A beta reader told me my opening chapter was boring me to tears, so I literally cut the first 3000 words and started the story right when the action begins instead

They said nobody cares about three pages of my character eating cereal and thinking about his job, so I just deleted it all and began with him finding the dead body on page one instead, has anyone else ever had to kill that many of their own darlings?

3 comments

3 Comments

milarodriguez1mo ago

I used to be one of those writers who thought you had to ease people into a story, like dipping your toe in a pool. But reading taylorshah's point about sneaking that cereal detail back in later really clicked for me. I had a scene where my character spent two pages just driving to work, and when I finally cut it and put a key memory of her commute into a tense phone call later, it hit way harder. Letting go of that slow opening forced me to trust the reader more, which honestly made the whole story tighter.

wood.eric1mo ago

Question whether it's really that deep, man. It's 3000 words, not a whole novel. Just toss 'em and move on.

taylorshah1mo ago

Hold up though, 3000 words of cereal eating is a LOT even for establishing normal life. Most readers only need like a paragraph or two of that before they get the point. The real trick is keeping some small hints of his regular life woven into the action later, like having him grab the same cereal box in chapter five while his hands are shaking from the dead body thing. That way you show who he was without making people read three pages of it. Cutting that much is brave but you might lose some texture to his character if you don't sneak those details back in somewhere.