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How, strategically speaking, should you begin your novel? When a reader reads your first chapter, what
should she find?
There are some primary approaches for beginning a successful novel. Probably more, including some
highly experimental ones, but these are the classic main four. Run your story idea through the filter of
each of these and see if one of them feels right for your book.
Naming
In this classic example from Butler, we first know the name of the viewpoint character: Doro.
Later i the o el ell lear that Doro has a
a es, ut Butler gives us the name by which
he thinks of himselfa d he e er ere i Doros ie poi t thats the o l a e used for
him. Lesser writers might have kept changing the name of that viewpoint character, thinking
the re helpi g us telli g us ore information.
Literalism
The protocols of abeyance and implication, which give you a great deal of power, also remove
one of the tools that mainstream writers rely on most heavily: metaphor. Especially at the
beginning of a speculative story, all strange state e ts are take literall . eed illage is t a
etaphor; its hat the illage a tuall is.
Readers Interest
Its i porta t, espe iall at the egi i g of our o el, to re eal i for atio that pro ises
your reader an interesting story to come. Those promises must be honest ones that you intend
to keep. Be ause Doro is set up as the ki d of hara ter ho a so eho o
illages, e
see him as a bit larger than lifeButler definitely will deliver on this promise. And the concept
of seed villages is a solutel e tral to the stor ; it is t a tri ial it of stra ge ess to e tossed
i a d thro a a . I other ords, Butler is t just gi i g us ra do
ut i teresti g
information to fool us into going onshes gi i g us i teresti g i for atio that is vital to the
story.