The secret to writing a strong first chapter

You’ve been warned about and have likely internalized just how important it is to have a strong opening chapter for your novel.

But what you shouldn’t do — at least in Sharon Oard Warner’s opinion — is fixate on it while you’re still working on the rest of the story.

The time to revise a first chapter, she says, is once you’ve finished the final one.

It’s like packing for a trip, in a sense; researching your destination will help prepare you, but you ultimately won’t know whether you made the right decisions until it’s over.

Read Warner’s piece on finding your book's ending before going back to the beginning on Jane Friedman’s blog.

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