Writing coach April Davila reveals the non-negotiable elements that make first pages irresistible to readers and agents.
Learn why most manuscripts fail in the opening paragraph, discover the strategic approach to character revelation that transforms boring descriptions into magnetic hooks.
Then find out which common opening mistakes instantly kill reader interest.
Plus, April shares her surprising advice about when to actually write your first page (hint: it's not when you think).
What You'll Learn:
- The essential elements every first page needs
- Why dream sequences and flashbacks kill reader interest
- Strategic character reveals through environmental details
Click here to learn more about April Davila.
Guest Bio: April Davila is an award-winning author, speaker, and writing coach. Publisher's Weekly called her debut novel, 142 Ostriches, a "vivid, uplifting debut" and the book went on to win the WILLA Award for Women Writing the West. Writer's Digest listed her blog (at aprildavila.com) as one of the Best 101 Websites for Writers and she is the creator of the Sit Write Here writing coaching program, which integrates mindfulness meditation techniques to help writers quiet their inner critics, overcome writer's block, and edit more effectively. Her second novel is forthcoming.
Episodes I think you'll love…
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- 3 Keys to Nailing the Opening of Your Novel
- Agent Carleen Geisler Reads a Submission & Shares How Agents Evaluate Opening Pages
- Writing Your Opening Scene with Thomas Mullen
Get the list of 125+ Literary Agents who rep Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, and Crime Fiction
Study the Opening Paragraphs of the Top Authors Writing Thrillers Right Now
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
April Davila (00:00):
yeah, we're gonna talk about how to write a really
captivating first page.
So it's one of my favoritethings to talk about because I
feel like the first page isreally.
What sells your book?
I mean, the cover gets people topick it up, but what do you do?
The first thing you do is youopen it, you read the first
page, and then you decide ifyou're gonna buy that book.
Whether you're going traditionalor self-publishing, that first
(00:20):
page like just really, reallymatters.
So we're gonna take a little bitof time and talk about the
things that the first page needsto do, and then we'll talk about
a few of the ways that firstPages tend to like go awry and
lose the readers.
And I wanna just start bysaying, like, clarify a little
bit about how I talk aboutstory.
'cause I generally don't believein hard and fast rules.
(00:41):
I had a teacher who used to sayIt works.
If you can make it work.
That's the beauty of a fictionwriting.
It's an art, right?
It works if you can make itwork.
So just take that as a littlecaveat to everything that we're
about to talk about, which cankind of sound like rules, but
they're not really.
So these are guidelines, right?
For our first pages, and thereare five.
Main things that I usually talkabout that your first page needs
(01:05):
to do.
And some of these sound likeno-brainers, but it's amazing
how many manuscripts I've readthat like don't do these things.
So it's worth kind of checkingit off in your mind.
Am I doing these things?
The first is to introduce yournarrator slash main character.
Sometimes they're the sameperson, sometimes not.
A lot of times.
(01:27):
Writers will spend like thefirst page kind of introducing
setting or setting the tone orreflect, reflecting on
something.
And that's all important.
Yes.
But it's not as important to asintroducing me to the character
that I'm gonna give a shit aboutfor the next 300 pages, like if
they let me know who I'm with.
All right.
You wanna get that informationright up front so that I know
(01:49):
who is telling me this story.
Again, so a great exception tothis rule would be like Arthur
less if anyone read the bookless.
The narrator is a littlemysterious, like you don't learn
who the character is until laterin the story, but you still have
a strong sense of who he'stalking about.
He's narrating about thischaracter Arthur Less.
And so even if, I don't knowwho's exactly telling the story
(02:11):
yet, I know who I'm payingattention to, the main
character.
Or less.
And then I'm gonna follow him onthis journey.
And at that point, you don'teven know that you're ever gonna
find out who the narrator is,but it doesn't matter.
You know who to focus on.
And that's what's important.
So give us someone to kind oflatch onto, whether it's the
narrator or the main character,or one in the same.
