 Hello, hello, writers! I'm Christine Kiefer, author of fantasy fiction and creative writing resources, and you are listening to the Well-Storied Podcast, where I share insights, encouragement, and actionable advice designed to help you craft sensational novels and build your best writing life. Always in 30 minutes or less, so you can get back to writing, of course. Ready for the show? Let's get talking! Welcome once again to the Well-Storied Podcast, friends! Today is December 6th, 2019, and as always, today's episode translates the latest article from the Well-Storied blog into audio. Today we are talking about three lessons I learned from a first three chapters critique, and if you would like to read along as you listen in, you can head on over to well-storied.com slash first three chapters. That's three spelled out, not the number. Alright, without any further ado, let's dive in. The opening chapters of your story are doubtless some of the most important you'll write. When crafted with care, a strong opening sequence effectively hooks readers into your story, encouraging them to keep turning pages to learn more about your character's plot and story world. A poor opening sequence, on the other hand, can lead readers to toss your book aside in boredom or frustration before your story ever gets off the ground. Knowing the vital importance of a strong opening sequence, I jumped at the opportunity to work with freelance editor Isabel Lanz when she offered me her first three chapters service in exchange for an honest testimonial and review. I'm currently working on the fourth draft of my adult medieval fantasy novel, Lady Legacy, and here's a quick peek at the book's blurb. With her medical training complete, ambitious healer Kleana Gottrick sets out to become a world-renowned physician by earning a commission at Royal Court. But when her first prominent patient dies mysteriously within her care, Kleana must salvage her legacy by mending the heart of a grief-stricken prince, quelling the suspicions of his superstitious companion and finding the cure to a strange and deadly power taking root within her. Being four long drafts into this project, it feels like I've rewritten and revised my opening chapters a thousand times. Before working with Isabel, part of me was terrified that her critique would reveal the need for another major rewrite. Still, I knew that I'd rather overhaul Lady Legacy's opening chapters yet again than to settle for a lackluster opening sequence. Looking back, I am so grateful I seized the opportunity to receive Isabel's first three chapters critique. Though she didn't call for a complete overhaul of my opening chapters, thank goodness, Isabel's critique did reveal several key steps I could take to transform Lady Legacy's opening chapters from decent to well done. In fact, most of the feedback Isabel shared with me boiled down into one of three key pieces of advice, and it's these lessons learned that I'd love to share with you today. Your first three chapters might not need improvement in the same ways that mine did, but these are doubtless important lessons for any writer to bear in mind when crafting their novel's opening chapters, so let's dive in. Lesson number one, it's okay to take your time. Generally speaking, the more quickly an opening chapter can hook readers in, the better. But many writers mistakenly believe that the key to a good hook is to drop readers into the middle of a major conflict, a fistfight, an argument, a horrifying murder. These high stakes conflicts are gripping, right? Well, maybe not. Are readers really going to care who wins the duel if they don't even know who the characters are or what's at stake? Will your character's bitter argument have any emotional impact if your readers can hardly discern which character is which? A good hook always begins with character, not conflict. This is a lesson I bore in mind when writing the first chapter of Lady Legacy, but what I failed to understand is that an opening chapter will always fall short of gripping readers if you set too fast of a pace, regardless of the type of scene you open with. To hook readers, I thought I needed to move through my first chapter as quickly as possible, creating a strong sense of forward motion that would draw readers into the heart of my story. Sounds good, right? The only problem is that this belief led me to cut or withhold vital pieces of information that ultimately would have helped me craft a more compelling opening scene. The key lesson I learned here is that it's okay to take your time in the first draft. A good hook isn't necessarily a fast paced hook. Rather, it's one that simply deeply intrigues readers. And as I'll share with you in my next two lessons, you can't intrigue readers if they fail to connect with your protagonist or your story world, which leads us to lesson number two. Don't skimp on internal dialogue. There's a lot that a good opening sequence must accomplish. It needs to introduce the protagonist and their everyday world, show why the protagonist is dissatisfied with that world in some way, and set the scene for the conflict that will push the protagonist into the journey to come. As you can see, character is truly the