Just had a realisation...

[JLiana]

I just realised the opening of my third chapter would be a fantastic hook for the introduction of my MC. Which would mean scrapping the first two chapters I wrote. Which means I'd be back at having...one chapter.

What do you folks think?

​

CH1: "Three herons sprang from the water, toward a pebbled shore. Mielli stared at the decaying mural beside the bed, as she had countless nights before, cataloguing thick brush strokes and cracks in the paint." ​

​

CH3: "The moment she punched her foot through the ice, she knew her life was over. Acceptance of this came easily. So did the gasp she choked on as she plunged into the freezing water."​

I'm so conflicted.

(I am going to continue writing though, don't you worry).

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I just realised the opening of my third chapter would be a fantastic hook for the introduction of my MC. Which would mean scrapping the first two chapters I wrote. Which means I'd be back at having...one chapter.

What do you folks think?

​

CH1: "Three herons sprang from the water, toward a pebbled shore. Mielli stared at the decaying mural beside the bed, as she had countless nights before, cataloguing thick brush strokes and cracks in the paint." ​

​

CH3: "The moment she punched her foot through the ice, she knew her life was over. Acceptance of this came easily. So did the gasp she choked on as she plunged into the freezing water."​

I'm so conflicted.

(I am going to continue writing though, don't you worry).

Try them both out and see which one you like more.
You can always pick the one you like later >=3

 

[JLiana]

Try them both out and see which one you like more.
You can always pick the one you like later >=3

Oh yeah, definitely! I'm not stopping because of this, I need to actually finish a first draft lol. It just made my head spin because I put so much effort into the first two chapters.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Oh yeah, definitely! I'm not stopping because of this, I need to actually finish a first draft lol. It just made my head spin because I put so much effort into the first two chapters.

Oh trust me, I know too well the pain of getting 'lost in the sauce' but I decided to get to writing the dang thing and I finally made it to act 2 of a project.
Jury's out on if I'll finish the rough draft the end of this year (My new years resolution) but if I don't I'll gladly take getting pretty close as a consolation prize.

I've halted working on my other projects entirely to help improve this aim.

 

[Karlin]

I just threw out a chapter in my own writing. It happens. Don't view it as wasted effort. You needed to write those two chapers in order to figure out the third.

 

[JLiana]

I just threw out a chapter in my own writing. It happens. Don't view it as wasted effort. You needed to write those two chapers in order to figure out the third.

Oh, absolutely! I don't regret the effort, either. It helped me figure out how I write!

 

[Mad Swede]

Write the whole story, then come back to the first few chapters. You may find that re-arranging the order in which some things happen or are mentioned improves the story as a whole.

 

[pmmg]

I am a believer in starting the story at the point where everything changes. While I would say both snippets do that, it does seem to me that everything in the current opening can be inferred by what is going on in chapter 3, and there is not much in it that 'needs' to be in the story, other than maybe her bruises and getting used.

I hate to say, cause I do think it is good writing. But...a lot of good writing hits the cutting room floor before the art is done.

I'll also add, as an aside, both my book 1 and book 2 came out with different openings than the ones that I had written for them before publication. I was sure I would keep those, but comments from editors convinced me to change up.

 

[JLiana]

I am a believer in starting the story at the point where everything changes. While I would say both snippets do that, it does seem to me that everything in the current opening can be inferred by what is going on in chapter 3, and there is not much in it that 'needs' to be in the story, other than maybe her bruises and getting used.

I hate to say, cause I do think it is good writing. But...a lot of good writing hits the cutting room floor before the art is done.

I'll also add, as an aside, both my book 1 and book 2 came out with different openings than the ones that I had written for them before publication. I was sure I would keep those, but comments from editors convinced me to change up.

Yeah, absolutely! I'm learning to cut things in my writing, I knew cutting chapters would eventually creep up and get me. But I super agree that everything that my MC has gone through can be revealed throughout CH3 onwards.

Part of my outline is "memory" chapters, just a paragraph or half page of prose that reveals an event that happened in the past, which might hit harder without the first couple of chapters bashing the reader over the head with context lol.

 

[ThinkerX]

I just realised the opening of my third chapter would be a fantastic hook for the introduction of my MC. Which would mean scrapping the first two chapters I wrote. Which means I'd be back at having...one chapter.

What do you folks think?

​

CH1: "Three herons sprang from the water, toward a pebbled shore. Mielli stared at the decaying mural beside the bed, as she had countless nights before, cataloging thick brush strokes and cracks in the paint." ​

​

CH3: "The moment she punched her foot through the ice, she knew her life was over. Acceptance of this came easily. So did the gasp she choked on as she plunged into the freezing water."​

I'm so conflicted.

(I am going to continue writing, though; don't you worry.

Count yourself lucky it is only two chapters. I made it ten chapters into the WIP before realizing I'd started it in the wrong place, then botched the first draft of the new start point so badly that I had to scrap it and start over. Most of the other chapters will work, though, which is something...

 

[Penpilot]

Be careful about making big changes before you finish the first draft. What may appear to be a good decision in isolation may later be shown to not be so good when taken within context of the story as a whole. You may find things at the end call back and connect to those first two chapters in a significant way. So, if you if you took them out and did significant edits to accommodate the removal, you may find yourself having to undo those things, ending up in wasted time and effort.

Make notes on the changes you think you might want to make, then make a decision after you finish the first draft. If the changes are no longer a good idea, all you have to do is set the notes aside instead of needing to go about undoing things.

 

[JLiana]

Be careful about making big changes before you finish the first draft. What may appear to be a good decision in isolation may later be shown to not be so good when taken within context of the story as a whole. You may find things at the end call back and connect to those first two chapters in a significant way. So, if you if you took them out and did significant edits to accommodate the removal, you may find yourself having to undo those things, ending up in wasted time and effort.

Make notes on the changes you think you might want to make, then make a decision after you finish the first draft. If the changes are no longer a good idea, all you have to do is set the notes aside instead of needing to go about undoing things.

For sure, for now I'm just writing the third chapter as a third chapter, and then I'll see how the rest of it goes before I get rid of anything.