First Chapter MISTAKES New Writers Make ❌ Avoid These Cliches!!
Summary
TLDRDans cet épisode de WritersLife Wednesdays, Abbie aborde la redaction de la première chapitre, un moment crucial pour captiver l'attention du lecteur. Elle évoque les pièges à éviter, tels que l'exposition excessive, le mystère inutile et les points de vue inutiles, et propose des conseils pour écrire une ouverture accrocheuse. Elle insiste sur l'importance de commencer par un conflit, révélant le personnage principal et son conflit interne, pour susciter l'empathie et l'intérêt du lecteur dès les premières minutes de lecture.
Takeaways
- 📝 Commencer un roman par un chapitre accrocheur est crucial pour captiver l'attention du lecteur dès les premières minutes.
- 👀 L'attention du lecteur est un défi : une étude scientifique révèle que l'attention moyenne d'un adulte est passée à 5 minutes de ce qu'elle était il y a dix ans.
- 🚫 Évitez de commencer avec une exposition du monde, du système magique ou de la société qui peut être déstabilisante et surchargeante pour le lecteur.
- 🤔 Ne retardez pas le conflit interne ou les éléments clés du récit sous prétexte de rendre le protagoniste mystérieux, car cela peut empêcher le lecteur de s'intéresser au personnage.
- 🙅♂️ Évitez d'ouvrir sur un point de vue secondaire ou un prologue inutile qui ne contribue pas à l'intrigue principale et qui peut perturber le lecteur.
- 🧠 Ne surchargez pas la première page avec une quantité excessive d'informations, de noms et de personnages qui peuvent désorienter le lecteur.
- 🛏️ Évitez de commencer par un réveil banal et une journée ordinaire du personnage, car cela peut manquer d'engagement pour le lecteur.
- 🔍 Commencez avec un personnage en conflit, confronté à des problèmes internes et externes, pour montrer l'essence de l'histoire dès le début.
- 💭 Révélez suffisamment du conflit interne du protagoniste pour que le lecteur s'y intéresse, même si certains aspects restent mystérieux.
- 🔗 Utilisez les cinq premières minutes pour établir une connexion entre le public et le personnage principal, en montrant comment ils réagissent à un incident déclencheur.
- 🌟 Commencez avec un événement inattendu qui a un impact significatif sur la vie ou l'histoire du personnage, pour démarrer l'intrigue de manière unique et engageante.
Q & A
Quel est le principal défi lors de la rédaction du premier chapitre d'un livre?
-Le principal défi est de captiver l'attention du lecteur dès la première page, car c'est le moment crucial qui peut faire ou défaire le livre.
Pourquoi la première impression du lecteur est-elle si importante?
-La première impression détermine si le lecteur continuera de lire l'histoire ou non, étant donné que c'est leur aperçu initial de l'écriture de l'auteur.
Quel est le délai de temps que les auteurs ont pour s'attirer l'attention d'un lecteur potentiel?
-Les auteurs ont moins de cinq minutes pour captiver l'attention d'un lecteur potentiel, comme suggéré par la recherche scientifique qui indique que l'attention moyenne d'un adulte est de seulement cinq minutes.
Quels sont les pièges à éviter lors de la rédaction du premier chapitre, selon le script?
-Les pièges à éviter incluent le début avec de l'exposition, de ne pas retarder le conflit interne, de ne pas commencer avec un point de vue secondaire, d'éviter de surcharger le lecteur avec trop d'informations et de ne pas commencer avec un personnage qui se réveille dans une journée ordinaire.
Pourquoi est-il recommandé d'éviter de commencer avec de l'exposition sur le monde, le système de magie ou la société?
-Commencer avec de l'exposition peut manquer de conflit interne et être accablant pour le lecteur qui est déjà désorienté au début d'une nouvelle histoire.
Quels sont les avantages de révéler un certain nombre de conflits internes du protagoniste dès le début?
-Révéler des conflits internes permet au lecteur de s'intéresser et d'émpathiser avec le personnage, même s'il ne sait pas tout de leur histoire ou de leur passé.
Pourquoi est-il préférable d'éviter de commencer avec un personnage que nous ne reverrons jamais?
-Commencer avec un personnage secondaire ou un narrateur mystérieux peut entraîner un manque d'intérêt du lecteur, qui ne peut pas comprendre l'importance de ce personnage dans l'histoire.
Quels sont les éléments à inclure pour établir rapidement les liens entre le lecteur et le protagoniste?
-Il est important de montrer rapidement comment le protagoniste répond à un incident déclencheur qui le force hors de sa zone de confort, révélant ainsi son conflit interne et ses croyances.
