When reading another topic regarding a book with slow start some users noted that they plowed through it because of the author. Now I started thinking how common it is actually for people to call off a book if the first chapter(s) aren’t full of action and excitement, presuming the whole book is potentially as blatant? In agenting and publishing this apparently is a major factor and if the first paragraphs or a chapter do not appear lucrative, the whole story gets ditched.
However at least I seldom judge a book by it’s beginning. If the premise is interesting or the blurb is promising, the author is known to be good, or most often in my case, searching it online and reading synopsis and reviews that come out as positive, I will most definitely take the first chapters as potentially boring establishment to a story.
Many of you will disagree, but James Patterson used to write incredible first chapters. If you read the first chapter, you would at least start on the second one. However, this is what introduced me to writers who pour everything into the first chapter, then let tension, excitement, forward movement, etc. go out the window in the second chapter. As such, nowadays, I’ve often found it’s the second chapter where I want to be amazed but don’t really expect to be …