ChapterMuse

First chapter currently 11k words. Help.

TTheo Vasquez3 mo ago3 replies0

I know. I know. The first chapter is a thousand words. Five thousand absolute maximum. Mine is currently eleven thousand words and it's still not over.

The problem: every cut I make in the chapter exposes a different missing piece I have to put in. The exposition isn't decorative — it's load-bearing. But surely 11k is wrong.

Has anyone successfully amputated a chapter this oversized? What did you keep, what did you sacrifice?

3 replies

  1. MMara Ellis3 mo ago

    11k chapter one means it's secretly two chapters. Find the natural breath in the middle — the place where a reader could reasonably set the book down — and that's chapter break.

  2. EEden Kay3 mo ago

    Or it's a prologue + chapter one. Pull the most atmospheric/setup-heavy half out, label it prologue, and chapter one starts when something *happens*.

  3. NNia Wren3 mo ago

    @edenkay this is what I'd do. Prologues get a bad rap but they exist for exactly this reason.