All right, number two, you wannaestablish us in time in place.
(02:34):
So some books, like to cheatthis and they'll put a chapter
heading like San Francisco 2001.
And that's fine.
I'm all for it.
But even if you do that like youwant to, if that's your setting,
like I wanna see the fog.
I wanna see like some tech broon his segue on the way to his
startup job, I wanna smell thecoffee on that first page.
Give us a few hints of likewhere we are, ground us in
(02:57):
place, in scene on a specifictime and day.
I'm big on specific scenes.
I think that's the best way todraw people into a story is put
them in a specific scene, andthat means a specific place at a
specific time with a specificnumber of people.
Number three, you wanna set thetone.
So if it's a funny book, youwanna make people laugh on that
first page.
If it's a sweeping epic, youwanna use language that feels
(03:20):
like big and sweeping.
If it's modern and skeptical,you can like throw in a curse
word on the first page.
Like you really what you don'twanna do is like, make people
laugh on the first page and thenkill someone on the second page,
right?
Unless it is like a funnymystery.
But you don't wanna do like abait and switch if it's like a
dark mystery, start dark, giveus that like ju some juicy dark
(03:41):
details that set the tone forthe story that's about to come.
And that way you are settingexpectations that we will be
fulfilled as your reader movesthrough the story.
So that's number.
Okay.
So number one.
Introduce your narrator slashmain character.
Number two, establish us in timeand place.
And three, set the tone.
(04:02):
Number four is you wanna, youwanna show off your writing
chops just a little bit likeyou.
Again, if you think of thatfirst page as kind of like a
first date, you wanna like belike, Hey, like you like me, you
wanna hang out for 300 pages.
So you wanna, you wanna takesome real time with the, your
first page, and I think hereit's actually really important
(04:22):
to pause and just say you shouldnever write your first page
first.
I mean, go ahead and write it,but know that like the first
page you write on your firstdraft, I.
Will not be the first page thatends up in your book.
'cause you're gonna learn somuch about your characters and
your story and all the thingsyou wanna kind of hint at and
allude to.
And you're gonna come back andrewrite.
(04:44):
Like I've gotten to the pointwhere when I start a story, I'll
like open the document.
I put chapter one and I'll justbullet point it like I think
it's so and so.
I think they're fighting aboutthis and then I think they're in
this city.
And then I like move on to writethe rest of the story because I
know.
At this point, I know I'm gonnacome back and have to rewrite it
because you, you want all thesethings to be in there and you
(05:05):
want the writing to be reallygood.
They represent you as a writer.
If you want them to bebeautiful, make sure they're
really beautiful.
If they're hard or scathing,this is similar to tone, And
then the last thing your firstpage needs to do is kind of hint
it's not so much aboutforeshadowing as it is kind of
posing a question that will beanswered at some point in the
(05:26):
book.
And the a question is whatactually really draws people in?
You want people to be like,well, I have to know, like, what
happens if they're in the middleof a burning house?
The question is, will they getout?
Will they survive?
Right?
If they're in the middle of abreakup scene, is this the love
of their life?
I mean, it's different for everygenre.
I think most of you're workingon murder mysteries and
(05:47):
thrillers, and so having a deadbody in the first page or two is
a great way to pose a question,what happened to that person who
did it?
Right?
That's one of the reasons welove mysteries is, is that,
that, that question draws youin.
What happened here?
Why?
So if you are writing a murdermystery, you kind of have that
built in because you're gonnawanna throw a body in the first
(06:08):
few pages and that is almostguaranteed to raise questions
that will draw your reader in.
It's one of the reasons genresare great.
David Gwyn (06:16):
I do have a quick question this keeps coming up.
And so I do wanna ask and seewhat you think about this
thriller mystery, suspendscrime.
Like usually we want that, youknow, like you mentioned that
like kind of dead body prettyearly on.
Yeah.
