Chapter One: it’s where every story begins. It sets the reader’s expectations of what they are about to read and often makes promises that it must keep in order to satisfy the reader. It’s a big job, and not every chapter is cut out to do it. It’s common in the revise and refine stage of the novel writing process to realize that the chapter you thought would come first just isn’t ready to do all that heavy lifting. You might evaluate your novel manuscript and find yourself asking, “Where does this story actually begin?” Does your story begin with your current chapter one? Or do you need to write a whole new first chapter?
The first chapter of a novel makes a number of promises to its readers, setting up expectations for the rest of the story. These promises may include:
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Write on the World 