The first chapter cracks open. Something’s wrong, someone’s in motion, the reader turns the page. Then chapter two arrives and everything stops. Writers know how to start. The opening hook is the fun part. But chapter two is where most manuscripts begin their slow slide into irrelevance, and the writer doesn’t notice because they’re still…
Most writers try to land their ending with a thematic statement. “And that was when she understood that home wasn’t a place, it was a choice.” The reader closes the book and the sentence evaporates. It sounded profound for half a second, and then it was gone. Great last lines don’t explain. They show you…
Most prologues are chapter 1 of a different book. The writer can’t bear to start without context. So she writes three pages of backstory—a historical event, a character who won’t appear until page 200, a battle explaining why the kingdom is the way it is. She calls it a prologue. The reader opens the book…
Most novels end on the wrong image. The plot resolves. The protagonist wins or loses or learns something. The last paragraph sums up what it all meant. And the reader puts the book down feeling informed. Not moved. The fix is structural, and older than modern fiction: echo your opening. Your first image and your…
Most writers put their inciting incident in the wrong place because they’ve misidentified what it actually is. They point to the murder, the diagnosis, the letter on page three. Something happens to the protagonist, and the writer calls it the beginning. I’ve read thousands of student manuscripts over 25 years. The ones that stall in…
Most chapters end too quietly. The writer finishes a scene, wraps it up cleanly, and moves on. Readers set the book down. A chapter ending has one job: make setting the book down feel like a small act of self-harm. The tool is an open loop—a question the reader’s brain can’t close. But “she heard…
Most first lines try to be beautiful when they should be unsettling. Your opening sentence has one job: make the next sentence unavoidable. Setting a scene doesn’t do that. A beautiful image doesn’t do that either. Imbalance does. Something slightly off, too specific to ignore. “They shoot the white girl first.” “It was a bright…
mww42 Manuscript Evaluation ChecklistDownload This topic is covered in depth in our Novel Writing Workshop.
After two years of editing(!) Dani’s and my new book, Writing Young Adult Fiction, is about to be published. As one of our fans, I’d like to extend this special pre-publication offer to you: get the Kindle book for just $2.99, or get it for free when you purchase the paperback. My favorite part of the book…
Click the graphic above to view all 34 opening lines at full size.
These favorite opening lines were originally collected by book clubs in New Zealand: Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last… Sena Jeter Naslund, Ahab’s Wife My mother…
Sign up and get the 25-point checklist my students use — plus the writing resources you choose.