The Opening Chapter - Does it hook the reader?

 I was talking to one of my clients yesterday and it got me thinking. She is currently judging the new RWA contest, The Vivian. The format is a bit different from the RITA so it was interested to hear her thoughts. The first round, you are just to read the first chapter of the books you are sent. The idea is essentially to see if the book is going to hook you enough to want to read more.

And for many books, the first chapter simply does not do what it is supposed to do. 

When I pass on books like this, I often get replies from the author stating that if I just kept reading, the book really gets going. While that might be the case, readers simply do not have the patience to keep reading. 

We know that often, readers give up on books within the first 3-5 chapters. They quit because the plot is going now where, the characters just don't get together, or the author has felt the need to do a full backstory information dump.

Your story needs to start with forward movement. I know a lot of people have used the word "action" but this is often misunderstood. They hear the word action and immediately dump the reader in the middle of the conflict of the book without giving us any information. We simply are lost. So, they swing the pendulum the other way and then give us all of the information we need to understand the conflict. Again, big mistake. Forward movement is simply getting us going. Starting the plot, and more importantly, the characters on their adventure through the novel. 

I read the beginning of a historical romance just recently that really screwed this up. They had the characters showing up at a ball during the Regency season. This is fine. It is likely going to get the characters together and potentially get the conflict going. But the author went a different direction. She proceeded to give us the backstory on ALL of the players that would show up in the book. She spent more time talking about the "other" characters and did not give us enough of the main characters. 

Think of Edith Wharton's AGE OF INNOCENCE. There is a scene early on where she proceeds to talk about the characters in the story. It works here, but why? We have already gotten into the book and we know how these people are going to work with Newland, May and Ellen. 

The other thing that the opening chapters do is to give us the true sense of how this book fits in the genre. Again, I recently read the opening pages of a historical women's fiction piece. I was really excited about this one based on the initial summary of the book. But the book fell apart because it took nearly 2 chapters before we got to even seeing the main female protagonist. In fact, the entire opening chapter had only men in it and only a mention of a single woman in the room (interestingly enough, she was not the main character). Ugh.

I know there are a lot of you out there who openly admit that you will read through at least 1/3 - 1/2 of the book before giving up. Sorry to say this, but you are the exception to the rule. 

So, your task today is to look to those opening chapters. If you were an outside reader, would you really like where the book is going? If now, fix it!