Quelle est la meilleure façon de commencer l'histoire pour captiver l'attention du lecteur dès le début?
-Le meilleur moyen est de commencer avec le protagoniste dans un conflit, affrontant des problèmes internes et externes, et en montrant comment il réagit à un incident déclencheur.
Quels sont les avantages de commencer l'histoire avec un événement inattendu qui a un impact sur la vie du protagoniste?
-Cela permet d'éviter les clichés et de montrer que ce jour est spécial, en contrastant avec la vie quotidienne et en introduisant le conflit qui mène à la quête transformatrice du personnage.
Quels sont les autres ressources que l'auteur propose pour approfondir la rédaction du premier chapitre d'un livre?
-L'auteur propose une formation en direct intitulée 'How to Write a Captivating First Chapter', qui couvre la neuroscience derrière l'attention du lecteur, les lieux et les moments de démarrer l'histoire, et comment éviter les clichés.
Outlines
📚 Défis du chapitre une
Abbie, l'animateur de 'WritersLife Wednesdays', aborde le défi de rédiger le premier chapitre d'un livre, qui est crucial pour attirer le lecteur. Elle souligne la pression de faire une bonne première impression et la concurrence avec une attention qui, selon des recherches scientifiques, est passée de 12 à 5 minutes en une décennie. Abbie insiste sur l'importance de captiver l'attention dès les premières minutes et évoque ses propres critères de lecture. Elle propose de se concentrer sur les 'dos' et 'n'dos' du chapitre une, en évitant les clichés et en proposant des alternatives originales.
🚫 Éviter les pièges du début
Dans ce paragraphe, Abbie détaille les erreurs courantes à éviter lors de l'écriture du chapitre une : ne pas commencer par de l'exposition sur le monde, le système magique ou la société, qui peut être déroutant pour le lecteur. Elle recommande de ne pas retarder le conflit interne ou les aspects intéressants du personnage principal pour le rendre mystérieux, car cela peut entraîner un manque d'intérêt. Abbie suggère également d'éviter de commencer avec un point de vue secondaire ou un prologue énigmatique, qui pourrait perturber l'engagement du lecteur. Elle insiste sur le danger de surcharger le lecteur avec trop d'informations, de noms et de personnages dès la première page, ce qui peut entraîner une confusion et un manque d'intérêt.
🔑 Les clés d'un chapitre une accrocheur
Abbie présente des conseils pour rédiger un chapitre une qui captive le lecteur. Elle suggère de commencer avec le personnage principal confronté à un conflit interne et externe, ce qui permet de se concentrer immédiatement sur l'essentiel de l'histoire. Elle recommande de révéler suffisamment du conflit interne du protagoniste pour éveiller la curiosité et l'empathie du lecteur, tout en laissant une part de mystère. Abbie insiste sur l'importance de se connecter avec le public en utilisant les cinq premières minutes pour présenter le personnage clé et son incitant, en montrant comment il réagit à un événement perturbateur. Elle encourage également à démarrer l'histoire avec un événement inattendu qui a un impact significatif sur la vie du personnage, offrant ainsi une promesse d'avenir plus riche.
🌟 Mettre en pratique les conseils
Dans le dernier paragraphe, Abbie invite les écrivains à mettre en pratique les conseils qu'elle a donnés pour écrire un chapitre une accrocheur. Elle propose de se concentrer sur le contraste de la journée du protagoniste, en montrant pourquoi elle est spéciale et comment elle marque le début de son voyage de transformation. Abbie invite également à participer à sa formation en direct pour approfondir la compréhension de l'art de captiver l'attention du lecteur, en partageant des connaissances sur la neurologie derrière l'engagement, et en fournissant des exemples d'ouvertures fortes. Elle encourage les téléspectateurs à s'abonner à son canal et à participer à la communauté de rédacteurs qu'elle a créée.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Premier chapitre
💡Accroche
💡Exposition
💡Conflit interne
💡Narrateur mystérieux
💡Point de vue
💡Infodump
💡Se réveiller
💡Incident déclencheur
💡Curiosité
💡Patroine
Highlights
Writing chapter one is a critical moment that can make or break a book.
The first page sets a reader's first impression and determines if they continue reading.
The average adult attention span is now only five minutes, down from 12 minutes a decade ago.
To write a winning chapter one, avoid common cliches and pitfalls.
Do not start with exposition about the world, magic system, or society as it can be overwhelming.
Avoid saving the internal conflict for later to maintain reader interest from the start.
Do not begin from the point of view of a character that will not reappear.
Avoid starting with too much information, names, and characters to prevent reader overwhelm.
Do not start with a character waking up on a boring day in their life; instead, introduce conflict early.
Start with the character in a conflicted place to immediately engage the reader.
