#hook your reader

How To Make Your First Chapter Impossible To Put Down 

Start with action:

“The shutters swinging in the storm winds were the only sign of her entry.” - Crown of Midnight, Sarah J. Maas

The sound of shattering glass and creaking, snapping wood was what woke me up. The screams from downstairs are what got me out of bed.

A young girl with hair like straw met my eyes only seconds before she stepped out into the busy road.

Thirteen men surrounded me, most of them holding pitchforks, several holding kitchen knives, and one, curiously, holding a book.

start with humor: (i’m awful at humor so please enjoy these classics instead)

“I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion.” - “The Martian”, Andy Weir

“In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." - “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, Douglas Adams

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” - “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, C.S. Lewis

Five exclamation points, the sure sign of an insane mind.” - “Reaper Man”, Terry Pratchett

start with something weird:

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” - Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

The grass I lay in shifted curiously between red and blue, like vermillion fish darting through ocean waves, as it drifted lazily in the hot summer wind.

Centaurs are not generally known for extending grace to their hostages, so I was not looking forward to what was coming for me.

Once, a man awoke so suddenly that it was as if he’d only just come to life. In fact, he had.

start with shock:

“They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” - Paradise, Toni Morrison

The first person to die by her blade was her father. There were many more after him, but he was the face that stained her memory midnight black.

Exsanguination, noun. Severe bleeding or bleeding to death. The current status of myself and ten to fifteen other people hanging from otherwise bare trees that lined the quiet street.