Common lore is that when our readers pick up a novel, they study the book cover and read the first chapter, deciding whether its enticing. If it is, then they buy the book. I’ve spoken about this philosophy before, expressing my dissatisfaction with it, but acknowledging its reality.
What I have noticed, is that in many novels, there is a degradation in the writing as the book proceeds. Once one gets by the first chapter (and the sale is made) the following chapters are much less compelling. New characters are haphazardly developed and do not command our attention. The scenes are less emotional. Narrative lengths increase, emotional content declines, and it becomes easy to just drop the novel.
This is the consequence of, I think, authors taking the advice as “the first chapter being your best”, too literally. The entire book needs to be your best. A first chapter can be a strong magnet for the reader, but the novel’s power increases if the second chapter is not just “as good” but better, and so for the third, for the fourth and so on. The novel is now a cover-to-cover compelling read. These are the books that people read in one sitting. These are the books that people can’t put down.
So in writing a novel, I draft the book to make sure I have included all the major themes. I then spend considerable time on the first chapter adding and checking any technological facts that it needs. And also sharpening it up, adding emotion, giving it an edge. Then I enter the second chapter, with a focus on the tech or history I need. But I now have a goal of making it more compelling than the first.
How can I do that?
Well, what wildcard can I add? An emergency trip to a hospital? An arrest? An apartment fire. An astonishing email? The universe comes crashing into our lives, why not into our novels? Adding the unexpected, the tragedy, the shocker, always with emotional content, is a strong attractor to the reader, compelling them to keep their life on hold for a few more minutes while they read another scene.
This does two things for me. First, it improves the entire book because it is an action driven emotional roller coaster. But second, I become much better at being a compelling writer. Specifically, I improve my first chapter writing skills, because I’m trying to do that in every chapter of the book. It’s an exciting undertaking, but I will confess that it is also an exhausting one. However when I am in my final drafts of a novel, and I’m reading the book now for flow, continuity, and those pesky copyedits, I find I am pushed through the book, driven by a genuine interest to see what happens.
Put another way, desire to have every novel chapter to be your best chapter. As compelling as the first chapter is, it’s improved if the second chapter is even better. And the third chapter is even better than that. It may not be the same action, but there should be the same or increasing emotional intensity. At the end of the book, our readers may feel like they’ve been on a twenty-six mile emotional sprint. Totally exhausted at the end, they have finished and have absorbed a compelling and positive emotional experience.