Reveal enough of the protagonist's internal conflict to make the reader care, even if some remains a mystery.
Use the first minutes to connect the audience to the character they should care about.
Start the story with the character waking up to something unexpected to create impact.
The video offers a live training on how to write a captivating first chapter, including brain science behind capturing attention.
Join Patreon at the Live Training Pass level for access to the live training and more resources.
Engage with the community by commenting on first-chapter pet peeves and what pulls you into a story.
Subscribe to the channel for weekly writing videos and become part of the community.
Transcripts
- What's up, my friend?
Abbie here, and welcome back to WritersLife Wednesdays,
where we come together to help you make your story matter
and make your author dreams come true.
Writing chapter one is easier said than done.
If you are a writer embarking on a new story,
you know how terrifying it is to stare
at that first blank page.
You know that this is a critical moment.
This first page is either going to make or break your book.
This is going to be a reader's first impression
of your writing, and what they see
on this first page is going to determine
whether or not they continue reading the story.
It's a lot of pressure.
I don't know about you, but I am a very picky reader.
When I go book shopping,
I like to take my time browsing, looking at everything,
and sometimes, if a cover jumps out at me,
I'll pick up a book, see what it's about,
read the description, and if I am intrigued
by the description, I will start reading the book itself.
I will sit down and start reading it for five minutes.
If I'm book shopping online,
I use the Look Inside preview
to start reading the book there.
And if it doesn't grab my attention
within the first five minutes,
I close the book and move on.
Yes, five minutes.
That's my attention span.
If you can't make me care about the characters
within the first five minutes, you lost me,
and I'm not the only one.
Official scientific research suggests
that the average adult attention span
is now only five minutes,
down from 12 minutes just a decade ago.
So assuming that you have less than five minutes
to capture a potential reader's attention
and pull them in, how, then,
do we write a winning chapter one?
I've made videos on writing both the hook
and writing the opening chapter.
You can find those videos right here, but in this video,
I want to focus on the dos and don'ts of chapter one,
the common cliches and pitfalls to avoid,
and how you can spin these cliches and make them unique.
So grab a notebook and let's get started.
Why does your story matter? Good question.
What if I told you that there's a science
behind every great story?
I don't just teach you how to write.
I teach you how to change the world with your story
and make your author dreams come true.
Number one: Don't start with exposition
about the world, magic system, or society.
Not only is it lacking internal conflict, it's overwhelming.
We're already disoriented when we start a new story,
and I know you think that is sufficient reason
to start explaining things, explaining the world,
the society, how everything works,
but I'm more interested to see the main character
and understand their place in the world.
If you have a lot of worldbuilding to do
at the beginning of your story and you're afraid
that your reader will be lost without it,
I completely understand, and I would highly recommend
checking out this video
where we explore different ways
to show exposition through action.
Number two: Don't save the internal conflict
and good stuff for later just for the sake
of making your protagonist mysterious.
Mysterious narrators can be cool, they can be done well,
but it is a fine line.
You can't save so much
that we don't even know what this character cares about
and therefore we don't care about them.
Can you give us just a taste of the good stuff now?
Can you show me enough
of what this character is struggling with internally
so that I can care about them and empathize with them,
even if I don't know everything
that's happened to them or their backstory?
Number three: Don't start from the point of view
of a character we will never see again
or a spooky prologue from a mystery narrator.
Every time I see this done,
I want to just edit that part out of the book,
because 9 times out of 10,
it would make the story so much better.
Because think about it.
You have five minutes to make your reader care
about one of these characters.
Who's it going to be?
A mystery unnamed narrator that we will never see again?
Seriously? A confused mind always says no.
That's a rule I live by, both in business and in writing.
If I can't see why this character matters to the story,
then I can't see why they matter to me.
Or even worse, we start to care about this character
and get to know them and then cut away
and never see them again
and go to a completely different mood,
a completely different story,
completely different set of characters.
Don't put your reader through this kind of whiplash, please.
Number four: Don't overwhelm the reader
with too much information, names,
and characters on the first page.
I cannot tell you how many times I have opened a book
and not read past the first page
because there was just too many character names,
place names, worldbuilding,
too much information on the first page.
Remember, your reader is already disoriented
when they first open that book and start reading.
They are a person who has been blindfolded
and dropped into the middle of your fictional world.
Now you take the blindfold off.
What do they see?
They can only handle, like, two names on the first page.
If you need to have three or more characters
in the opening scene, consider referring
to them as something other than their name,
so maybe sister, mother, boyfriend, bully,
business partner, something that allows us
to see their connection to the protagonist,
because that's really what matters the most
right out of the gate.
That matters more than knowing this person's name.
