You know a GREAT first page when you read it, but do you know what makes it great? More importantly, do you know how to write one yourself that’s just as amazing?
The key to a great opening page is to include everything a story needs to hook the reader. I call these the “first-page necessities.”
First Page Necessities
According to Ray Rhamey, author of Mastering the Craft of Compelling Storytelling, the first page of your book must:
- Orient the reader in the setting
- Engage the reader with the character
- Show something going wrong for the character
- Show the character desiring something
- Show the character taking action
- Raise a story question
- Remain in the NOW action of the story
- Not drift into backstory
- Not rely on setup
That’s nine first-page necessities that must be knocked out in the first 17 lines of your story. (No one said this was going to be easy.)
3 Steps to Hook a Reader In One Page
Okay, so those are all the things your first page (really 1/3 of a page, if you take formatting into account) must contain. But how do fit them all in?
If you follow the following three steps when creating your first page, you are just about guaranteed to include all the first page necessities that keep readers reading.
Step 1. Start with a Characteristic Moment
A characteristic moment is a scene that allows your MC to show the world who they are. Not only should it put their full personality on display, but it should clearly outline what their life in the now (aka pre-inciting incident) is like.
Starting in a scene like this allows you to put all of your character’s flaws and strengths on display for the reader. This is what engages them with the character. It should also allow you to clearly show your character’s desire or goal (or, at least, what they want at the beginning of the book).
Now don’t confuse “life in the now” with “boring.” Your first scene needs to be interesting, if not action-packed (matching the tone of your story and genre, of course). Luckily, if you have an interesting main character (which you must), any characteristic scene will automatically be interesting by default.
Pro Tip: One of the most engaging traits in a character is vulnerability. Showing your character being vulnerable on the first page can help lasso your reader’s heartstrings and keep them reading. While showing your character losing something they desire (see step 2) often creates vulnerability, an even easier and more effective method is to build in a power imbalance. When your MC is on the losing side of a power imbalance, they naturally appear vulnerable.
Step 2. Challenge Your Character
Once you establish what your character desires, you want to very quickly establish that they aren’t going to get it.
Maybe what he wants is to ask out the hot barista at his favorite coffee shop. That means, within those first 17 lines, you need to plant complications that get in the way of this goal.
Maybe someone spills scalding coffee on him before he can ask her out. Maybe her boyfriend walks in and cuts in line. Or maybe a spaceship crashes into the building.
Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it shows the reader that they need to buckle in for the long haul with this character because it’s going to take him a while to reach his goal.
At the same time, that first page needs to prove that your character is willing to fight to get what he wants. While he may not be willing to challenge the barista’s boyfriend, he should at least be thinking of a way to prove to her that he is a better match.
Wait, but how do you fit a goal and a complication onto that first page? Well, you have to start in the action. Which brings me to step three. . .
Step 3. Skip the Setup
You may be tempted to start a characteristic scene of a barista-pining businessman with him getting ready for work that morning. But if you do that, then there’s no way you’re going to get him to the coffee shop to be turned down before the end of the first page.
This is why you need to skip the setup. Instead, start in the action—or better yet, in the DESIRE. Open that first sentence with your MC standing in line, mouth agape at the woman behind the counter who he’s had a crush on for three years.
And then, of course, immediately ruin it for him.
There’s also no room on the first page for backstory or lengthy exposition (in fact, modern publishing trends would say there’s very little room at any point in the book for these things). So be sure you choose a beginning scene that can be established quickly and clearly without the need for extraneous information.
I know this sounds hard, but we don’t need to know about your businessman’s painful divorce to feel for him when the barista’s much more muscular boyfriend spills coffee all over his suit.
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