from my wickiup and walked toward the center of the camp. Women from neighboring Apache bands, dressed in their best clothing, squatted around their campfires, patting tortillas and fry bread...
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Every writer/author has a "voice". The reader knows and complains when an author isn't true to their voice. Staying true to your voice isn't as simple as it sounds.
It's the paragraph, page, or even chapter that doesn't mesh with the storyline. Or your main character refuses to utter the author's "perfectly" written dialogue, or, worse yet, goes completely off script.
Some may shout, "Writer's Block."
Others, "Sleep Deprivation." 😬
I brew another pot of coffee and peruse my library.
The nuts and bolts of writing.
My reference books include. GMC (Goal, Motivation & Conflict) by Debra Dixon.
Dialogue (How to get your characters talking to each other in a way that vividly reveals who they are, what they're doing, and what's coming next in your story) by Lewis Turco.
Visit this month's Blog Hoppers take on opening chapters.
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