How do I do both of those thingswhere I need there to be this
high intense moment right offthe bat because to in terms of
(06:36):
tone, I'm trying to set thattone.
Yeah.
But also I wanna introduce thischaracter.
Do you have any suggestions forhow people can kind of navigate
those two elements?
April Davila (06:46):
Yeah, I think I think the important thing to
keep in mind is that everythingyour character says and does,
tells us about them, and everybit of setting tells us about
them.
So I talk a lot about settingwith my clients that were like
you, you can tell us a lot aboutI.
People without telling usanything about them.
If you consider the details thatare about like a, like a teenage
(07:06):
boy who runs outta the house andgets in like a beat up 94 Toyota
Corolla is a very differentteenage boy that runs outta the
house and gets a 2025 Tesla.
I haven't told you anythingabout this boy, but you know,
those are two very differentboys.
And so considering like whenyou're writing those very first
scenes, the first pages, youknow, not just the first page,
but the first page or two,consider.
(07:29):
What little details you can putin that will tell us about that
character.
Just like instinctively what arethey wearing?
Are they wearing shiny loafersor are they wearing sneakers?
Are they and it, and it, youdon't wanna overload it, right?
You don't wanna put a ton ofdetails in them.
But I think if you're justreally careful with the details
that you do choose to share, youcan do a lot of that heavy
(07:51):
lifting in a way that will feeleffortless and like.
The people will just feel likethey know this character, but
really it's a very strategicstrike on your part to come in
and be like, okay, you're gonnaknow this about them because X,
y, Z.
So I think that can help buildout the, like, getting to know
someone even as like, I'm pic,I'm picturing like in the
(08:12):
mystery right when the detectiveis called in and it's still kind
of there.
Regular world in terms of savethe cat kind of structure.
And those are the details inthat bit that you wanna give us
that start to tell us about hisregular world.
Mm-hmm.
Even as it's transitioning intothe mystery that he's gonna be
solving, which will of coursechange him and his life and his
(08:33):
relationships.
David Gwyn (08:34):
Yeah, and I think that goes to pushing back the
start of your novel as far as itcan go, right?
Where you're, you're at thatmoment, like right at that
moment where you are meetingcharacter, but they're also
transitioning into that part ofthe story, and I think that's
really important.
April Davila (08:48):
Okay, so just to review introduce you in
character, establish us in timeand place.
Set the tone.
If it's funny, make us laugh.
Demonstrate your writing chops,you know, if, if you're the kind
of writer who puts big words in,put a big word in and then
hinting at the story to come,which is mostly about asking a
question that will draw thereader in.
(09:11):
Okay, so those are, those arethe ones you wanna consider
getting into the first page.
And now we'll talk a little bitabout the ways that the first
page can go wrong.
Number one, and I, it's personalpet peeve as a reader, but I've
also heard many, many agentsgive this advice.
Don't open with a dream sequenceor a hallucination or anything
(09:31):
that isn't real.
Because what happens is yourreader spends 5, 10, 15 pages
becoming invested and thensomeone wakes up and they have
to start over again.
And it's just frustrating as areader to be like, well, is that
real?
I don't want, and again, theseare guidelines, not rules.
So if it works, if you can makeit work, if you can have your
character wake up from a dreamand not have your reader at all
(09:53):
confused, it could work.
But generally speaking, openingwith a dream sequence or
hallucination is, is, is a goodway to turn off your readers.
Same for extended prologues,prologues there's prologues are
always fun for like debate,right?
Is it a chapter one or is it aprologue?
But if you're gonna tell melike.
(10:13):
20 pages of something thathappened a hundred years ago and
then it doesn't matter to thestory for another 300 pages.
Like you're, that, that's a bigask.
My recommendation in thatsituation is just start the
story and then when thatinformation is important, get it
in there.
you want to avoid being unclearin any way about what's
happening because if I can'tfollow your story on the first
(10:34):
page, like I said, stories onlyget more complicated as they go.
