Conquering The First Chapter: A Guide For Writers

Conquering the First Chapter: A Guide for Writers

Have you ever wasted hours staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration?

You struggle to come up with an idea for your story, but finally, inspiration strikes. You write the first chapter, believing it will make you a best-selling author. However, upon re-reading, you realize it needs improvement.

And then you toss all of it away.

Hey, I get it. Wrestling with that first chapter can feel like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded—it's a real head-scratcher! You want to hook your readers right from the start, but sometimes it feels like your words are doing the cha-cha in the wrong direction.

And let's be real, staring at that chapter for too long can make you want to throw your laptop out the window and start a career in llama farming instead. But let's stop for a moment. Take a deep breath and exhale.

Know that you're not the only one who's felt this way.

Loads of writers have gone through the "my first chapter is a dumpster fire" phase.

The good news? You can turn that dumpster fire into a sparkling beacon of literary goodness. Here are some practical things you can do in the meantime.

Step one: Give yourself a break. Seriously, put that chapter in timeout and come back to it later with a fresh perspective.

Step two: Get some outside opinions. Share your chapter with fellow writers or beta readers who can offer constructive feedback. And if all else fails, dive into the first chapters of books you love for a little inspiration pick-me-up.

Step three: Shake things up. If your first chapter is feeling stale, try approaching it from a different angle. Maybe start in the middle of a scene, or introduce a surprising twist early on. Don't be afraid to take risks and experiment with different narrative techniques to see what works best for your story.

Step four: Embrace the mess. Writing is a messy process, and it's okay to have a messy first draft. Don't get too hung up on making everything perfect right away. Sometimes, you need to embrace the chaos and let your creativity flow freely. You can always refine and polish your work later.

It's totally normal to have moments where you want to launch your laptop into the stratosphere. But remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a perfect first chapter.

Keep at it, keep tweaking, keep pushing, and you'll get there. You've got this!

Next time, we'll discuss how to make the first chapter of your book more captivating for your readers. Make sure to catch it. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

For those that are going to miss the eclipse on Monday, I have created a simulation of what the eclipse will look like along the path of totality

Character Chart

Peace and blessings upon everyone!

I hope life's treating you well. I’m Esmeray and I welcome you to this post on my blog Dear Esmeray.

Today I'll be sharing with you a character chart to help you properly plan out your OC. This is what I use for my OCs, This might not work for everyone so feel free to remove details that are not relevant to your story. Here you go.

━━━━━✁┈┈┈┈┈┈

-Insert a character quote here-

-Also insert a picture of the character-

Full Name:

Nickname/s:

Gender:

Birthdate:

Age:

His/Her Aesthetic Colour:

Body Build: (ectomorph, mesomorph, or endomorph)

Height: Weight:

Hair Colour: Hair Length:

Eye Colour:

Any glasses/contacts?

Marks/Scars?

Physical Appearance:

Ethnicity:

Role in story:

Language/s spoken:

Favorite Colour:

Favorite Foods and drinks:

Likes: - - -

Dislikes: - - -

Education level:

Career:

Relationship status:

Life Goal/s & Amibitions:

Hobbies:

Normal speaking tone:

Dressing Style:

Dominant hand:

Biggest Positive trait:

Other Positive Traits: - - -

Neutral Traits: - - -

Biggest Flaw:

Other Flaws: - - -

Fears:

Proud of: Ashamed of:

Most Likeable trait: Most Unlikeable trait:

His/her Quirks:

MBTI Type: Enneagram Type: Enneagram Tritype: Enneagram tri-center with wings: Instinctual Stacking: Temperament: OCEAN Test: Attachment Style:

Primary love language:

Mother: Father:

Relationship with Mother: Relationship with Father:

Siblings (In age Order):

Significant Other:

Children:

The person/s s/he is closest to:

His/Her biggest enemy:

Other Important Relations (If relevant):

Birthplace:

Where did s/he grow up:

Traumas (If any. Also note whether the traumas are concealed or public):

Biggest secret:

━━━━━✁┈┈┈┈┈┈

I hope this character chart helps you with your story. Happy writing!

With Love, Esmeray ♡

literally most things that people write off as just ‘textures’ to use in graphics are stolen & unsourced material created by artists or photographers NOT meant to be used as elements in projects without royalty payments. you can say ‘it’s just random tumblr posts they don’t care’ but you wouldn’t want someone to take your work and edit into their work so they can be praised for their beautiful style and creativity even if they just post it on social media w/o profit, would you?? so maybe if you browse pinterest or google images for pictures without finding the original source, you’re using images that you’re not allowed to use without realizing it.

you see it on here a lot especially in (i won’t link anything but i’m sure you know what i mean) those album track ‘aesthetics’ posts, au ‘aesthetic’ posts (you see these less in kpop, but where people use non-royalty free images to kinda craft a visual au), and even just rather typical graphics that have a lot of ‘texture’ elements. and texture packs too!! that’s often where the problem starts; people just collect images (often literal art), compile them in a folder w/o sources, then insist no one can repost those images w/o crediting the person who compiled them. what???

SO may i suggest some of my fave places you can get FREE, ROYALTY-FREE elements that are totally legal to use

creativemarket has 6 free high-quality resources (textures, brushes, fonts, etc), different every week! wow awesome i check it every week

search ‘freebie’ on behance. awesome stuff!!! lots of v nice templates textures and fonts

mockup zone freebies

unsplash: tons of very nice free photographs, not shitty stock photos

pexels: same idea. + they have an adobe plugin so you can get photos without closing your editor damn nice

pixelsquid is a super cool free program (again w a ps plugin that i love) with lottts of super cool hq 3d elements!

as to not make this too long: spoongraphics, lostandtaken (textures galore), pixeden, freebiesbug.

Get to Know Your Character

Here are some questions to consider for character development:

What parts of their childhood trigger them?

How do they treat themselves when they're feeling sad?

What parts of themselves do they tend to hide?

How do they punish themselves when they make mistakes?

Who are they loyal to? Why?

Who do they avoid? Why?

What emotions or situations do they try to avoid? Why?

What angers them?

What are their insecurities?

What are their emotional triggers?

How do they feel about love?

What are their fears?

What is their relationship with their family like?

What kind of people do they tend to gravitate towards?

What do they like/dislike about themselves?

Happy writing ❤

have you ever read a fanfic so good that you wanted to write a fanfic about that fanfic, but was too shy / too intimidated to ask for the author’s permission and too afraid that your writing wouldn’t be half as good as theirs and that it would be an insult to their work that was basically a literal masterpiece, so you just sat there fantasizing about their work and how beautiful it was and how you wished you could just eat it and how you wished canon could write your blorbos half as good as this writer did and how you just wanted to cry because you just loved that fic so much????