Why Your Book's First Act Isn't Working
Delete your first chapter.
That’s why the first act of your book is broken, and why you are bored to tears from page one, even though you know the book is excellent.
But this can happen on a smaller scale too. If the first act is broken, delete the first chapter. If the first chapter is broken, delete the first page. The first paragraph if the first page doesn't sing. And if the first paragraph is the snoozer, delete the first sentence.
But for now, let's focus on that whole first chapter to fix the first act.
If you can’t delete it because you put too much important exposition in it, shame on you. You have not even impressed your reader enough to consent to a coffee date. Why are you walking them down the aisle by way of your traumatic origin story? Tell them in pieces. Later. Maybe.
In my experience, writers tend to overexplain, thinking it's foreplay. They tell the reader everything they are going to tell them instead of just telling them in the first place. Don't be the awkward date that trauma dumps. Hint at the trauma or maybe just explain why that scar is on your cheek.
Chapter one needs to get their attention from the first sentence until the rest of the page goes blank but begs them to read on. Think peacock feathers, but instead of colors it’s the tone of the story and the reason they should care about your MC.
One I really love is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which begins with:
"It was a pleasure to burn." Then it goes on with a can't-look-away, sensory-rich scene with skillful prose of the MC, a fireman, who is not putting out a fire but Burning. Effing. Books.
Like. What?! I have so many questions, don't you? Good. In chapter one, give your reader a million questions and zero answers. Then, obviously, spend the rest of the book giving answers. Most of them.
If your first chapter doesn't put your reader through an impressive display of WTF, delete it. That's why the first act of your book isn't working.
But if you can’t let that over-loved chapter in your writing go, swap it with your second chapter. You put a scene from that origin story there, didn’t you? A nice, colorful, feathery one. Hmm…
Do it today. Open that document and make a copy. Delete or swap that first chapter, then come back and tell me how that first act looks.
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