Number five: Don't start with your character
waking up in the morning on a boring day in their life.
Again, you're saving the good stuff for later. Why?
So you can lose our attention
before we even get to the good stuff?
But don't panic if your book starts like this.
It's a common cliche that I see writers do all the time,
and I used to do it all the time too
when I was new to writing.
A lot of writers think they have to set the stage,
sort of, by painting a picture
of what this character's average life looks like
before something happens to push them
outside their comfort zone, but I invite you
to consider what would engage you more as a reader:
watching this character's average day in the life
or watching this character's average day get disrupted
by the conflict that's going to push them
outside their comfort zone and force them
into the ring with their greatest fear.
Okay, now that we've gone
over all the pitfalls to avoid, let's look
at the things you should be doing with chapter one,
ways that you can spin these cliches, make them more unique,
and engage your readers in the process.
Number one: Do start with your character
in a conflicted place,
dealing with external and internal problems.
Remember, this is the most vital moment in your book.
This is the dealbreaker, the hook, the first five minutes
that's either going to pull your reader in
or lose their attention.
So cut right to the heart.
Show me what this character is dealing with.
What is the conflict that they are facing head-on,
both externally and internally?
And if you need more help writing the hook,
check out this video right here.
Number two: Do reveal enough
of your protagonist's internal conflict
for us to care about them,
even if some of it remains a mystery.
I've found that you can get away
with a curiosity to reward ratio of, like, two to one,
meaning we have twice as many questions
about this character than we have answers,
but we are still getting the satisfaction of some answers.
Even if we don't understand all their backstory
and their motivations, you should still be giving us reasons
to care about this character
and see where they're coming from.
Show us their decision-making process.
What matters to them?
What do they believe is true?
How do their beliefs influence their relationships,
their choices, and their actions?
You can show us a lot about a character
without necessarily seeing all
of their childhood trauma right away.
If you want to leave us asking questions
and being curious, cool, I'm fine with that,
but you have to make us care.
You have to make me care as the reader
or else I won't continue reading.
Number three: Do use the first five minutes
of the story to connect the audience
to the character you want them to care about.
If you don't know where to start your story, here's a hint:
Start where the external conflict is clashing
with the main character's internal conflict.
What is going to happen to force this character
outside their comfort zone and make them
face their greatest fears and misbeliefs?
Showing how this character responds
to the inciting incident,
responds to getting shoved outside their comfort zone,
show us what their comfort zone is.
It shows us what they believe is true.
It shows us their internal conflict.
And all without infodumping! It's amazing.
A lot of writers try to paint a clear picture
of who the main character is
before they introduce the main conflict
or the inciting incident, but I believe
that you should bring the inciting incident
into your story as soon as possible.
Shove your character outside their comfort zone
and establish who they are by showing us how they respond
and react to being shoved outside their comfort zone,
which brings me to my final point.
Do start your story with your character waking up
to something unexpected that will have a big impact
on their life or their story.
I know I said don't start your story with your character
waking up in the morning, it's too cliche,
but you can actually spend this to be unique
if you bring the conflict.
It works with internal conflict.
Show me what is not average about this day.
Why is today special?
What's going to happen?
Show me why this is not the average day.
What is the contrast?
Why is today special?
What's going to happen today that is different
than any other day of your protagonist's life?
What is going to happen that will set your character
on the path of their transformative journey?
Cut to the chase.
Give us the good stuff.
It is only a promise of more good stuff to come.
It will only keep your reader reading,
and that's what you want.
Okay, boom.
There you have it:
the do's and don'ts of writing chapter one.
And if you wanna dive deeper into this whole topic
and explore further what you can do
to engage your reader's curiosity
and pull them into your story,
definitely check out my live training
How to Write a Captivating First Chapter.
In this training, I share the brain science
behind capturing your reader's attention,
where and how to start your story,
how to show internal conflict on page one,
cliches to avoid when writing the first chapter,
and lots of story examples of strong opening scenes
and what you can learn from them.
You can get access to this live training
and many others in the archive by joining my Patreon
at the Live Training Pass level.
Click the link below this video
to get instant access to that class
and start writing a mind-blowing first chapter.
Comment below and tell me,
what are your first-chapter pet peeves?
What is it that makes you immediately lose interest
in a story, and what is it that pulls you in to read more?
Smash that like button if you liked this video,
and be sure to subscribe to this channel
if you haven't already, because I post writing videos
every single week and I would love to have you here
in the community.
Until next week, my friend, rock on.
Starting with strong individuals
and then looking for opportunities
where we can challenge the beliefs
of these individuals by placing them in scenarios
with other individuals who have different beliefs
and different conflicts.
I think that's really important and a good place-
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