How Great First Chapters Make Readers Care (with Abigail K. Perry)

Your first chapter has a monumental task: to make potential readers care about your book right away and hook them to keep reading.

Every sentence is a chance to earn your reader’s attention—or lose their fragile, baby-fresh interest before your story even begins.

And that’s assuming that your book makes it to the bookstore shelves. If you’re traditionally publishing, the first chapter’s burdened with even more responsibility. It’s your first impression with agents and editors, who will judge whether to consider the full manuscript based on the first five or ten pages alone.

The stakes are high.

So high, in fact, that it’s easy to get stuck—revising and refining your first chapter over and over while the rest of the manuscript gathers dust.

So I asked Abigail K. Perry, a fellow editor and book coach, to come help us break out of that trap.

“If we don't care about a character, we don't care about what happens to them. . . . Pull us into character and let us understand and get to know them so that when threats are posed against them, we care about what happens.”

—Abigail K. Perry

You’ll hear:

• What great first chapters must accomplish
• Why mystery is a good thing in first chapters (and info dumps are not)
• How to make your readers care about your characters in a matter of pages, paragraphs, or even sentences
• And more

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in a first chapter revision loop, this one’s for you.

Check out Abigail’s “First Chapter Deep Dive” episodes on the books we discussed:

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
• (Coming soon: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card)

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