Sometimes I’m Normal But Then Sometimes I Think About The Endless Religious Symbolism And Parallels

“how to read more” “how to read faster” “how to read daily” STOP STOP stop STOP this is not a competition. read slowly, read when you’re in the right state of mind, really savour it, read for pleasure, read for yourself. don’t read for performance, stats or to compare yourself to others

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PASTEL BEIGE AESTHETIC.

STOP saying the marauders are like the raven boys. you are WRONG. ronan lynch is an eldritch horror and sirius black is what? a twink?

What's your advice on writing a strong, solid chapter one? Something that will grab the reader's attention and make them beg on their knees for more?

Tips for Writing a Strong First Chapter

Note: in the examples, I’m using the second chapter as Harry Potter rather than the first, which was really more of a prologue.

1. Create a “snapshot” of your character’s normal life…

One of the most important things you can do in the first chapter is give your reader a sort of “snapshot” of your character’s life before the the inciting incident turns everything upside down. Otherwise, if we don’t know what their life is like before everything changes, the inciting incident won’t be a change. It’ll just be something that happens.

In Twilight, we saw Bella being the run-of-the-mill daughter of divorced parents. In Harry Potter, we saw Harry being the unwanted and much-maligned ward of muggle relatives, while struggling with emerging wizard powers. In Star Wars, we saw Luke being the bored farm boy, longing for heroism and adventure. In The Hunger Games, we saw Katniss taking care of her mom and sister by hunting for extra food for them with Gale.

2. Show us who they are–show us their strengths and their flaws…

Most stories feature a protagonist who changes in someway throughout the course of the story. This is the character arc, and it can either be positive (the most common) or negative. Positive story arcs stem from the character’s flaws that are established at the beginning of the story. While they have strengths, too, it’s the flaws that dominate and make their lives such a mess that the reader is anxious to see how their lives will change. The character will overcome those flaws through the events of the story, so in the end the reader can marvel at how far they’ve come and how much better their lives are as a result of this change. In a negative arc, it works in the exact opposite way. Sometimes there are static arcs, where the character doesn’t change but changes someone around them or their environment, and sometimes you get a little hybrid of both.

In Twilight, we see a girl who’s a little selfish, a little closed off, and very codependent. In The Hunger Games, we see a girl who feels helpless against the oppressive government making her life, and the lives of everyone she cares about, a living hell. In Star Wars, we see a boy who’s cocky and idealistic.

3. Show us who and what matters in their world…

Another important element that should be introduced in the first chapter is who and what matters to the main character. These are the initial stakes–the thing that motivates them into action when the world turns upside down. In some cases, the world turns upside down because something happened to them.

In Twilight, we meet Bella’s mom and dad, but in many ways, the absence of anyone else here is part of what serves as motivation for Bella to want her life to change and to want to belong to something bigger than herself. It’s much the same in Harry Potter, where the only people who really matter to him are people who died when he was a baby. In The Hunger Games, we meet Katniss’s mom and sister, her best friend Gale, and we learn about Katniss’s father and Gale’s family, and the boy with the bread. In Star Wars, we meet Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.

4. Show us their world…

Part of the point of the inciting incident is that it’s going to change the known world for the main character. This really dovetails with #1, because their normal life happens within this world. In some stories, a character’s “world” might be their work and home life or their home and school life. In other stories, their “world” might be the small village they live in and the plagued-by-evil-king kingdom the village is a part of. 

In Twilight, Bella’s world was uprooted right at the beginning and exchanged for the tiny, perpetually overcast town of Forks, Washington. In The Hunger Games, Katniss’s world was District Twelve and the oppressive Capitol beyond. In Star Wars, Luke’s world was a moisture farm on the desert planet of Tatooine, part of a larger Civil War-wracked galaxy.

5. Start the story when something interesting is happening…

We often hear the advice “start in the middle of the action” or “begin the story with action” and this is often misinterpreted, either to mean you should start with the inciting incident or start with a big car chase or heart-pounding battle. Neither of which is true. Beginning the story with action just means you should start the story with something interesting happening rather than with a big info dump. That doesn’t mean you can’t include exposition in your opening, but weave the exposition into something interesting happening.

In Twilight, the story opens with Bella being dropped off at the airport by her mom so that she can move to Washington to live with her dad. In The Hunger Games, the story opens with Katniss getting ready to go hunting with Gale, then walking through her district on her way to meet him. In Harry Potter, we see Harry and the Dursleys getting ready for Dudley’s birthday party.

If you hit all five of these points in your first chapter, not only can you be sure to create a strong first chapter from which to launch the rest of your story, you can be sure your reader will have everything they need to start getting invested in your main character and the world around them. :)

hey rae! what piece of medias would you recommend to someone who is interested in gender studies and have done some readings (woolf, davis, a bit of de beauvoir) but overall don't know how to start? have a lovely day!

i've answered a few similar questions, so i'll include links to those answers here: [link 1] [link 2] [link 3] [link 4] [link 5] [link 6]

will likely be repeating myself a bit here re: those other answers bc i tend to recommend the same texts repeatedly to people asking about where to start with gender studies lol but! i think leslie feinberg's writing is a really great place to start--it tends to be very easy to read and honestly i think trans perspectives are a crucial foundation for gender studies (i really enjoyed 'trans liberation: beyond pink and blue'). bell hooks is also a good starting point if you're looking for a sort of feminism 101 jumping-off point, because she specifically wrote to be accessible + easy to understand ('feminism is for everybody' might be a good starting point). audre lorde's essays are also a good starting point ('sister outsider,' 'the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house,' etc). i know u said you've already read some davis, but 'women, race & class' is another good intro text.

i also usually encourage people to check out judith butler's 'performative acts and gender constitution,' but that one is a bit tougher to tackle if gender studies is still a new/unfamiliar field to you (still worth reading, imo, but just keep in mind it might feel frustrating at first + require some re-reading or slower reading to absorb what butler's saying!).

+ there are of course the various other texts recommended in those linked posts above! hope this is helpful ik it can be intimidating to figure out where to start but honestly there's no correct order or progression for learning about this stuff; just read what catches your eye and sparks ur interest!

*creepy angelic hymns eminate*

i think the answer to more diverse art and media is not to keep going to fancy schools and forcing our way into these fields i think we just need to steal art supplies and tech and squat in buildings and show our own movies and pieces and concerts and everyone pays what they can and no one is turned down for being broke or bad and we just ignore every honor or award show ever

*through gritted teeth* you are not a child taking a test with the purpose of getting the highest score, you are an adult trying new things and finding ways to enjoy your life, make mistakes, be a beginner, be mediocre, be where you need to be, be unlikeable, just. be.

on the currency they should replace the queen with james from derry girls