Just a side-note, I’m working on my Newsletter title. It’s still a work-in-progress and it might changes a dozen more times. Bear with me.
My writing has lately been dealing with the pressure of beginnings. Whether it’s a story, essay, or in my case, the first chapter in a novel, you have quite a bit of work to do. I think the challenge at the start of the work is the balance. You want to bring the reader in, and one of the best ways to bring a reader in is through scene. But let’s say you start with a scene. If the reader doesn’t know who’s speaking or doesn’t understand that there’s a deeper context to your character asking their sister, “Where did you bury our mother’s prosthetic arm?” then you haven’t done your job well.
Writer Nancy Kress says that in your beginning is where you make your promises to the reader. How do you introduce the reader into the world of your story? How do you make that first scene both necessary along with allowing necessary characters to be introduced that will dance around in the subsequent pages?
I went to review Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet to investigate. The first chapter can be broken down as follows:
Scene: A boy is running around an empty house. His purpose: to find a family member, specifically his mother, because his twin sister is unwell in bed. He goes the places where his family usually would be (this allows O’Farrell to detail the status quo and how on this day, they have derailed from it). He goes to a few people in the village. Then he finds his grandfather.
A great deal is set up in this first chapter. First is the conflict. A child is very ill, and could die. Her twin wants to do everything to stave off death. The other problem: The needed adults are not present. This works exceptionally well because the child’s father, never named in the book but we know to be Shakespeare, is rarely in town, spending most of his time writing and producing plays in London. By having the protagonist, Hamnet, run around in search of help, O’Farrell has created a perfect set up to bring in characters effortlessly.
When working on your draft of anything, consider what the promises are you are making to your reader. Once you have figured this out, go back to your first chapter and see how you can rework it to set this up in the best way possible.
Working as an editor, I have read slews of essays where I am surprised at how long it takes to get to what the story is really about. I realize if the writer had just cut the first two paragraphs, they would have strengthened the work immensely. Obviously I’m not saying this as a holistic fix to all essays, but if you are struggling, consider taking a look at what is happening on your first page.
I have so many books I love! Here’s my latest, but you can always browse by bookstore page on Bookshop.org.
Book Recommendation
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai is a fabulous collection of short stories by an Afghani writer who now lives in the U.S. Many of the stories are about the coming-of-age Afghani kids from the 90s onwards who struggle with loving military video games and carrying the trauma of their family’s experience with war. There is a special confusion that happens to these characters, people who want to simply live a life of safety and comfort, turning to luxuries that provide them a sense of power while forces within their homes can leave them powerless. The stories stretch from the U.S. and Afghanistan, unveiling the modern-day stressors for a particular lived experience.