The opening scene is the most important piece of your novel. This scene determines whether your reader is pulled in or puts the book down. 

*Write it as a scene, not a data dump. If you don't engage your readers in an actual scene, you will bore them. 

*Write a scene that immediately introduces a character that the reader can root for. If you are caught up in worldbuilding and haven't dreamed your way into a character who is worth following through 100000 words of writing, your story is pointless. 

*Begin in the middle of things, don't start too early in the plot.

*Don't include a flashback in the first chapter. Work on a scene, which means time is not compressed. It should include dialog, action, description, setting, and interior monolog. Keep everything happening within that scene for at least the first chapter. 

*Don't shift points of view within a single chapter. Let the reader establish a strong bond of interest over the course of a whole chapter. 

*Don't open the story with your character waking up unless it's because they got gun in their face (or a knife to their throat - you get what I mean) We don't need to follow a character through their mundane daily routine. 

*Don't hold back on revealing all their secrets. Tell your readers instead of keeping it a mystery. You will come up with more secrets to reveal. Spill it now, and allow that revelation to add to the excitement. 

*Don't start with a full name. Even if the middle or last names are important, you should find somewhere else to put them. 

*Don't start with an adverb. The first sentence should never have one of these.

*Don't start with the weather. It doesn't set the mood nearly as much as the characters themselves

To start your novel:

1) Just do it. Pen and paper or keyboard, write down ideas, thoughts, feelings, what ifs, anything really. 

2) Do not censor yourself. Write, don't edit. Write anything and everything. You can fix it later. 

3) Outline when ready. Think of your scenes as notecards. Shuffle them around and see where they fit best. See what makes sense to you. 

4) Ask questions. Simple questions create complicated answers. From these answers we get the basis of our story. 

5) Be an observer. Think of yourself as a sponge, absorb the information around you, faces, conversations, people, experiences. 

Hi, I'm a writer and my skills include: 

~creating people from thin air

~creating places from thin air

~putting these people and places together and weaving them into the form of intresting stories

and last but not least

~freezing up and stumbling over my words for a full five minutes when asked even the simplest question about the above mentioned topics.

><  >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< >< 

Hey, this was the first chapter about the beginning of a novel, the next one is about worldbuilding.

Please tag some people in the comments if you found it usefull and keep on writing even if you don't know what you're doing.