The first chapter is both a blessing and a curse. It is easy to come up with an idea, sit down, and begin to tell yourself the story. Many authors have file folders full of first chapters of books that will never be written. I have a few of my own. A good first chapter does not happen quickly or easily. It has a terrrible burden to carry. It must: 1) Introduce the story world. Orient the reader right away by defining the setting. Are we in the past, present, or future? Are we on earth, in space, or visiting a fantasyland? 2) Define the genre. Is it a fantasy, a romance, or a historical mystery? 3) Set the tone. Will this be a lighthearted tale, a tearjerker, or a creepfest thriller? 4) Introduce the main character and make him relatable. I would say likable, but that has not always been the case. Your character does not have to be a white-hat hero, but he or she should be someone the reader can root for. Loathsome characters are hard to care about. 5) Describe th...

To plot or not to plot, ah, that is a thorny question. There is no right or wrong answer. If you prefer to sit down and wait for the muses to visit, what you end up with as a first draft may need some reverse engineering. If you plot first then write, the story may change and your first draft is dramatically different than the plan you started with. Both are perfectly acceptable, as is any method in between. The important part is to keep writing, growing your craft, and enjoying it. Over the years, our contributors have weighed in on the debate: Pantsing Versus Plotting Types of Writers Layering Conflict For more information about the layering method, check out Story Building Blocks I: The Four Layers of Conflic t, which is available in print and e-book versions. It would make a terrific addition to your Christmas wish list or a gift for other writers in your life. Diana Hurwitz  is the author of  Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Con...

As I write this post, I am four days away from my self-set deadline for a first draft. I will make it. In honour of this yet-to-be-completed-but-will-be-damn-it accomplishment, I've written a post about the next step in the road toward publication. I'm hoping that reminding myself of past horrors will prepare me for taking this step again. After all, picking up any manuscript after its necessary absence from everyday sight is a brave act. One knows it isn't perfect. One knows there will be language to tighten or heighten, but then there are the errors that makes one wonder why one doesn't fall down more. So here, (in no particular order...) are some of my past discoveries: The main character's height changed. He started off very tall and lost about 6 inches somewhere in the last third of the plot. I tried to logic out that he lost the height because he was tired and wanted the damn thing to end, but then I realized that that was me, not h...

This article first appeared here on October 9, 2008. We're happy to repeat it for all the NaNoWriMo participants last month. ~~~~~~~~ The answer to the question “When should I start editing” is the same answer to many writing and editing questions: It depends . Writers fall into two distinct camps when it comes to editing. Some like to edit as they write. They finish a scene or a chapter and go back and edit it before moving on to the next scene or chapter. I know a few successful and prolific writers who do a good job of editing as they write. Perhaps that has always been the way they write best or maybe they developed the skill through years of experience and the pressure of deadlines. Editing as you write requires: An organized and well-planned outline: If you don’t know exactly what plot point will occur in every chapter or the how you will structure your how-to book, you will end up editing material that you later decide to delete or change. The discipline to edit,...

If you’re a fan of the Olympics like I am, writing during this time comes with its own set of challenges. I am also lucky enough this summer to be only an hour and a half outside of London. Now add to this mix that I am straining to run the writer’s version of the marathon - finish a first draft before I return home to family responsibilities in two weeks. Exciting times. Let me share with you ten things which I have learned to help you complete your first draft. 10. Stop fixating on your word count. Just write your story. Easy to say; tricky to do. 9. Resist the urge to hit that shiny delete button. 8. Remind yourself it's your decision when to put your story in front of someone else's eyes. Until then, it's just you. But really ... 7.5 Don't show anyone your first draft. Trust me on this one. 7. Have a daily goal. It's up to you how ambitious it is, but aim low. The glow of passing that goal could keep you warm on a frozen winter's night. 6. Don...