So this odds are that thesituation is not going to
improve.
Some of the best opening pagesare super simple.
You just, you put us in a scene,certain number of people in a
certain place at a certain time.
Give it some conflict and justlet it let it be.
You don't have to make it overlycomplex, you just have to make
(10:57):
it engaging.
So a lot of times people will belike, they'll give you a
sentence or two to get you intothe story and then they're into
a flashback'cause they wannamake sure you understand that
this is a really pivotal moment.
But the flashback only serves toconfuse me'cause I don't know
these people yet.
You have to give us some time tolike get into the story.
And if you consider that yourfirst page is really only about
250 words.
(11:18):
That's not that long to hold offfor a flashback.
Like, get us into scene, let usmeet the key players, and then
if there really is somethingthat must be early in the story
as a flashback, you know, atleast give us a page or two to
settle into the story and learnwho we're dealing with.
Another way that first Pages cango wrong is like.
(11:38):
20, 30 names in the first page.
I dunno if anyone's ever read abook where you like, feel like
you need to pull out like agraph paper and like make a
chart of who is related to who.
Like on the first page.
That's another one where it'slike you're gonna lose a lot of
readers and most agents rightoff the bat.
I generally.
As a rule of thumb, I wouldstrongly advise you to avoid
(12:01):
putting more than two or threecharacters on your first page.
And that gives us time to meetthem.
You know, you're gonna introducethem, they're gonna interact a
little bit, we'll learn a littlebit about them, and then maybe
on page two, bring in anothercharacter.
But just be aware that like ifyou stuff a lot of, and, and
this goes for place names too.
I mean place names like SanFrancisco.
(12:21):
New York, Tokyo, like big namesare easy enough, but if you have
smaller city names and you havelike three different characters
and three different cities, it'sjust a lot to keep track of.
So this also is part of justkeep it simple.
Put us in in a scene and let thescene unfold.
And then, much like theflashback thing, the last way
that first pages tend to go awryis, is trying to put a lot of
(12:44):
backstory into early I think itwas Isabella Ende.
I think I've heard her say thisquote where she says that when
she starts writing, she knowsshe's at page negative a hundred
and she pretty much writes ahundred pages to like learn the
story herself.
And then right around page, shecalls it page zero, she feels
like she understands thebackstory and she can just write
it.
(13:04):
And then there will be partswhere she has to kind of
sprinkle in some informationthat she learned on the
backstory.
But a lot of times when we arestill figuring out our story.
The first couple chapters canend up being more backstory than
we realize.
So when you go back and you'relooking at your first page, just
consider you wanna sprinkle inbackstory throughout the book.
(13:27):
You don't have to get it all onthe first page.
You, you, readers don't have toknow everything.
You can let things unfold intime.
So avoiding a ton of flashback,avoiding a ton of backstory or
explanation, again, put us inscene.
Give us a question to chew on,and that keeping it simple is
really the best way to, to makea super compelling first page.
David Gwyn (13:49):
I do wanna just ask April where, so, you know,
people are listening to thisthey're, they're really loving
what you're, what you're saying.
I'm sure.
Can you talk a little bit aboutjust like where people can find
you if they want to hear more?
April Davila (14:00):
I do.
Yeah.
So I'm very findable.
It's just April Davilaeverywhere.
At April Davila on Instagram.
April davila.com is my website.
And website is home base foreverything.
I have a course called Structureand Plot.
It's an asynchronous prerecordedclass It's 45 minutes of talking
about plot, like basic plotpoints of a western traditional
western storytelling.
(14:22):
And then another 45 minutessection on structure.
And this is something I getreally excited about too, that
like for me, when I came tounderstand that structure and
plot are not the same thing, itmade writing so much easier for
me.
So if you think about plot iswhat happens in your story and
structure as.
How you, the author, choose totell what happens in the story.
(14:43):
When you can tease those twothings apart, not only can you
write more compelling stories,but they're so much easier to
write.
