Friday, July 22, 2011

What do you think of my first chapter?

There are a lot of things to comment on so I'll try to limit my answer to just a few. Feel free to email me if you need further help. First off, you have a unique idea here (getting tired of werewolf stories) and you're starting to develop interesting characters. But for a first chapter, it doesn't work for a few reasons. The opening of a story has to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. It has to set location and time, it has to include a hook that grabs the reader, it has to show the beginnings of the main conflict, and introduce the protagonist. Here, there is too much time spent on back story, introducing characters that don't have anything to do with the situation at the end of the chapter. For instance, the background on the parents, the father working at the docks, etc., might be better if woven in later throughout the story. Ask yourself if there is a very strong reason to have that information here, this early in the game. Also think about your main character. A good beginning is a story that starts at the point of change for your character. Or else right after the point of change, which can be external or internal. This meeting of the deaf, blind child appears to have made an impression on the protagonist, but does he go on to do something dramatic because of it? Is this meeting an integral part of who the character becomes? If so, make your chapter focus more on that meeting than on the background information. There are things to change with sentence structure, formatting, grammar, etc., but don't stress over those at this point as they can be corrected when you edit the draft. But one thing you should pay attention to now, is the tense you are writing in. Right now that tense changes. You go from 'she does not want to leave her husband' to 'she called the school'. So you're changing from present tense (does) to past tense (called). Present tense is difficult to write, especially for beginning writers. You may want to stick with past tense. Finally, give some thought to how you can show things rather than telling the reader. For instance, instead of telling the reader that the character felt a little disgusted, look at how you can show that through body language, as in her hand comes up to cover her mouth, she steps back, she brushes off her skirt that came in contact with the child. Showing develops characters, makes a strong story, and involves the reader more deeply in the story. These are all things to work on as you write, but don't let them keep you from writing. Good luck with this idea and have fun.

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