First Chapter Responsibilities: What your story opening needs to achieve

This article originally appeared on the Savvy Authors blog 20/06/20. First chapters are POWERFUL First chapters are POWERFUL. They can stop a shopper from casually flicking through the pages to see how the story ends and a publisher from tossing it in the slush pile bin. Readers are searching for a story beginning that grabs their attention, surprises them and makes them curious to the point of desperation to know what will happen next.
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But how can you possibly do this in such a short space? I...