I'll share one more thing too.
I do occasionally teach thisclass a few times a year where
people submit pages and weactually get to like, read them.
So if you are interested indoing that, you can find me on
my website, april.com and signup for my newsletter and you'll
(15:03):
get the announcement when thoseare happening.
And you can send in pages andlike, and we actually do like a
group critique on, on aselection of of first pages,
which.
It can be fun just for like alittle bit of feedback.
So if that's something peopleare interested in, you can sign
up on my website.
David Gwyn (15:18):
april, thank you so much.
I, like I said, I, I'm, I had abunch of notes that I took.
So thank you so much for yourtime and, and your expertise.
This is really, really valuable.
April Davila (15:28):
Thank you.
It's been it's been fun.
I love talking about firstPages.
yeah, we're gonna talk about how to write a really
captivating first page.
So it's one of my favoritethings to talk about because I
feel like the first page isreally.
What sells your book?
I mean, the cover gets people topick it up, but what do you do?
The first thing you do is youopen it, you read the first
page, and then you decide ifyou're gonna buy that book.
Whether you're going traditionalor self-publishing, that first
(00:20):
page like just really, reallymatters.
So we're gonna take a little bitof time and talk about the
things that the first page needsto do, and then we'll talk about
a few of the ways that firstPages tend to like go awry and
lose the readers.
And I wanna just start bysaying, like, clarify a little
bit about how I talk aboutstory.
'cause I generally don't believein hard and fast rules.
(00:41):
I had a teacher who used to sayIt works.
If you can make it work.
That's the beauty of a fictionwriting.
It's an art, right?
It works if you can make itwork.
So just take that as a littlecaveat to everything that we're
about to talk about, which cankind of sound like rules, but
they're not really.
So these are guidelines, right?
For our first pages, and thereare five.
Main things that I usually talkabout that your first page needs
(01:05):
to do.
And some of these sound likeno-brainers, but it's amazing
how many manuscripts I've readthat like don't do these things.
So it's worth kind of checkingit off in your mind.
Am I doing these things?
The first is to introduce yournarrator slash main character.
Sometimes they're the sameperson, sometimes not.
A lot of times.
(01:27):
Writers will spend like thefirst page kind of introducing
setting or setting the tone orreflect, reflecting on
something.
And that's all important.
Yes.
But it's not as important to asintroducing me to the character
that I'm gonna give a shit aboutfor the next 300 pages, like if
they let me know who I'm with.
All right.
You wanna get that informationright up front so that I know
(01:49):
who is telling me this story.
Again, so a great exception tothis rule would be like Arthur
less if anyone read the bookless.
The narrator is a littlemysterious, like you don't learn
who the character is until laterin the story, but you still have
a strong sense of who he'stalking about.
He's narrating about thischaracter Arthur Less.
And so even if, I don't knowwho's exactly telling the story
(02:11):
yet, I know who I'm payingattention to, the main
character.
Or less.
And then I'm gonna follow him onthis journey.
And at that point, you don'teven know that you're ever gonna
find out who the narrator is,but it doesn't matter.
You know who to focus on.
And that's what's important.
So give us someone to kind oflatch onto, whether it's the
narrator or the main character,or one in the same.
All right, number two, you wannaestablish us in time in place.
(02:34):
So some books, like to cheatthis and they'll put a chapter
heading like San Francisco 2001.
And that's fine.
I'm all for it.
But even if you do that like youwant to, if that's your setting,
like I wanna see the fog.
I wanna see like some tech broon his segue on the way to his
startup job, I wanna smell thecoffee on that first page.
Give us a few hints of likewhere we are, ground us in
(02:57):
place, in scene on a specifictime and day.
I'm big on specific scenes.
I think that's the best way todraw people into a story is put
them in a specific scene, andthat means a specific place at a
specific time with a specificnumber of people.
Number three, you wanna set thetone.
So if it's a funny book, youwanna make people laugh on that
first page.
