The opening of your novel is your first opportunity to make readers curious about your story and care about the people within it. Those early pages need to give them enough grounding to understand whose story they’re following, where they are and why this moment matters, while creating a question or tension that draws them onwards. That doesn’t mean you need an explosion or a shocking revelation: a small disruption, an intriguing voice, or a character facing a difficult choice can be just as compelling. The aim is to offer a glimpse of the story ahead and give readers a reason to turn the page. I have compiled some useful articles and podcasts that discuss what the opening of your novel needs to do.
How to Start a Novel
How to Start a Novel: 8 Steps to the Perfect Opening Scene
Reedsy offers a practical guide to building an opening that suits your story, from choosing the premise and point of view to introducing characters, conflict and the inciting incident. It stresses that a compelling beginning doesn’t have to be dramatic: quieter openings can work beautifully when readers understand what the character wants and what might be at risk. Examples and a revision checklist are shared to help you check that your opening still fits as the novel develops.
The 6 Necessary Elements in Your Novel’s Opening Chapters – C. S. Lakin
C. S. Lakin highlights six foundations for effective opening chapters: a compelling protagonist, clear needs and motivations, an early inciting incident, distinctive supporting characters, meaningful stakes, and an emerging story goal. Her central message is that readers need to care about the character before the disruption in their life can have its full impact. She also encourages writers to give each scene a purpose, creating forward movement rather than a series of loosely connected events.
A Good First Chapter
How to Write a Good First Chapter: A Checklist
This article breaks the first chapter into seven practical tasks, including grounding readers through a character’s movement, introducing the protagonist and establishing point of view, genre, and stakes. It offers ways to build sympathy for a character, such as revealing vulnerability, competence, or an experience of unfair treatment. It also treats the chapter as a story in miniature, with complications and a difficult choice that give the opening shape and encourage readers to continue.
Your Novel’s First Scene: How to Start Right | Jane Friedman
In this guest post, Paula Munier recommends opening with a scene that introduces, foreshadows or sets up your central story idea. Using examples from fiction and memoir, she explains how excessive backstory, description and internal reflection can bury an otherwise engaging beginning. A useful editing exercise involves highlighting these elements in different colours to see where they dominate. She also suggests looking further into the manuscript to discover whether the story’s strongest starting point is hiding there.
How to Start a Novel: Eight Options, Plus Examples | Aliventures
Ali Luke explores both when to begin your story – at its beginning, with a prologue or midway through events – and how to open, using action, character, dialogue, description or a message. She uses examples to illustrate the possibilities and their potential pitfalls, with an emphasis on creating curiosity while keeping readers sufficiently grounded.
Podcasts on Opening Your Novel
Writing Excuses 7.49: Beginnings Revisited | Writing Excuses
This episode from Writing Excuses explores what needs to be present once you’ve chosen where your story begins. They discuss establishing tone, setting and character, along with the benefits and pitfalls of prologues.
16: Your First Chapter – The Hook | Writing Pursuits
Kathrese McKee discusses how opening sentences draw readers in by raising questions and making promises about the story ahead. Using examples, she explores how a hook can also begin establishing voice, mood, character and conflict. A useful starting point for thinking beyond simply writing a striking first line.
Writing Excuses 10.14: How Much of the Beginning Needs to Come First? | Writing Excuses
The hosts discuss what readers need to know early and what can wait, focusing on character motivation, tone and the questions your story promises to answer. This covers the broader beginning of a novel rather than just its first page. It also includes an exercise in trying different openings that emphasise different promises.
First Chapter Analysis: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Savannah Gilbo and Abigail K. Perry examine how the opening of The Hunger Games works to establish the story world, build concern for its characters and create expectations for the main plot. They look at both the chapter’s overall responsibilities and its individual scenes, offering a concrete example of how these elements work together. The discussion includes spoilers.
Conclusion
As you revisit your opening, ask yourself what readers have to care about, what they’re curious to discover and whether these first pages reflect the novel that follows. You don’t need to explain everything immediately; choose the details that bring the moment to life, establish a connection with your character and begin moving the story forward. Give yourself permission to refine the beginning once you’ve written the rest. You may only then recognise where your story truly starts. I hope you have found this week’s column useful. As always, please get in touch if there are any topics you would like me to cover.
(c) Lucy O’Callaghan
Instagram: lucy.ocallaghan.31.
See here for previous Really Useful columns on Writing.ie.