"We've Only Just Begun" It's the beginning of a new manuscript. Your head is bursting with ideas and you simply can't type fast enough. Anything is possible. You're filled with energy and purpose. And look...you're smiling. "I Will Always Love You" You've discovered your characters and you love them all. They're all clean and shiny and even the bad ones have a special place in your heart. "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" What happened to those cherished characters that but a few days ago had won your heart? Now they're quarreling and refusing to do what you're wanting them to do. "Stuck in the Middle with You" You're in the middle of your plot. Time isn't really standing still, it just feels like it. You're convinced your characters are dull and flat and your plot is tired. This is not a smiley time. "The Long and Winding Road"   Yes, you're still in the middle. Middles are lon...

Dr. Rudolph Flesch, a staunch advocate of writing with purpose, advised in his best-selling How to Write Better that “the main thing to consider is your purpose in writing: Why are you sitting down to write?” To which E.B. White tartly answered, “Because, sir, it is more comfortable than standing up.” ~Mitchell Ivers, The Random House Guide to Good Writing Yesterday I suggested you move forward through your paragraph, scene, and story structure in a purposeful way. Yet we all know that writing is also an act of discovery. What if you’ve completed your first draft and you still aren’t sure what you’re trying to say? I believe in the power of first draft writing, so here’s a technique to let it speak to you. (You’ll want to apply this to a short work or the opening to a longer one.) This may seem laborious, but with your word processor’s cut and paste feature, it doesn’t take as long as you might think. First, remove your sentences from their paragraphs and list them—out of context, you...

This is the magic of a well-written piece: for a few precious moments, you, as writer, hold the reader in the palm of your hand. Word choice, syntax, structure—all the elements of craft you spent so much time applying—fall away and your reader enters the world of story. Your story. Now come close, so I can whisper the secret behind the magic: the structure can only fall away if it existed in the first place. Yes, you need a great story idea and enough imagination to bring it to fruition—that’s its muscle. But to hold the reader in the palm of your hand, you also need some bones. Bones give structure to a living thing the way lumber defines a house. Imagine the first draft writer allowing his inner seven-year-old to build his first tree fort with wood, hammer, and nails. Now that he’s done, step back and let your adult self take a look at it. You decide it is…inventive. It flows nicely. Boards angle every which way, mimicking the branches on the tree. You climb the tree, eager to explor...

My dance training won’t be denied: I am keenly aware of the rhythms that accumulating words create. Whether using sentences on a page or dancers on a stage, an artist’s goal is to fill blank space with movement. Tension. Subtle clues that direct the viewer’s eye and thoughts to an intended destination. So think for a moment like a dancer and consider the way your paragraphs are choreographed. Does this one feature a rat-tat-tap dance, a gentle waltz, or a ballet complete with high lifts, low dips, and bravura technical feats? I’m not talking the Rockettes here. Unless your goal is military rigidity, you don't want identical sentences hiking knees and flicking feet at predictable intervals. You want to create a purposeful mix of shapes, sizes and textures that will grab the reader’s interest and underscore your message. Certain sentences spin and swirl, impressive in their sweeping beauty. Others stand stilted. Some stride forth with confidence, then back off. One might gain momentu...

If you lose your momentum on a book project, is it possible to get it back? Most times, I would say yes. Let’s say you’re writing along and things are going great. Then you hit a block. You don’t know where to go from there. You’re stuck. Here are some ideas. Run through the plot so far. If you’ve been keeping a Book Bible, refer to that. What has been the sequence? As you do that, envision the characters. (Get up and walk around, if that helps.) Now envision what your character would do next. Or perhaps envision what would be the absolute worst thing that could happen to your character at this point. Then either sit down and write it or make notes on the different scenarios you come up with. Or if this kind of walking, talking and visualizing is not your thing, then get out paper or sit at your computer and type ideas. Doesn’t matter how wild or crazy, you’re not judging them at this time. Right now, you just type ideas as they come into your head. You can go back and filter them la...