Calling Vicki, Writing the First Chapter

           

    The first chapter is like a handshake. This is how we are suppose to greet our reader and get them interested in the story as a whole. I think that this is the must nail chapter in a thriller. You have to establish a sense of tension and a basic idea of who the main characters are.



    When writing Calling Vicki I knew that I needed to introduce the sisters Elizabeth (Liz) and Victoria (Vicki) as soon as possible. I did that with a flashback in the form of a nightmare. A nightmare about a traumatic event in their lives. Next I decided to introduce Liz’s husband Daniel. To give the reader a glimpse into their lives as lived together because I knew that it would be many chapters before they would be back together again. To build suspense in a story you have to establish the connections and relationships that are going to be put in jeopardy. You do not want your book to be populated by those characters who fill so many bad horror films. A bunch of names and faces running around waiting to be killed. You only care about the characters that you know.  One of my favorite modern horror films is the Descent. We are introduced to and given time to know all six women in the film before the bad things begin to happen. The writer/filmmaker cared about those characters and it showed. You have to care about your characters even the bad guys. Many writers like to use the first chapter to introduce the villain, in future novels I may do this, but I felt that this first chapter, of what I hope will be a series of novels, had to introduce one of the two women who will carry that series. I also need you to understand that I did this on a subconscious level and only looking backwards do I fully understand that this is what I was doing and the reason why I did it was from lessons learn from all of the novels I have read throughout my life.




    Okay that will be it on my opening chapter.  I guess that the next post should be about the antagonists or as I think of them as the engine that runs the car. You need these guys to be strong if your suspense novel is going to be strong. 

    You can read the first chapter by clicking here.

    Thank you again for visiting my blog and I hope that you will take a moment to share this post with a friend and to like it on stumbleupon. Writing is a lonely business and blogs are one of the few ways that we get to interact with the public. I know that you are their because you are reposting what I write here.