Writing Chapter One can be tricky. I’ve been there, and I’ll be there again.

With each new book, crafting that opening scene is hard. After reading it over and over, your mind can be left a jumbling mess, but the process becomes easier with time.

I searched the top 6 books on Amazon, the category: Amazon Best Sellers in Teen and YA Books. I thought it would be interesting to look at their opening lines, as well as their opening scenes. Do they have anything in common?

​NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s free to join and any writer can participate. You can be a new writer, experienced, or somewhere in between. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month: November. Why 50K words? That specific amount is considered a novel, and the goal is to write a novel. 

You’ve spent 30 hours a week, working on your book for months and/or years.  You’ve revised it three different times, edited chapters along the way, and you’re finally finished. 

​A key question you need to ask yourself is: Who else has read your manuscript? Has a fellow writer read it yet? If not, then the revising process isn’t complete. No matter how many times you’ve read your story, or your mom’s read it, you need to have a fellow writer (or three) critique your manuscript.

​Writing goals can be tricky, especially for a new writer who doesn’t know how long it takes for them to write a book. But goals are important and they’ll help you write even if you’re “not in the mood.” As soon as I start writing, 8 times out of 10, that drabby mood disappears and I’m in love with the words again.