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This is usually different than the internal goal, but it is more obvious if the hero is getting close or farther from this goal because it is visible and concrete. This is the goal we can see such as getting a promotion, landing a big client, solving a mystery, getting justice. The hero also has to have an external story goal. This is ultimately what readers are going to be hoping she gets at the end of the story and the ups and downs of the story will be measured by how close or far she is to getting the longing of her heart. But don’t waste this opportunity to show us what her deep longing is for. We’ve already mentioned seeing her briefly in her everyday world. We don’t have very many words to get our reader emotionally involved in the life of our hero. Now we need to introduce our hero to our reader. We have a fabulous set of first lines to draw our reader in. So we know where the story needs to start. You’ll know you have a first great line when it sets the tone for the book and is intriguing enough to make us want to keep reading. Be interesting first, then back into setting the stage as you need to. As writers, our tendency is to set the stage for what’s going on. There is something unusual, ominous, funny, or any other adjective that makes you want to keep reading. Look at some of your favorite books and just read the first line. These can take longer to craft than many of your chapters. First lines set the tone and create an expectation for your reader as to what’s going to come next. Once you know where to start the story, you have to write down some great first lines. Life as she knows it will no longer be the same.įollow these tips to write a compelling first chapter for your book that will hook your readers and keep them engaged through the very end. It has to be a big enough change that the path the hero was on has taken a turn. In a suspense it can be when the hero walks into the wrong place at the wrong time. A great question to ask yourself is: What is the day everything changed for my hero? In a romance it’s often the day the hero and heroine meet. The biggest problem I see with stories is that they don’t start in the right place. That’s because there is a lot that needs to happen in the beginning of your book to hook your readers and keep them turning those pages. The beginning of your novel may take you longer to write than the whole rest of your book. So getting the beginning right is one of the most important things you can do. In this era of micro attention spans, most readers are not going to wait around for two or three boring chapters in order to finally find something interesting and engage them in your story. I often hear from writers that the book really gets going a few chapters in. Your story starts at the beginning, and beginnings are so important.