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Q&A Tips on engaging the audience in the first chapter?

Create engaging characters and put them in situations with high stakes. The characters in your first chapter (or prologue) don't even have to be main characters. They don't even have to survive t...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:42Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26255
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:59:13Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26255
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:59:13Z (over 4 years ago)
Create engaging characters and put them in situations with high stakes.

The characters in your first chapter (or prologue) don't even have to be main characters. They don't even have to _survive_ to the next chapter. But we have to care about them, and we have to want to find out what happens next.

This also counts for villains: If you create a villain who commits a terrible act in the first chapter, we'll keep reading to make sure the villain gets punished.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-01-24T18:12:54Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 1