Story Structure

Chapter One

Chapter one will be 1000 words. If you go over or under by a few hundred, that's okay just don't  let it be too many more words. 

In this first 1000 words you are going to state the theme of your novel and you are going to give us the opening image. Ask yourself, which is the latest time in this character's life that I can start this story. The reason you ask this question is to avoid an unnecessarily long backstory, which often leads to boring and annoying info dumps. So, imagine your own life, and a particular thing you want to share about your life. If you were telling someone the story, at which part would you start to make sure they understand your story and that they enjoy or appreciate your experience. Do that with with your character. This is the opening image

P.S. If I didn't mention earlier, a novel this length will have 14 scenes per Act (56 scenes in total). 

So in Act one you will have seven opportunities for the set up, six for the debate and one for the first plot point. The set up part will include the opening image and the theme. The debate part will include the inciting incident/catalyst.

Let's get started.

Choose seven thing you want to show us about your character and their world. 

In chapter one, the first 1000 words, we want to know who the main character is and we want to watch her interact with her world like a normal person would. If she's a loner, let us experience her in that world. If she's popular, shy, mean, whatever. Let us watch as she experiences her world. 

Show us her surroundings. Basically, just put this world into context for us as the readers. You'll find that 1000 words is not enough so you'll need to be nimble with your words, lol.

Just before the end of this chapter, state your theme. The theme is usually something that's said to the character, or something they read somewhere, that's significant but they don't really understand it right now....they will remember this much later and it will give them the courage and strength to overcome their obstacles. So if you story is about taking risks (because the character is a reserved and cautious person maybe), maybe she gets some deep message in a fortune cookie about letting go and having some fun. That's cliche and boring I know, but you get it.

So, at the end of this chapter, I, as a reader, have a basic idea of who the character is. I kind of know how the world works. You can start to sprinkle some clues about what this story is about from as early as this. This is called foreshadowing... you know when you're reading a book and later on you think back to what you read earlier and things suddenly start to make sense and that's exciting af? Yeah, that's good foreshadowing. It's the author playing with you. It's what authors live for, lol.

Next chapter!