If it's a sweeping epic, youwanna use language that feels
(03:20):
like big and sweeping.
If it's modern and skeptical,you can like throw in a curse
word on the first page.
Like you really what you don'twanna do is like, make people
laugh on the first page and thenkill someone on the second page,
right?
Unless it is like a funnymystery.
But you don't wanna do like abait and switch if it's like a
dark mystery, start dark, giveus that like ju some juicy dark
(03:41):
details that set the tone forthe story that's about to come.
And that way you are settingexpectations that we will be
fulfilled as your reader movesthrough the story.
So that's number.
Okay.
So number one.
Introduce your narrator slashmain character.
Number two, establish us in timeand place.
And three, set the tone.
(04:02):
Number four is you wanna, youwanna show off your writing
chops just a little bit likeyou.
Again, if you think of thatfirst page as kind of like a
first date, you wanna like belike, Hey, like you like me, you
wanna hang out for 300 pages.
So you wanna, you wanna takesome real time with the, your
first page, and I think hereit's actually really important
(04:22):
to pause and just say you shouldnever write your first page
first.
I mean, go ahead and write it,but know that like the first
page you write on your firstdraft, I.
Will not be the first page thatends up in your book.
'cause you're gonna learn somuch about your characters and
your story and all the thingsyou wanna kind of hint at and
allude to.
And you're gonna come back andrewrite.
(04:44):
Like I've gotten to the pointwhere when I start a story, I'll
like open the document.
I put chapter one and I'll justbullet point it like I think
it's so and so.
I think they're fighting aboutthis and then I think they're in
this city.
And then I like move on to writethe rest of the story because I
know.
At this point, I know I'm gonnacome back and have to rewrite it
because you, you want all thesethings to be in there and you
(05:05):
want the writing to be reallygood.
They represent you as a writer.
If you want them to bebeautiful, make sure they're
really beautiful.
If they're hard or scathing,this is similar to tone, And
then the last thing your firstpage needs to do is kind of hint
it's not so much aboutforeshadowing as it is kind of
posing a question that will beanswered at some point in the
(05:26):
book.
And the a question is whatactually really draws people in?
You want people to be like,well, I have to know, like, what
happens if they're in the middleof a burning house?
The question is, will they getout?
Will they survive?
Right?
If they're in the middle of abreakup scene, is this the love
of their life?
I mean, it's different for everygenre.
I think most of you're workingon murder mysteries and
(05:47):
thrillers, and so having a deadbody in the first page or two is
a great way to pose a question,what happened to that person who
did it?
Right?
That's one of the reasons welove mysteries is, is that,
that, that question draws youin.
What happened here?
Why?
So if you are writing a murdermystery, you kind of have that
built in because you're gonnawanna throw a body in the first
(06:08):
few pages and that is almostguaranteed to raise questions
that will draw your reader in.
It's one of the reasons genresare great.
David Gwyn (06:16):
I do have a quick question this keeps coming up.
And so I do wanna ask and seewhat you think about this
thriller mystery, suspendscrime.
Like usually we want that, youknow, like you mentioned that
like kind of dead body prettyearly on.
Yeah.
How do I do both of those thingswhere I need there to be this
high intense moment right offthe bat because to in terms of
(06:36):
tone, I'm trying to set thattone.
Yeah.
But also I wanna introduce thischaracter.
Do you have any suggestions forhow people can kind of navigate
those two elements?
April Davila (06:46):
Yeah, I think I think the important thing to
keep in mind is that everythingyour character says and does,
tells us about them, and everybit of setting tells us about
them.
So I talk a lot about settingwith my clients that were like
you, you can tell us a lot aboutI.
People without telling usanything about them.
If you consider the details thatare about like a, like a teenage
(07:06):
boy who runs outta the house andgets in like a beat up 94 Toyota
Corolla is a very differentteenage boy that runs outta the
house and gets a 2025 Tesla.
