Sure Your Book Is A New York Times Bestseller With A Diverse And Unique Cast Of Characters, Positive

im still young i still have time im still young i still have time im still young i still have time [lays on the floor wasting my time]

What's your advice on writing a strong, solid chapter one? Something that will grab the reader's attention and make them beg on their knees for more?

Tips for Writing a Strong First Chapter

Note: in the examples, I’m using the second chapter as Harry Potter rather than the first, which was really more of a prologue.

1. Create a “snapshot” of your character’s normal life…

One of the most important things you can do in the first chapter is give your reader a sort of “snapshot” of your character’s life before the the inciting incident turns everything upside down. Otherwise, if we don’t know what their life is like before everything changes, the inciting incident won’t be a change. It’ll just be something that happens.

In Twilight, we saw Bella being the run-of-the-mill daughter of divorced parents. In Harry Potter, we saw Harry being the unwanted and much-maligned ward of muggle relatives, while struggling with emerging wizard powers. In Star Wars, we saw Luke being the bored farm boy, longing for heroism and adventure. In The Hunger Games, we saw Katniss taking care of her mom and sister by hunting for extra food for them with Gale.

2. Show us who they are–show us their strengths and their flaws…

Most stories feature a protagonist who changes in someway throughout the course of the story. This is the character arc, and it can either be positive (the most common) or negative. Positive story arcs stem from the character’s flaws that are established at the beginning of the story. While they have strengths, too, it’s the flaws that dominate and make their lives such a mess that the reader is anxious to see how their lives will change. The character will overcome those flaws through the events of the story, so in the end the reader can marvel at how far they’ve come and how much better their lives are as a result of this change. In a negative arc, it works in the exact opposite way. Sometimes there are static arcs, where the character doesn’t change but changes someone around them or their environment, and sometimes you get a little hybrid of both.

In Twilight, we see a girl who’s a little selfish, a little closed off, and very codependent. In The Hunger Games, we see a girl who feels helpless against the oppressive government making her life, and the lives of everyone she cares about, a living hell. In Star Wars, we see a boy who’s cocky and idealistic.

3. Show us who and what matters in their world…

Another important element that should be introduced in the first chapter is who and what matters to the main character. These are the initial stakes–the thing that motivates them into action when the world turns upside down. In some cases, the world turns upside down because something happened to them.

In Twilight, we meet Bella’s mom and dad, but in many ways, the absence of anyone else here is part of what serves as motivation for Bella to want her life to change and to want to belong to something bigger than herself. It’s much the same in Harry Potter, where the only people who really matter to him are people who died when he was a baby. In The Hunger Games, we meet Katniss’s mom and sister, her best friend Gale, and we learn about Katniss’s father and Gale’s family, and the boy with the bread. In Star Wars, we meet Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.

4. Show us their world…

Part of the point of the inciting incident is that it’s going to change the known world for the main character. This really dovetails with #1, because their normal life happens within this world. In some stories, a character’s “world” might be their work and home life or their home and school life. In other stories, their “world” might be the small village they live in and the plagued-by-evil-king kingdom the village is a part of. 

In Twilight, Bella’s world was uprooted right at the beginning and exchanged for the tiny, perpetually overcast town of Forks, Washington. In The Hunger Games, Katniss’s world was District Twelve and the oppressive Capitol beyond. In Star Wars, Luke’s world was a moisture farm on the desert planet of Tatooine, part of a larger Civil War-wracked galaxy.

5. Start the story when something interesting is happening…

We often hear the advice “start in the middle of the action” or “begin the story with action” and this is often misinterpreted, either to mean you should start with the inciting incident or start with a big car chase or heart-pounding battle. Neither of which is true. Beginning the story with action just means you should start the story with something interesting happening rather than with a big info dump. That doesn’t mean you can’t include exposition in your opening, but weave the exposition into something interesting happening.

In Twilight, the story opens with Bella being dropped off at the airport by her mom so that she can move to Washington to live with her dad. In The Hunger Games, the story opens with Katniss getting ready to go hunting with Gale, then walking through her district on her way to meet him. In Harry Potter, we see Harry and the Dursleys getting ready for Dudley’s birthday party.

If you hit all five of these points in your first chapter, not only can you be sure to create a strong first chapter from which to launch the rest of your story, you can be sure your reader will have everything they need to start getting invested in your main character and the world around them. :)

all my students in my dystopian film class think gale is a better match for katniss than peeta and i told them they were Objectively Wrong and they assigned me a slideshow for homework to prove it and—

look. these children are about to be destroyed.

Alternate universe where I literally just to go to school forever (for free) so I can just learn about art and literature and history and languages for 100 years. No job skills. No credit requirements. No student loans. Just learning.

Not to be furiously antimodern but everything you make is art and you can minimize it all you want by calling it a hobby or a craft or a hyperfixation but it’s art because you created it and humans just make art because it’s what we do and it can’t be good or bad because it just IS and when you make art you are part of something very beautiful and very human

verified ways to send aid to gaza directly

Help a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical attention, food, rebuilding homes/businesses etc. (Spotlights 1 verified gfm at a time so if you don't know who/where to donate to just go here and donate to the one they show you!)

Help provide tents (urgent):

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents for displaced families in Gaza (emergency bc tents in Rafah are being burned as we speak) (paypal) (gfm)

Food, cash & essentials:

Care for Gaza: Working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: also working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash & other daily essential suppliess to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)

Water:

Gaza Municipality's water project: The official Municipality of Gaza needs help rebuilding the water infrastructure in Gaza City to restore access to clean water and waste management services for the people of Gaza. (This campaign only has a couple of weeks left but it's still only at 15%!)

eSIMs (urgent):

guide to buy & send esims for gaza

crips for esims for gaza: If you don't know how to buy esims or don't have the capacity to manage them (e.g. topping up regularly), this team of volunteers are collecting funds to buy & manage gaza esims regularly

Medical Aid

Palestine Red Crescent Society: Provides emergency medical and ambulance services and humanitarian relief on the ground in Gaza e.g. rescuing and treating the wounded.

get a load of this! (cool fresh autumn air)

reblog this and put in the tags at least two (2) songs you are listening to on repeat right now

Javier Pérez: Carroña (2011)

Ten stuffed crows carefully placed on a shattered red chandelier to look as if they were feasting on a dead animal. 

the commodification of friendship is the most annoying thing to come out of the internet in ages. like actually i love to break this to you but you're supposed to help your friends move even if it's hard work. or stay up with them when they're sad even if you're gonna lose sleep. you're supposed to listen to their fears and sorrows even if it means your own mind takes on a little bit of that weight. that's how you know that you care. they will drive you to the airport and then you will make them soup when they're sick. you're supposed to make small sacrifices for them and they are supposed to do that for you. and there's actually gonna be rough patches for both of you where the balance will be uneven and you will still be friends and it will not be unhealthy and they will not be abusive. life is not meant to be an endless prioritization of our own comfort if it was we would literally never get anywhere ever. jesus.