There are many things you can get wrong when starting out writing and I’m here to try and help you out. This especially happens in the opening pages. I have had a fair few failures in my time and hope to improve alongside you. Let’s dive in.

Firstly, starting a story with your protagonist or main character waking up. We get it, it’s hard. It won’t be the bang that a reader wants from the start. The very first lines should hook your reader immediately. It can’t start fifty pages in. It starts at the start. Fix it. It is alright in the first draft but in the long run: CUT IT OUT. A better thing to do is have them in bed but not fully asleep. It needs meaning. This can be like someone feeling lonely in bed because they need someone to love or they have an inner conflict.

Second, the main character not having stakes or a reason that they want something. If a character does not have a reason to be there, then why are they. The best thing to do if this happens is to rewrite the character and have a second smaller plan for that character.

Another thing to look out for is the dialogue of your characters. If it doesn’t feel natural then it isn’t right. Also, less is more. The characters do not need to talk all the time. In intense scenes it will only need a few lines of speech because the description does the talking.

Thank you for reading! I hope to post more content like this so please give feedback. Have a nice day.