━━━━ chapter planning is important: there is no point in rushing into it headfirst without any idea of what you want to do, what you want to include, and how you'll go about doing it all.

the first chapter of every novel needs to do it some glory, and heavy lifting, to start the story. starting a book can be a very daunting thing to consider. but, once the first chapter is finished and out of the way everything becomes an easier task afterwards.

key components for a first chapter:

━━ introducing the world it's in ,
━━ introducing the main character / cast ,
━━ plot development ,

when you start thinking about writing your book's first chapter, there are some basic questions that said chapter should cover:

━━ when and where is it based?
━━ who's the main character?
━━ what's the point of view?

like i have mentioned elsehwere in other points and pages, noting down what points you wish to cover is handy. compose a list at the top of your page of all the points you want to include, and clear them off as you progress with the chapter. and this can be done with every chapter.

━━━━ starting out can be difficult. all writers have been there, myself included.

so, do you start with a prologue?

or do you jump into your first chapter?

a prologue sets the scene before the main narrative, and in warriors books or roleplays they tend to be some sort of battle or a journey. prologues help with establishing characters and events, and can be found in books and plays, and are commonly seen in most fictional books.

whether you want a prologue or not is up to whoever is writing the work — if they think it may help them explain history on the coming chapters, then that is more than acceptable.

when it comes to deciding on how and where you start, there's a number of topics you can take into consideration.

starting with action is common, especially within the warriors fandom: your character is thrown right into the mix of an action—packed scenario, typically a battle or a hunt of some sort, and while they may be fun to do and entertaining to read it can be one of the more boring topics to start off with.

dialogue beginnings can be intriguing. your reader is drawn in by a quote of some sort from a character, and the author can play with what's being said, and how their character acts to properly introduce them into the story.

another way to captivate readers is by playing with emotions. emotions can lead to action, which then lead to conflict. it can help readers relate to the characters and understand how they interact with the world they're in, and others they may be around.

get into the characters mind and think about how they may feel, instead of describing it. readers will feel more attached to the characters this way, and feelings may motivate them to take action, which in turn drives plots forwards. if the character feels so strongly about something, so shall the readers.