In addition to doing full edits on my works now and then, I periodically make a pass through all my works, focusing primarily on the first three chapters. I try to read them as if I've never seen them before.
They get a little better each time I revisit them because I know more about writing than I did the last time I was there.
Taking this approach works for me and probably for a lot of other writers. I'm in a different mindset when I'm in first-chapters, surgical-precision mode than I am when settling in for a long-haul, full edit. I see things differently. I find things that need changing and can't believe I didn't see them before.
One way I try to improve my first-chapters skills is by studying the opening chapters of my favorite books, trying to enhance my understanding of what it was those authors did that kept me reading. This type of learning by example is a great supplement to all the how-to material on this topic.
I pull out books on my shelves or I look online.
There's a great page at NovelPro (thanks, J R Lankford!) that lists sites you can visit to get links to published books' first chapters. It's fun to browse them.
Now and then, a writer manages to hook me, and I end up ordering the book so I can find out what happens to the characters that the writer, in just those few pages, made me love.
That's the kind of characters I want to create. That's the kind of writer I want to be.
-Originally posted on October 22, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
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