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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44740
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44740
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I would not put the homicide in Chapter 1.

I believe you are making the mistake of many beginning writers, thinking that you have to get to the action and the main conflict quickly to hook the reader.

That is not true. The vast majority of successful stories use the opening scenes, even 10-15% of the entire story, to introduce the main character, operating in their normal world, and NOT dealing with the "big problem" that the book is about.

In most successful stories, we first learn about the main character(s) in the beginning getting through their normal life, usually dealing with problems or irritations but not the life-changing problems the whole story is about.

Remember Die Hard? All the things we remember are big action scenes -- but the movie opens mildly; Bruce Willis is separated from his wife and kids, and clearly struggling with that (not too competently) for several minutes before we even get a hint he's going to have to go through a gauntlet to save them and the world.

Same thing with The Bourne Identity; but they have to give the MC amnesia so he can have a "normal" life of being himself before he turns into a superhero.

Spiderman doesn't start with Peter Parker being Spiderman, it starts with him being an average awkward kid, pining after a girl out of his league.

The Lord of the Rings opens telling us about Hobbit life.

### You have to build sympathy and knowledge of your characters.

You want readers to care about what happens to them. If you jump into a big drama scene (like a murder) they don't care, they don't know who is getting murdered, if they deserve it, or who they are rooting for. Now of course, if you have a child or defenseless young woman getting murdered, they know, but they don't know enough to start with this, all you will generate is the general (and forgettable) sympathy we get when watching the news and seeing strangers that have been victimized.

When you get to the big drama scenes, you need your readers to know the characters so they know the **_stakes_** of what has happened.

That is what the first 10%-15% of the story is there to do:

1) introduce the main character, in their normal world, preferably doing something to deal with a normal world problem.

2) introduce the "normal world", anything special about it (if there is magic, or the level of technology, from near-zero to super-futuristic, etc.)

3) Along with (2), introduce the specific setting for the story; the hero lives and works in NYC or London, in the year 2083.

After that opening, there is an "inciting incident", whatever eventually launches the MC on a new path in life. By the end of ACT I, (it is about 25% of the story), the inciting incident has grown enough to push the MC _out_ of their normal world to deal with the issue which is what the story is about. Note the inciting incident can be anything from an atomic bomb going off (in an action film) to first meeting a future spouse. In "Taken" (1st), we see a lot of normal life of a man and his daughter who is going on a trip to Paris or something, a lot of normal world before she is kidnapped into the underworld of sex trafficking.

Do not assume audience "knows" a father loves his daughter, or the daughter can trust her father to save her.

Do not try to get to the inciting incident (in your case probably this murder) too early. An attempt to hook the reader fast on drama will likely fall flat; you hook the reader fast by presenting a character with some minor problem that interests them; this gives the character something to be doing, and we like to watch people dealing with issues. All you need is this little thread to get them turning pages to find out what happens next, to get involved with your character. You don't need a big set scene like a murder or the aliens landing. The whole planet may be doomed, but we won't care if you don't show us somebody in it we want to live.

Remember, readers don't mind reading! They know something big is coming, but they will read along getting to know the character first. You have some leeway. They _expect_ to read about the normal world first, that's how most stories work.

Original score: 3