With over fifteen novels published, Award-winning author Vijaya Schartz writes action romance in Sci-Fi, contemporary, paranormal, and historical settings. As a world traveler, she brings an exotic quality to her stories. Her books gathered Four Golden Quill awards, one Independent Publishers Book Award, and numerous Reviewer’s Choice nominations and five-star reviews. Ashes for the Elephant God was once considered for a movie. She created the Write Path Seminars for writers and speaks at conferences around the country on the writing craft and all aspects of the writing life.
Find out more about her at: http://www.vijayaschartz.com/
More about her upcoming workshops at: http://www.vijayaschartz.com/seminar.html
Now, to the business of writing:
As I was editing a book for a client recently, the importance of the first chapter came to me full force. His first chapter had no hook, no intriguing details, no action. It introduced a character, apparently a villain. It foreshadowed something that might or might not happen soon. And this came from a multi-published author used to six-figure deals, with a New York agent and a major New York publisher. Furthermore, the book was supposed to be a thriller. So what happened?
As I went on with the editing, I realized that he had a fantastic story, extremely well told in the ensuing chapters. So, why was the first chapter so blah? I then realized that the first chapter must have been added as an afterthought, to introduce the killer up front, which makes sense in a thriller novel. But the first kill did not happen until chapter three.
When I read along and discovered chapter three, I had an epiphany. This should be the very first chapter of the book. Strong action, deep POV in the mind of a ruthless killer. A horrible murder perpetrated in cold blood with premeditation. It had all the hooks to sink into the reader’s gut to keep him reading on. It was a gem of a first chapter and might never be read by an editor or an agent if it came as a third chapter. Even the chronology of events wouldn’t be affected by the switch, since the first three chapters happened in a very short time frame in different locations.
This is a perfect example of how we can be blind to our own mistakes. How often did I smack a prologue or changed the first scene of a book, often at the suggestion of critique partners, then realized later that I didn’t need it? Sometimes it explained too much, or it changed the focus of the book and took it in a wrong direction.
I noticed that I ended up deleting most of the prologues in my latest books. While we feel the need to tell this important back story, or these strategic underlying elements, it is, in most cases, unnecessary and can even blight your entire novel.
Furthermore, whenever you submit a partial, if the very first paragraph doesn’t grab the editor, your whole novel is doomed to oblivion. Most editors have no patience to find the diamond in the rough. They want perfection from the first page.
When in doubt, I remember what I learned from Connie Flynn in one of my first novel writing classes. "Your novel starts in the middle of an action scene, on the day the life of your main character is changed forever." This is the best piece of advice I learned in my whole writing career. It made me delete the first 150 pages of my very first novel, but it was worth it.
Good luck, and when writing your first chapter, remember the basics.
Chronicles of Kassouk Book Four
by Vijaya Schartz
from Desert Breeze Publishing
August 2011 release
In the face of Human slavery, Back Sword Captain Ariela of Kassouk must do the unthinkable. Rebel against the Mutant regime. But she cannot do it alone.
Ariela suspects the king’s death is no accident. And the tyrant who usurped the throne looks guilty as hell. As leader of the Human rebellion against the Mutant rulers, Ariela is desperate for help, and Lord Starro, the handsome Crown Prince of the Star Children, offers the technology the Human faction lacks. But can Ariela trust a spoiled, arrogant foreign prince who never fought a battle, and thinks he is destined to rule the universe? Is she trading one tyrant for another? No matter how kind, handsome, or fascinating, Starro has frightening mental abilities. And this alliance is not safe, especially for Ariela’s heart.
Find Vijaya's eBooks everywhere eBooks are sold and in all formats. Her paperbacks are almost all out of print, but all her titles have been re-released with fresh covers in electronic format.
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