I haven't told you anythingabout this boy, but you know,
those are two very differentboys.
And so considering like whenyou're writing those very first
scenes, the first pages, youknow, not just the first page,
but the first page or two,consider.
(07:29):
What little details you can putin that will tell us about that
character.
Just like instinctively what arethey wearing?
Are they wearing shiny loafersor are they wearing sneakers?
Are they and it, and it, youdon't wanna overload it, right?
You don't wanna put a ton ofdetails in them.
But I think if you're justreally careful with the details
that you do choose to share, youcan do a lot of that heavy
(07:51):
lifting in a way that will feeleffortless and like.
The people will just feel likethey know this character, but
really it's a very strategicstrike on your part to come in
and be like, okay, you're gonnaknow this about them because X,
y, Z.
So I think that can help buildout the, like, getting to know
someone even as like, I'm pic,I'm picturing like in the
(08:12):
mystery right when the detectiveis called in and it's still kind
of there.
Regular world in terms of savethe cat kind of structure.
And those are the details inthat bit that you wanna give us
that start to tell us about hisregular world.
Mm-hmm.
Even as it's transitioning intothe mystery that he's gonna be
solving, which will of coursechange him and his life and his
(08:33):
relationships.
David Gwyn (08:34):
Yeah, and I think that goes to pushing back the
start of your novel as far as itcan go, right?
Where you're, you're at thatmoment, like right at that
moment where you are meetingcharacter, but they're also
transitioning into that part ofthe story, and I think that's
really important.
April Davila (08:48):
Okay, so just to review introduce you in
character, establish us in timeand place.
Set the tone.
If it's funny, make us laugh.
Demonstrate your writing chops,you know, if, if you're the kind
of writer who puts big words in,put a big word in and then
hinting at the story to come,which is mostly about asking a
question that will draw thereader in.
(09:11):
Okay, so those are, those arethe ones you wanna consider
getting into the first page.
And now we'll talk a little bitabout the ways that the first
page can go wrong.
Number one, and I, it's personalpet peeve as a reader, but I've
also heard many, many agentsgive this advice.
Don't open with a dream sequenceor a hallucination or anything
(09:31):
that isn't real.
Because what happens is yourreader spends 5, 10, 15 pages
becoming invested and thensomeone wakes up and they have
to start over again.
And it's just frustrating as areader to be like, well, is that
real?
I don't want, and again, theseare guidelines, not rules.
So if it works, if you can makeit work, if you can have your
character wake up from a dreamand not have your reader at all
(09:53):
confused, it could work.
But generally speaking, openingwith a dream sequence or
hallucination is, is, is a goodway to turn off your readers.
Same for extended prologues,prologues there's prologues are
always fun for like debate,right?
Is it a chapter one or is it aprologue?
But if you're gonna tell melike.
(10:13):
20 pages of something thathappened a hundred years ago and
then it doesn't matter to thestory for another 300 pages.
Like you're, that, that's a bigask.
My recommendation in thatsituation is just start the
story and then when thatinformation is important, get it
in there.
you want to avoid being unclearin any way about what's
happening because if I can'tfollow your story on the first
(10:34):
page, like I said, stories onlyget more complicated as they go.
So this odds are that thesituation is not going to
improve.
Some of the best opening pagesare super simple.
You just, you put us in a scene,certain number of people in a
certain place at a certain time.
Give it some conflict and justlet it let it be.
You don't have to make it overlycomplex, you just have to make
(10:57):
it engaging.
So a lot of times people will belike, they'll give you a
sentence or two to get you intothe story and then they're into
a flashback'cause they wannamake sure you understand that
this is a really pivotal moment.
But the flashback only serves toconfuse me'cause I don't know
these people yet.
You have to give us some time tolike get into the story.
And if you consider that yourfirst page is really only about
250 words.
(11:18):
That's not that long to hold offfor a flashback.