backbone of story. It's your protagonist's actions that will drive the plot and their motivations that will make readers care. If readers fail to connect with your main character during your story's opening chapters, then you will fail to hook readers into your story. One of the easiest ways to encourage this reader-character connection is to let readers peek inside your protagonist's mind. In an effort to keep my opening sequence gripping, I failed to do just this. The readers were able to see and experience the opening scenes through the eyes of my protagonist, Kleana Gotrick. I rarely allowed them to glimpse what Kleana was thinking or feeling. Big mistake. By working back through my opening chapters to sneak in small bits of internal dialogue, I was able to craft a far more personal and compelling narrative, which will always make for a stronger hook. Finally, friends, let's talk about lesson number three. Find ways to establish key exposition. Relating exposition in your novel's opening chapters can be tough. Too much exposition, the context information that helps readers make sense of your story world, can slow the pace of your story to a crawl, while too little exposition can leave your readers feeling lost and confused. In trying to maintain a fast-paced narrative, I made the mistake of cutting too much exposition from Lady Legacy's opening chapters. In fact, most of the feedback in Isabel's editorial letter addressed this key lack of context. Isabel noted that she was unable to discern my character's ages and appearances, my protagonist's position in society, the type of relationship that two prominent characters shared, the meaning of many of the world-building terms that are unique to my story, and more, unfortunately. Readers certainly don't need to understand every facet of your story world upfront. In fact, it's usually better to sprinkle expositional details throughout a story than to info-dump in a way that disrupts the story's pace. But as evidenced in my own novel, a failure to share basic expositional details early on can lead to an opening sequence that feels rushed and confusing rather than gripping. At the end of the day, applying these three lessons to my manuscript was an easy task that made a huge impact. In just a few short days, I was able to review my first three chapters and add in key pieces of inner dialogue and exposition that cut down on rear confusion while making Lady Legacy's opening sequence much more compelling. Talk about a better hook, right? If you aren't sure whether your opening chapters are the best that they can be, then don't be afraid to seek feedback from an editor, beta reader, or critique partner. The receiving feedback can be tough, it's also essential. Truly constructive criticism exists to help you make your story the best that it can be, and in the process, it helps you become a better writer as well. Isabelle's first three chapters' critique didn't just help me polish Lady Legacy's opening sequence too high shine. It also helped me improve my knowledge of the craft and further develop my critical eye. Because of this feedback, I know I'll be able to craft even stronger opening chapters right out of the gate the next time I draft a new story. If you're eager to receive feedback on your novel's opening chapters, don't miss Isabelle Lan's first three chapters' critique. Isabelle has worked as an editor both in-house and freelance and now focuses primarily on historical fiction, fantasy, crime, and mystery genres. She also has editing membership and qualifications from UK training providers, the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. So if you would like to check out her work and maybe check out her first three chapters' critique service, I will leave a link to her website for you in today's episode description. But regardless writers, I hope you enjoyed today's episode of the podcast and I hope that these three lessons give you some serious food for thought that may help you improve your own opening chapters as well. Remember, your opening chapters are some of the most vital to get right. They have the power to hook readers in or to make them set aside your book before they even get started. So don't hesitate to give your opening chapters some serious consideration and maybe to seek feedback if you think that it would be helpful to your writing process. Until next time, happy writing. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the podcast writer. I hope you found it helpful to your writing journey. If so, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode and to give the podcast a quick rating and review. Doing so goes a long way toward helping the podcast reach new writers and lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm creating. You can also give me a shout out directly on Twitter at christen underscore keeper. For additional guidance as you work to craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, be sure to head on over to www.well-storied.com where I share blog posts, workbooks, e-courses and other helpful resources for writers. Again, that's w-e-l-l-s-t-o-r-i-e-d.com. Thank you again for tuning into today's episode, my friend. Until next time, happy writing!