Like, get us into scene, let usmeet the key players, and then
if there really is somethingthat must be early in the story
as a flashback, you know, atleast give us a page or two to
settle into the story and learnwho we're dealing with.
Another way that first Pages cango wrong is like.
(11:38):
20, 30 names in the first page.
I dunno if anyone's ever read abook where you like, feel like
you need to pull out like agraph paper and like make a
chart of who is related to who.
Like on the first page.
That's another one where it'slike you're gonna lose a lot of
readers and most agents rightoff the bat.
I generally.
As a rule of thumb, I wouldstrongly advise you to avoid
(12:01):
putting more than two or threecharacters on your first page.
And that gives us time to meetthem.
You know, you're gonna introducethem, they're gonna interact a
little bit, we'll learn a littlebit about them, and then maybe
on page two, bring in anothercharacter.
But just be aware that like ifyou stuff a lot of, and, and
this goes for place names too.
I mean place names like SanFrancisco.
(12:21):
New York, Tokyo, like big namesare easy enough, but if you have
smaller city names and you havelike three different characters
and three different cities, it'sjust a lot to keep track of.
So this also is part of justkeep it simple.
Put us in in a scene and let thescene unfold.
And then, much like theflashback thing, the last way
that first pages tend to go awryis, is trying to put a lot of
(12:44):
backstory into early I think itwas Isabella Ende.
I think I've heard her say thisquote where she says that when
she starts writing, she knowsshe's at page negative a hundred
and she pretty much writes ahundred pages to like learn the
story herself.
And then right around page, shecalls it page zero, she feels
like she understands thebackstory and she can just write
it.
(13:04):
And then there will be partswhere she has to kind of
sprinkle in some informationthat she learned on the
backstory.
But a lot of times when we arestill figuring out our story.
The first couple chapters canend up being more backstory than
we realize.
So when you go back and you'relooking at your first page, just
consider you wanna sprinkle inbackstory throughout the book.
(13:27):
You don't have to get it all onthe first page.
You, you, readers don't have toknow everything.
You can let things unfold intime.
So avoiding a ton of flashback,avoiding a ton of backstory or
explanation, again, put us inscene.
Give us a question to chew on,and that keeping it simple is
really the best way to, to makea super compelling first page.
David Gwyn (13:49):
I do wanna just ask April where, so, you know,
people are listening to thisthey're, they're really loving
what you're, what you're saying.
I'm sure.
Can you talk a little bit aboutjust like where people can find
you if they want to hear more?
April Davila (14:00):
I do.
Yeah.
So I'm very findable.
It's just April Davilaeverywhere.
At April Davila on Instagram.
April davila.com is my website.
And website is home base foreverything.
I have a course called Structureand Plot.
It's an asynchronous prerecordedclass It's 45 minutes of talking
about plot, like basic plotpoints of a western traditional
western storytelling.
(14:22):
And then another 45 minutessection on structure.
And this is something I getreally excited about too, that
like for me, when I came tounderstand that structure and
plot are not the same thing, itmade writing so much easier for
me.
So if you think about plot iswhat happens in your story and
structure as.
How you, the author, choose totell what happens in the story.
(14:43):
When you can tease those twothings apart, not only can you
write more compelling stories,but they're so much easier to
write.
I'll share one more thing too.
I do occasionally teach thisclass a few times a year where
people submit pages and weactually get to like, read them.
So if you are interested indoing that, you can find me on
my website, april.com and signup for my newsletter and you'll
(15:03):
get the announcement when thoseare happening.
And you can send in pages andlike, and we actually do like a
group critique on, on aselection of of first pages,
which.
It can be fun just for like alittle bit of feedback.
So if that's something peopleare interested in, you can sign
up on my website.
David Gwyn (15:18):
april, thank you so much.
I, like I said, I, I'm, I had abunch of notes that I took.
So thank you so much for yourtime and, and your expertise.
This is really, really valuable.
April Davila (15:28):
Thank you.
It's been it's been fun.
I love talking about firstPages.
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